Book Reviews

I used to read a lot. But I have gotten out of the habit, finding it easier to watch TV or movies. I might be better to just read the Rotten Tomatoes version, or maybe he back of the video case. There is something magical about a book and I have a reason : I'm a writer. Strange how a writer doesn't read all that much. I could read a 400-page hardback in two nights. 1981. I was a college student and read John Irving's The Hotel New Hampshire. I ate up Kurt Vonnegut books back then. Then I read, almost exclusively, celebrity bios. Not much fiction. There is more truth in a good fiction book than what we have in our daily lives. It's the truth of it, I find. So as we end this decade, “The 2000s”, I want to read again. I am particular and find it hard to read certain stuff. While I'm at it, I might as well review the books – and most of the books will be ones not new. A second look, so to speak. I want to post two-level reviews of the books I'm reading. But be warned – I will give a spoiler alert so if you don't want to know any of the big details, DO NOT READ the Spoiler section!

The Reader Bernhard Schlink Vintage International Random House 1995 OVERVIEW REVIEW Oprah Book Club selection. First German novel to make No. 1 on the N.Y. Times Bestseller List. 500,000 copies in Germany. 700,000 copies in the U.S. Even a movie with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. A lot to live up to.

I escaped the Oprah barrage and didn't know really anything of this novel, except only through the 2008 Oscar race that The Reader was about an affair between a 15-year old boy, Michael Berg, and Hanna Schmitz, a woman in her 30's, and it was set in Germany. That the book was only 210 pages long meant it was readable to me. I didn't notice a lot of mental or stylistic gymnastics in this brief book; it had a rather linear story. It reads more like a memoir than a novel. (The author was a law professor, very similar to what the main character grew up to do). It is believable as a story and holds four “bombshells.” (see SPOILER SECTION, if you want to) The first bombshell is not so much of one because it's mentioned on the back cover: the relationship between Michael Berg and Hanna. We learn of this very early on. The backdrop of the story is post World War II Germany and all of the aftermath that was. There are large themes. I thought the Guilt Card could've been played more – the narrator wonders about the effects and actions of one generation and the questions of another (his). There was room for “emotional explosions” but it wasn't there; maybe if I'd been a german or Jew, I'd have brought my own judgments and experiences and feelings. The fact that what happened was already there and not needed to be pounded. RECOMMEND? Yes. Overall, it was a good, quick read that I could recall. I'd recommend it. RE-READ FACTOR? Not necessary. It was so straight forward that I got it all in the first read. But I'd be eager to read more general new fiction by its author. STYLE It's told in the memoir style, a recollection of the narrator looking back at his youth. It's what I call a clean and quiet writing style, void of any literary flash. Rather straight forward.