The Reader

I have to admit this was one of the weirdest books I have ever read. I missed something when reading the back of it that informed me it was written post WW2 and by a German author. I thought I was reading a love story...well it was but man was it weird. The book is written by a lawyer who at the age of 15 falls ill with hepatitis and gets involved with a woman in her thirties. The first part of the book is about their weird love affair, and strangely written but easy to read. Then you move on to the second part which is about the trail he attends and finds her at...I won't give details as that would give too much away...but the trail is Nazi War Crimes trial and the book takes a very strange turn from here. Now we move on to the last part of the book which is mostly his wondering why his life is the way it is and how much his relationship with her has determined the course of his life.

I wouldn't say this was a bad book as it made you think and that was what I was looking for but it was definetly different. It was a relatively quick read if that is what you are looking for...once you get into it.

Anyway there were some parts that I enjoyed and this is one of them..."Why does it make me so sad when I think back to that time? Is it yearning for past happiness. Is it the knowledge of what came later, and that what came out afterwards had been there all along? Why? Why does what was beautiful suddenly shatter in hindsight because it concealed dark truths? Why does the memory of years of happy marriage turn to gall when our partner is revealed to have had a lover all those years? Because such a situation makes it impossible to be happy? But we were happy! Sometimes the memory of happiness cannot stay true because it ended unhappily. Because happiness is only real if it lasts forever? Because things always end painfully if they contained pain, conscious or unconscious, all along? But what is unconscious, unrecognized pain? " by Bernhard Schlink

This is the type of thought provoking rants he goes on in several places in the book but this one really hit me with all that is going on in my life this past few weeks. What is happiness and is it something we can ever fully achieve. And if we do achieve true happiness is it something that disappears when it isn't there to remind us anymore. I am not sure that I would recommend this book but I wouldn't say it was horrible either just for these parts. It really made me think about love, happiness, anger, guilt and fear. He does have some valid points even though a lot of them are written like you are at a psychiatrists office and he is just asking you all kinds of questions without giving you answers.