This year, the movie with the same name has won a number of Oscars, of which the most important is probably the one that Kate Winslet got, for the Best Actress part.
Last week, I finished reading the book. The movie didn’t quite impress me, and I had heard a lot about Bernhard Schlink, seeing he is considered to be one of the best writers of the last century. I thought he must have detailed some events and parts of the book that the screenwriters must have omitted. And it was so, indeed. The narration is concise, and somewhat cold and calculated. After a few pages, one can observe the typical germanic thought, with short details that usually don’t let your imagination wander away. Nevertheless, I consider this novel to be one of the best I read in the last couple of months.
Why do I say so: although the narrator does not make sustained efforts to keep the reader’s attention, and he is merely counting a series of trivial events [or so it seems], some descriptions are so well made, that you can actually imagine being a witness to all that is happening, and even have the feeling you are in the same room as the characters.
The novel deals with the relationship that begins between a woman over thirty and a young boy that has just passed 15 years of age. The details that lead to this affair are quite insignificant because, once you have reached the hurricane of feelings and sensations, you, who read the lines on the sheets of paper, will, without a doubt, be charmed by a seeming impossible love, that, later on, marks a person for life. What I truly appreciated was the abundance of descriptive concise details, that altogether make this novel a reading masterpiece.
Michael [the teenager] falls in love with Hanna [the older woman], that one day simply leaves him without a word, without a letter. Years later, we see Michael as a Law student, assisting to a trial of some guardians that decided the fate of a couple of hundreds women from Auschwitz, during the World War II. One of these is Hanna Schmitz…
In conclusion, this novel successfully combines a love story, seen from the eyes of the fears and feelings of a teenager, with a war landscape, that later on transforms into a cruel trial. If you appreciate the sensibility of prose, and the briefness of a germanic narration, then this will probably be one of the books you wish to read.
Star Trek Deep Space Nine -- Twist of Faith