Book Review

• Date: 01 October 1999
• Publication year: 1999
• Pages: 61
• Citation: Vol. 12 No. 8 Pg. 61

Book Review Vol. 12 No. 8 Pg. 61 Utah Bar Journal October 1999

The Reader

Bernhard Schlink, Betsy Ross, J.

Do I give away too much if I categorize this book as Holocaust literature? Or would that even really be correct? Can I say at least that this novel entreats the reader to approach moral "certainties" with varying lenses? Should it not be expected for a German born in 1944 to be predisposed to these issues?

Herr Professor Bernhard Schlink, professor of law at the University of Berlin and a practicing judge, born in Germany in 1944, writes a questioning novel - questioning himself, history, accepted moralities, and most interesting coming from a practicing judge, questioning the nature of justice.

Michael Berg, a fifteen-year-old boy has a sexual relationship with Hanna, a thirty-year-old woman. Schlink's first question for Michael: "Did my moral upbringing turn against itself?" He spends his days making love and reading to her. One day, she disappears, and...