The Reader - Bernherd Schlink

A few weeks ago I posted a mini haul where I mentioned that I had picked this up. Lovely Bookworm Belle mentioned that she had read The Reader in 6 hours one night, and, well there must just be an "unputdownable" quality about this book, because it took me just one sitting too!

I had seen the film adaptation beforehand so the story wasn't ever going to be a shock to me (it's very true to the books narrative) but I really enjoyed reading it nonetheless.

Setting is extremely important in The Reader, in fact Germany can almost be seen as a character in itself due to it's importance in the narrative. The book is written in first person, which I do tend to read more often, and from the point of view of the main protagonist Michael Berg. The story begins when Michael is just 15, where he begins an affair with an older woman, Hanna Schmitz. The first part of the novel describes their relationship, which is largely based around sex, and Michael reading novels aloud to Hanna.

“I asked her about life, and it was as if she rummaged around in a dusty chest to get me the answers.” 

The second part of the novel briefly details Michael's formative years, and his taking a university law class leading him to attend a criminal trial of women who worked as guards at Nazi concentration camps. He quickly realises that Hanna is one of the accused, and the rest of the novel describes Hanna's history as it comes out on the trial, including that she attributed to the death of many, and is illiterate, which makes her crimes more understandable, but not any less harming or terrible. 

“The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly one on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive. I understand this. Nonetheless, I sometimes find it hard to bear.”

Bernherd Schlink's main profession is that of a Law Professor  which is what gives the writing it's authentic feel, but also perhaps what gives it a slight coldness. I say that because at first glance The Reader is a love story, and when looking at the book as a love story we do feel very detached as readers from any real passion or particularly ardourous feelings. At it's bones however the story goes so much deeper than love, it's a story about humanity, how times can change us, and how the world adapts. 

“I had loved her. I tried to tell myself that I had known nothing of what she had done when I chose her. I tried to talk myself into the state of innocence in which children love their parents. But love of our parents is the only love for which we are not responsible. ...And perhaps we are responsible even for the love we feel for our parents.” 

There are two parts of the book which I liked in particular; The first being Michael's realisation of Hanna's illiteracy. I think it could have been very easy at this point for Schlink to create a Hollywood ending: Hanna didn't know what she was doing was wrong, all is swept under the rug and she will fall with hopeless devotion into Michael's loving arms. Instead he gives her the little leniency the realisation deserves given the circumstance, he uses the illiteracy as a tool to pull his narrative together, rather than a justification. 

The second part of the book I particularly enjoyed was Michael's tour of the closed concentration camp, because again there was nothing Hollywood about it, no statistics or tears, and not because the scene wasn't sad, but because we all know how terrible those places were and what horrifying things happened there, he doesn't need to use those facts as a crutch to make his story something worthwhile. 

“So I was still guilty. And if I was not guilty because one cannot be guilty of betraying a criminal, then I was guilty of having loved a criminal.”

If you consider yourself a person who's perhaps not interested in the war genre, then I'd say The Reader may change your mind; it's so easy to read but has a real impact and considers the after effects of war rather than the action of war itself, which may appeal to those who don't like to read action. I personally love history and loved this book, it wasn't pushing facts or preaching the authors beliefs on right and wrong, it's a commentary on human nature, and other sides to the horror of World War Two; the average teenage boy growing up in a shamed post war Germany, and the guards who put so many lives into torment at the orders of their country. I'd definitely recommend this book, it's a great read.

Nineteen Eighty-Four - George Orwell.

“It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

1984 was like The Beatles for me. One of those books you've heard so much about that you really wonder  if it's going to be worth the hype. Then you read it and you realise how deserved the hype really is.  Firstly, Orwell's writing is so vivid that  his scenes play out before you as you read. I found myself scared more than once during this novel, partly because of the realistic writing but mostly because Orwell has tapped into our biggest fear, having no control, and made it a feasible future; the citizens in 1984 are controlled entirely by their government. 

The book was published in 1949, a time where everyone was thinking about the miracles the future could bring. Others, namely Orwell, however were thinking of the darker side. The country had already been controlled by the government immensely through the use of propaganda in war, and with the second world war having ended just 4 years prior to the publication of the book it's not a huge leap to assume Orwell took some inspiration from the way Britain was manipulated by the government during that period. 

In 1939 Britain formed the Ministry of Information, which was responsible for publicity and propaganda during the war. In the novel, our protagonist Winston Smith is employed by the Ministry of Truth, which was responsible for propaganda and historical revisionism; Both essentially the same premise, though Orwell's name is obviously more mocking. The novel is set in a different world, though comprising of our map, for example, Oceania, where the novel is mainly set, is what we know as England (referred to as Airstrip One), America, Australia, Ireland, Iceland, New Zealand and South Africa. Oceania is in a constant state of war with either Eurasia (from Portugal to Bering Strait) or Eastasia (China, the countries South of it, the Japanese Islands, Mongolia and Tibet). When not at war with one of the Asia's, they are thought of as allies. 

“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.” 

Winston Smith, a citizen of Airstrip One, spends his days re-writing the past to fit in with whichever war Oceania is currently fighting. He wakes up, he goes to work, he takes part in "Two Minutes Hate" (a mocking of a minutes silence), he goes home. When the novel begins however, Winston changes this routine; he buys a journal. 

In Winston's journal he lets his hate towards The Party (the government) and it's totalitarian leader Big Brother, out. He writes this journal in a small area of his flat where he believes he cannot be seen by the telescreen - an item in every home and public place which the thought police use to spy on civilians in order to seek out thought crime (thoughts that oppose The Party). After committing this private thought crime, Winston runs into a woman at the Ministry Of Truth, Julia. After handing Winston a secret note confessing love to him, he discovers Julia is also against The Party. 

Julia and Winston begin an affair, taking separate trains out to the countryside to met up in secret. They soon rent a room above an antiques shop in Airstrip One, believing that is the safest place for their meetings as the building is so old and has no telescreen. During the course of this relationship, Winston's thought crimes against The Party increase, and he becomes desperate to discover the true past - rather than the ones he has reworked for years. Because of this desperation to unravel truth, Winston becomes involved in what he thinks is a brotherhood against The Party. But in a world where everything is controlled by a supposedly omniscient leader - is there anyone you can really trust? Is there anything you won't do to save yourself?

“War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.”

I like to look at 1984 as a love story, because as I've said before; I like love stories that aren't all Hollywood romance, but that show something more realistic, which I think is the case in this book between Winston and Julia. They are desperate to feel something real; do they ever truly love one another? Who knows, is it even possible to feel something such as Love in a society where children turn against their own parents? Where Hate is a celebration? But they did give each other hope and closeness, something warm to cling to in a desolate place. 

“In the face of pain there are no heroes.” 

I do also however see this novel as a horror story. Winston goes through so many terrifying things - real terror through the infliction of his biggest fear, but also the fear of knowing his difference to society every day. Waiting every day to be discovered for having thought that isn't mass produced, terror at being found having memories of a pre- atomic past. Imagine living in that world, where your books are burned, your music taken away, everything taken away until you are no longer you - you are everyone else. And the scariest part, this could happen, and it would be so much easier now to find ourselves under absolute control. We all carry tracking devices in our phones, we are constantly updating our information, what we are doing, what we look like, what we feel like via social networking...if life as we knew it ended tomorrow, how easy have we made it for our countries to resurface in Orwell's world? 

“Big Brother is Watching You.”