"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
- Robert Frost
It's unsettling to think of choices.
'Should I wear the red ones, or the blue ones?' 'The right or the left'? 'To be or not to be?'
And it's just as unsettling to think of the choices you didn't make- or rather the road you didn't choose to travel down. How would my life look today if I would've worn the blue pair? If I would've went to the left, instead of the right? If I would've spoken my mind, instead of keeping silent?
Yet the past is set in stone, and no matter how hard we try, we cannot change it. It's a futile endeavor and you'll only be driven to madness. I would know, I've tried.
"What should I have done differently?"
"What would you have done?"
And with that one simple question, you can ruin a life.
"The Reader" by Bernhard Schlink was published in 1995, and may it eternally live as one of the most haunting novels, set in the most devastating of time periods; that of postwar Germany.
Michael Berg is 15 years old when he meets Hanna Schmitz on the road. She takes care of him after he loses his lunch on the street. In time this woman, who is more than twice Michael's age, becomes his lover and companion. Their love is twisted, and wrong. It's raw and innocent, while lacking all scruples. In time Michael takes on another role, that of certified reader. He brings book after book to her home, and spends hours reading her tales stemming from 'The Odyssey' to 'War and Peace'. And soon their love turns to literature, the purest form of love there is. Hanna's frustrated swings in mood are never of concern to Michael, for he need only read and soon they disappear. Yet when Hanna herself disappears is when our story takes light.
Michael is now a young law student and living in numbness. Although distant from his memory, Hanna's still taking ownership of the remnants of his mind- a mere ghost.
That is, until she no longer is merely an apparition.
The next time Michael sees her, she's on trial for a heinous crime, along with five other Nazi guards.
Yet could her innocence be hidden in the details? And could Michael know the secret she's spent years trying to hide?
From page one all I needed was more, more, more. I read until my eyes hurt, and then I kept reading. It was disturbing. It was disturbing because it was human.
It was man that killed millions of people.
It was man that tortured other men.
And it's mankind, the most beautiful creatures of all, that can love with the ferocity not seen outside of the human race.
Perhaps we're still trying to understand how the same person can kiss his wife, and kill his neighbor. Perhaps it's not for us to understand.
Yet when did it all become a cliché?
No, it's not just a movie. No, it's not just a book. No, it's not just a flag.
Don't turn your face away from the misfortune, and don't embellish it. It was embellished enough with reality.
The generation after WWII was a damaged one. They saw their mothers and fathers no longer as parental units, yet murderers and enablers. They grew up picking up pieces they didn't drop. And they grew up while humanity was still crumbling.
I enjoyed seeing new perspectives in this novel.
What of the people who knew nothing about the camps? Or the people who did know, yet didn't do a thing? The ones, even, that regretted it? What of them? And ask yourself-
What would I have done?
Although not for the light hearted, this book is recommended a million times.
Read it, then read it one more time.
Dissect it, and hold it close.
Cry.
Cry.
Cry.
And of course,
As always
Happy Reading!
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