(finished) The Reader
Oct. 13th, 2013 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
whazzleThe Reader, by Bernhard Schlink
-- a reaaaally fast read. Um, some interesting personal/moral questions I guess? I dunno, it had some probably on point if a bit blunt things to say about post-war Germany generational guilt and accusation and shame, etc. The first person pov and insistence on "I remember this/I remember that" gave it an immediate sort of intimacy and allowed the author to elide a lot of physical descriptions in favour of emotional ones - the few physical descriptions he gives are almost all of Hanna, with the surroundings being described in relation to her (she stands next to this thing or touches that thing, etc), which gives the effect that she's the only real thing to him and that her presence makes other things also real. For all that she remains opaque, but not in that really annoying and frustrating way that men writers tend to write women characters, as sort of unknowable inhuman ciphers. The author managed something really different. I'm going to have to unpack it for a while I think?
Ummm I didn't much like anyone in the book, but I ended up liking the book quite a bit. Probably not enough to ever re-read it because wow disturbing and depressing! But I think it's kind of a deceptive read because it seems to tell everything all on the surface but I get the sense that there's a lot more lurking underneath. So if I ever managed to stomach it, and re-read it, I think it would be a rewarding experience.
-- a reaaaally fast read. Um, some interesting personal/moral questions I guess? I dunno, it had some probably on point if a bit blunt things to say about post-war Germany generational guilt and accusation and shame, etc. The first person pov and insistence on "I remember this/I remember that" gave it an immediate sort of intimacy and allowed the author to elide a lot of physical descriptions in favour of emotional ones - the few physical descriptions he gives are almost all of Hanna, with the surroundings being described in relation to her (she stands next to this thing or touches that thing, etc), which gives the effect that she's the only real thing to him and that her presence makes other things also real. For all that she remains opaque, but not in that really annoying and frustrating way that men writers tend to write women characters, as sort of unknowable inhuman ciphers. The author managed something really different. I'm going to have to unpack it for a while I think?
Ummm I didn't much like anyone in the book, but I ended up liking the book quite a bit. Probably not enough to ever re-read it because wow disturbing and depressing! But I think it's kind of a deceptive read because it seems to tell everything all on the surface but I get the sense that there's a lot more lurking underneath. So if I ever managed to stomach it, and re-read it, I think it would be a rewarding experience.
