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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
This is a terrible novel. It pretends to ask important questions. The author seems to think that merely invoking the Holocaust is enough to make a novel important and serious. Not so. Not if your characters are ciphers and their thoughts and dialogue banal.
Somewhere, I saw that someone had compared this novel to the work of Gunter Grass. Whatever one may think of Grass's provocations, Schlink is nowhere near the thinker or writer that Grass is.
I don't know; perhaps in the German, the novel has some means of creating layers that the translator has been unable to render in English.
Somewhere, I saw that someone had compared this novel to the work of Gunter Grass. Whatever one may think of Grass's provocations, Schlink is nowhere near the thinker or writer that Grass is.
I don't know; perhaps in the German, the novel has some means of creating layers that the translator has been unable to render in English.
I finished this book a few days ago and am still struggling with what to say about it. Honestly it deserves more than 3 stars, but I don't want to give it anymore. The book pulls at your morality, with it's "what ifs" and never comes back to answer the questions it asks. To be fair I should research Bernhard Schlink. Maybe he's a philosopher which would explain why I finished the book feeling drained, but that's what some books are supposed to do.
challenging
reflective
tense
medium-paced
This was just play for me. Yes it leaves you wondering, but in a good sort of way. Was she evil? Was she misunderstood? Would he ever find happiness?
But a good portion of this very short book just rambled on and you lost touch with the characters.
But a good portion of this very short book just rambled on and you lost touch with the characters.
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book began my long love affair with historical fiction. I loved this novel. The deep relationship and romance between the main characters, young boy and older woman, is at once profoundly beautiful and deeply mournful. Woven into history following WWII, we learn much about the human condition, what one finds worthy, and at what incredible lengths people will go to keep their secrets.
A very good story, though I didn't give the writing itself a lot
of thought. About a 15 year-old boy, his relationship
with an older woman in post-WWII Germany and its reverberations.
of thought. About a 15 year-old boy, his relationship
with an older woman in post-WWII Germany and its reverberations.
schön geschrieben aber vielleicht ist die Geschichte in ihrem Thema zu absichtlich. manchmal nicht sehr glaubhaft. auch ist das erste Teil ein bißchen zu unbehaglich für mich!
It might be an overstatement to say a book about the holocaust was refreshing, but it was beautifully done. The writing was succinct but evocative.