Like this:

I started The Reader by Bernhard Schlink yesterday and finished it this morning. It was one of those books that I always thought I’d get around to reading at some point, but continued to put off when new books came my way. My friend Bobby loaned me the paperback along with a stack of other books, and I stuck it in my school bag yesterday on the off-chance I’d have time to read during the day. I’ve been proctoring benchmark testing for the past few days and took the opportunity to start this book.

Once I started, I couldn’t stop. When I wasn’t reading the book, I was thinking about it. It’s the story of fifteen-year-old Michael, who becomes involved with an older woman after a chance meeting. The two become very close, and then the woman vanishes from Michael’s life. The next time he sees her is during his time in law school, at a trial for war crimes. The woman is one of the defendants.

First, this book utterly captures the emotions and behaviors of adolescence. The author describes perfectly how easy it is as an adolescent to fall victim to obsession, whether it’s with a person, place, or thing. The main character also exhibits that sort of bipolarity of teenagers; they’re either completely confident or completely terrified, at the heights of happiness or the lowest pits of despair. There’s really no emotional middle ground for them or for Michael.

As the story’s narrator ages, the author also beautifully portrays that unique kind of homesickness that seems to strike people as they age and start their own lives and families. Some people experience it in different ways, as a longing for a place or a specific object, and only over time do they come to realize that what they really miss is the innocence and freedom of childhood. This book contains some of the most beautiful writing on this topic that I’ve ever read.

The characters in this story are well-drawn. The author doesn’t spend a lot of time giving physical descriptions of them, yet I was almost immediately able to picture them in my mind’s eye. Their actions and interactions were so well-described that it was easy to picture them without lengthy characterizations.

Mostly, though, the author’s style won me over. The book is full of gorgeous German countrysides, scenes on streetcars, and summer breezes. Even parts that should be ugly or painful to read, namely descriptions of concentration camps and the horrors of winter death marches, are painted with such skill that reading them is a privilege.

This is a book full of words and phrases that I wanted to wrap myself in like a blanket. The story is engaging, the characters are real, and the writing is artistry. I highly recommend it.

Advertisement