The Reader is ultimately compelling
Danielle Fielder

Bernhard Schlink's novel The Reader is a stark tale of a young man's life in post-war Germany. As you can imagine, these elements do not make for a cheerful story. It is, however, one that lingers in the mind.

The narrator, a fifteen year old boy named Micheal Berg, becomes ill one day on the way home from school.

He is rescued by Hanna, an older woman who eventually seduces him. The relationship remains essentially a sexual one, since he knows nothing about her, and she chooses to reveal nothing of her past or present life.

She does, though, seem odd to Micheal at times, as she is often silent for long periods and becomes easily frustrated. He struggles to understand her unusual behaviour, but is nonetheless captivated by her spirit and her passion. She becomes the centre of his adolescent world.

One day, Hanna simply disappears. When he next sees her, ten years have passed, and he is a law student participating in a seminar on war crimes. Hanna is a defendant in a trial of concentration camp guards, charged with crimes against the inmates of Auschwitz. Michael soon becomes wrapped up in the trial, as he has been unable to forget this enigmatic woman and the mystery of her disappearance.

As he sits through each day of the trial, he learns of Hannah's past, of her service with the SS during the war and of the horrible crime for which she cannot answer. Her unwillingness to defend herself on the stand causes Micheal to question her true motivation, and through his memories and the accounts of her past, he discovers a secret she has been guarding all of her life.

The theme of obsession provides the underlying motif to the story. In his early encounters with Hanna, Michael becomes captivated by the smell of her skin. The author comes back to this theme again and again, showing how our senses can record sensations that remain with us throughout our lives, causing us to recall people, places, and events. Michael is obsessed with Hanna's physicality even while he is disturbed by the revelations about her past.

Schlink creates a unique story as he interweaves history, morality, and mystery into what seems to at first to be a simple love story.

We see how one young man's life is changed forever by a woman whose life becomes closely intertwined with his. Michael is forced to make a moral judgment on Hanna, whose only real crime may be her inability to admit to her true self.

The author sets this story against the historical background of the war crime trials, causing the reader to examine the moral setting.

While the male coming-of-age tale is not a new one, the character of Michael is constructed with great care, and his struggle for understanding throughout the story is real and profound.

As in the case of many European novels, The Reader tends to be rather dark at times. Although portions of the novel seem slow, many of the chapters are quite short, implying that the author was trying to encapsulate a single idea within each chapter. My initial impression was that the book was written from a rather male point of view - especially in the 'seduction of young boy by older woman' scenario - but on reflection, I feel it has more of a universal appeal.

The emotions addressed are so real that you come to suspect the novel may be more than a little autobiographical.

In its evocation of time, place and emotion, The Reader confronts its readers with both an unusual love story and a tale of moral dilemma.

While it took two readings for me to appreciate it, in the end I enjoyed it. It is neither a cheerful story nor one that is easily forgotten, but one that is ultimately compelling.