The novel starts with Michael Berg explaining his health condition when he was younger, 15 years old, when he suffers hepatitis. One day when he was on his way home from school he was paralyzed and helped by a middle-aged woman who Berg hadn’t had chance to talk to for his condition at the time. When he gets better, Berg’s family suggests that he goes to the woman’s house and say thank you for the help she has given. Berg visited the woman’s house and finally talked with her for a good hour. When Berg was about to leave the house Frau Schmitz asked him to wait because she said she too is leaving the house for work. Berg waited outside with the door open exposing the view of Frau Schmitz changing her clothes. At this point there is a strange feeling running throughout Berg’s body, a feeling that he himself couldn’t fathom, a feeling that he admitted he have never had even when he is around his girlfriend. He took a peek and more and more, until Frau Schmitz caught him. Frightened or ashamed of what he has done, Berg run out of the house as fast as possible.
Some days later, Berg decided to come back again to Frau Schmitz’s house and apologized for his misdeed. When he got to the house, she wasn’t there so he waited until she turned up. She turned up with her hands occupied with bags of coal and she still have some more downstairs. She asked Berg to fetch them and he did. When he returned to the house all of Berg clothes is black and Frau Schmitz told him to take off his clothes and take a bath so that she can clean his clothes. Berg took a bath and suddenly Frau Schmitz come in with towel that is supposed to dry Berg. What happened instead, the towel fall to the floor and she hugged him. This is the mark of their relationship as lover. After this event the two continue to meet despite the odds. They meet at Schmitz’s house, at Berg’s house when his family is not around, and even they went to a hotel in other city to be together.
Their relationship as lovers wasn’t a happy one, Berg who was a 15-year-old boy and the fact that Frau Schmitz is the first person whom he has done the intimate relationship with makes it even more complex. Throughout the novel Berg explains how he loves her, but Frau Schmitz treats the relationship very casually almost without emotion. Often Berg is the one who has to act like an adult for Frau Schmitz can get very moody sometime to the point that she might scold and get angry at him and for most, asks him to leave her house. And despite all this, Berg shows his loyalty and love towards her. He confessed in the novel that he does love her and their relationship affect his life to another level.
One of the things they do together is reading and listening. Berg would read a book out loud for Frau Schmitz to listen to. She likes this very much to the point that she wouldn’t want to have sex without Berg reading her a part of a book first. At first Berg takes this as her loving books, so he brought more books for her to read. But she didn’t even touch the book, saying that she likse listening to other people reading the book more than reading herself.
Berg continues to be a reader and a lover to Frau Schmitz until one day she was missing without any notice.
It’s not until years later they both meet again, not in face-to-face, person to person, scenario, instead they meet in a court room by accident. At this point Berg was a law student assigned by his university to observe the law practice in its habitat (the court). It turns out that most of the suspects being tried there were people who had relations with the Nazi or the war. Frau Schmitz for one is accused to have let mass killing taking place during the war. She happened to work as a security guard for the occupants and when a bomb hit the place (the church) she was guarding, instead of opening the door so that people in it can flee the fire, she let it locked and as a result majority of people in the church die. The trial is made to find out who is responsible for the killing of those people. After several trials and drama, Frau Schmitz is officially notified guilty for letting those people die.
Before that, however, there is a great discussion going on in the interior of the novel. And it is only known by the narrator and the suspect. It goes back to the question either Frau Schmitz truly guilty or she would rather be made the guilty one than face her secret exposed to the world. And what is that secret? All this time turned out Frau Schmitz was illiterate, it explained why she didn’t want to read books by herself, asked others to read for her, because she couldn’t do it. It also explains why she always leaves her jobs once she is promoted, because higher position require literacy, one that she doesn’t have. Interesting part of it is that her hard work makes it impossible for people around her to notice that she is illiterate. And to avoid them finding out, she moves from one job to another.
Going back to the trial. One last thing brought up to the court is about the letter sent to the official regarding the bombing event. When it is about to be examined, Frau Schmitz confessed that she made the letter and it lead to her being sentenced a life time. She would rather be in the prison than her secret as an illiterate exposed to the world.
Is being illiterate that embarrassing? Is hiding it worth more than freedom itself?
Berg, who at this point, begins to notice that fact faced with dilemma. Should he confess to the judge that he knows her and he knows her secret? At least if he does that her sentence can be lighter. But would it be fair to Frau Schmitz if he does that? Berg consult the issue with his father, who is a philosophy professor, and he also thinks that an individual has the right to what’s good for him or her without outer force interference. In addition to that, if he confessed that he knew her, he would have had to explain their relationship and it will affect the credibility of his confession. So he decided to keep silent.
After the event everybody goes back to their own life. Berg with his life in a free world. Frau Schmitz in her cell. Throughout this time, Berg had the chance to get married with a woman from his school and had a baby together but the marriage didn’t survive. They divorced after 5 years of marriage.
Berg still keep in touch with Frau Schmitz through cassettes he sends to the prison containing his voices reading book. But he never pays a visit.
Several years later, a letter arrived at Berg’s address from the head of the prison notifying that Frau Schmitz will be released a year later. Since Frau Schmitz has no other relative, and Berg is the only person whom she exchange letters with the official sent the notification to him.
Berg, admits that he doesn’t know how to react to this. Though he cares about her, he is not sure if he wants anything to do with her any longer after the things he has gone through. Plus, all that happens make him feel very confused. At one point he thinks he is guilty: first, for the disappearance – he thought that his behavior makes her disappeared; second, for not exposing her lies; and three, for sleeping with a person who has connection with world’s enemy (the Nazi). But eventually, he did what the head of the prison asks him to do, to look for an apartment, job and social support for ex-convict and etc. One thing that he is indifferent to do, is to meet her. He avoids visiting her. But the head of the prison insists that he should pay a visit and talk with her. And he did.
Finally after several years Berg and Frau Schmitz meet and talk face to face. Berg admits that Frau Schmitz is not as beautiful as she used to be. She seems to have given up taking care of herself. Her hair is gray, her face full with wrinkles and she is fat too. And it’s approved by the head of the prison that she was once very respected in the prison by everybody, she was very neat, organized and self-taught. She even learns to read autodidactly through the cassettes Berg sends by hearing and reading the book at the same time. But several years before her release she gave up her routine and become who she is now.
The conversation they have during the meeting is quite odd. Frau Schmitz asked Berg if he ever get married. Berg said he had and have a daughter from that marriage. It’s getting weird that the meeting lasted even before the visit time is up.
A month before her release Berg and Frau Schmitz talk on the telephone. And the day after that Frau Schmitz committed suicide for no reason. The head of the prison theorizes that perhaps she no longer has purpose in life that ending life is better than continuing living.
She left a letter, a very practical letter as opposed to an emotional one. On that letter she specifically ask Michael Berg to give the money she has left to the surviving child of the bombing event who now is living in New York. Berg does what he is asked to do. He sends a mail by introducing himself as a war historian and wants to talk with her in person. She approved and they had the meeting. There is a strong resentment from her towards Frau Schmitz. When Berg told her his past with Frau Schmitz it even levels up her resentment towards her. At the end she decided to accept only the tea bag and asked Berg to donate the money to an organization that has connection with Holocaust and she doesn’t care if Hanna Schmitz’s name acknowledged or not.
Berg donated the money to the Jewish League Against Illiteracy and the organization thanked Hanna Schmitz for her contribution. The novel ends with Berg driving to Hannah’s cemetery carrying a letter from the organization. Berg said that it’s the first and the only time he stood there.
THE END
Analysis of the Novel (sort of)
Narrative Style
The language used in this novel is very simple, yet very pragmatic. Through its simplicity it manages successfully to deliver both the message and the emotion of the story. I am not quite sure to what extent it is a conscious decision to do it as such, but with the beginning of the novel where Berg is still a 15-year-old boy, it’s quite understandable why the writer chooses to use such language. It’s to emphasize the immaturity of the main character (Berg) who also functions as a narrator. Just like Berg, the language used also brings up the vibe of naivety from Berg himself.
On the other hand, in English, a short word, as opposed to the colloquial one, is called Germanic word. It got me thinking, could this mean that the language used in this novel is fairly normal for a German novel? And the fact that I read the translation one makes me question, would I feel differently had I read the original one, had I known the language? Perhaps I would think of it rather poetic than not. And when we talk about translation – to what degree the translation is truthful to the text and etc. etc.
Characters
I haven’t watched the movie version, but I did watch its trailer where I saw Berg consulting with a supposedly psychiatrist. This is quite different from the book. There is no going to the psychiatrist in the book at all. That being said, I do think that a psychological discussion deserves to be taking place in this novel.
However, there seems to be anti-psychology approach in this novel. Berg who supposedly suffers from psychological disorder for what he experienced from such a young age, seems to be just okay with the whole thing. Though from time to time, we see it appears through his confession in his narration. None the less, ironically his narration also makes it as if it was okay for a young boy to have that kind of relationship with a middle-aged woman. It’s not age that bothers him. It’s Hanna’s treatment of their relationship that makes him rage. He invested in the relationship while Hanna seems to take no importance in the relationship at all. It’s not age that bothers him, it’s Hanna’s disappearance and lies that plant hate in his heart. This in a way contradicts the conventional understanding of psychology – where the trauma that should’ve been the cause of psychological unrest. Here, however, the trauma is not the relationship itself but the sudden ending of that relationship.
Similarly, Hanna too suffers psychological unrest. As an illiterate woman lives in a time of war, she has to provide for herself despite the odds. Though her career choices is pitiable, she too has reason behind it.
That being said, is this novel trying to justify what the Nazi did in the past? Is it saying that there is humanity in its cruelty? That not everybody tied to the event is guilty?
Final Thought
Personally, I think The Reader is great book with a deep level of discussion regarding life and its complexness. A kind of book that plays around with our judgmental mind. For that I give ✰✰✰✰ stars for this novel!
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