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【TS读书／40】《The Reader》《朗读者》or《生死朗读》

This is the book which would make you think and ask so many questions. 

The novel started with a romance between 15 years old boy and the 36 years old women. She helped him when he got sick on his way back home. He sent her flowers and said thank you when he got better. Just at that time, he was not able to take his eyes off her. He was absolutely attracted by the way she held herself and moved, the way she putting on her stockings in the kitchen. He run away but kept tinning about her and returned one day. That was when the whole story really began. They were making love, they were taking shower together, he was reading for her before making love, they were travelling with bicycle together. He read a lot for her and she was so moved by some of the books and alway gave some comments. 

He always remembered the first meetings with Hanna. His longing for her becomes so strong even when he was older, which feelings make him so hurt. She had so much influences on him. He asked his girlfriends to put on their stockings but couldn’t find the same thing he was looking for. With his wife, he could never stop comparing the way it had been with her. He alway something or feeling was wrong, that his wife moved wrong, smelled wrong and tasted wrong. He thought he would get over it, but never success. Some pictures about Hanna always repeatedly came up and through his mental projector;

one is she putting on her stockings in the kitchen,

one is she standing in front of the bath holding the towel in her outstretched arms,

one is she riding her bike with her skirt blown in her slipstream,

and another is the picture of her in his father’s study. All those pictures always with him. 

But one day, she left, without any word, without any message. He was lost. He didn’t know what was going on. Until some years later when be became a law student, attending the trial of female Nazi war criminals. And that was when he saw her again. She was one of the women who had been a camp guard at Auschwitz. He was struggling that he had her inside of himself but she was a ware criminal?  It was not only between he and she, it was also between post-war generation and their parents generation. There were so many questions he cannot explains. Of course he cannot. If we were him, what we should think? The one you loved or the one effected you most suddenly became a Nazi criminal. The struggling between the love and the fact hurt him a lot. 

The trial took many days. Finally Hanna admitted she wrote the report which was the evidence made her to be a criminal. Then He realised that she was illiterate. She wanted to hide that she cannot read and write.

That is why she had asked people read to her.

That is why she had let him do all the writing and reading on their bicycle trip.

That is why she had lost control when she found his note that morning in the hotel.

That is why she had avoided being promoted by the tram company, because as a conductor she could conceal her weakness.

That is why she had refused the promotion at Siemens and became a camp guard.

That is why she had admitted to writing the report in order to escape a confrontation with a handwriting expert. 

She preferred admitting criminal instead of exposing herself as as illiterate? He couldn’t understand, so did I. There were many night he could sleep then he started to read for her again. She received the cassettes from him, only cassettes, no letter, no other words. She learned how to write and sent the first letter to him. Only one sentence though, he was happy for her and sorry for her. Sorry for her delayed and failed life. She expected the letter from him, but never got one. The exchange of notes and cassettes were easy for him, and he could have contented forever.  However, the letter to her or visit her was very another thing. It was complicated, it was difficult for him. He struggled almost the whole life….

At the end when he visited her for the first time and also the last time. From his question to her, we can feel that his uncertainty. He asked “Didn’t you ever think about the things that were discussed at the trial, before the trial? I mean, didn’t you ever think about them when we were together, when I was reading to you?” Her answer was “I always had the feeling that no one understood me anyway, that no one knew who I was and what make me do this or that. And you know, when no one understands you, then no one can call you to account. Not even the court could call me to account. But the dead can. "

From those conversations between them, she felt that maybe she was not welcomed. She was strong and sensitive women. During the time they were together, she was the one who always lead everything. But now, if she was released, how she would do. She couldn’t live with him, she didn’t know the modern world, she didn’t have any relatives. She was so lonely. She chose to kill herself. 

Did she do wrong at the camp? I think the answer would be yes and no. 

From her point of view, she was just doing her job. 

From others points of view, she was a criminal. This “others” refer to the post-war generation. Their blood had parents’ genes, their values were transmitted from parents. The parents generation tended to escape from what they have done. As post-war generation, they loved their parents but also shamed what they have done. Somehow it was kind of torture. 

As us, post-cultural revolution generation. We thought they did wrong, it was not right. But it happened and maybe they didn’t think it was wrong at that time. 

Ethics or Law?

"What would you have done?”, as she asked to the judge. Yes, what would we have done, if we were in the same situation.  

知道这本书是因为电影《生死朗读》，当年拿下了五项奥斯卡奖。正好之前在二手店发现了英文版本（原著是德文，不懂），于是上个月开始读起来，英文译本不是很难，大多数单词都能看懂。推荐大家，如果向看英文原著的可以看看。看完英文我有看了一边中文版本以及电影。

看了之后真的会让人思考很多问题。欧洲的二战战场我们没有经历过，只是从书中读到过。可能我比大多数人多的一个就是我曾经去参观过“奥斯维辛集中营”，见过那些头发，箱子，鞋子，还有他们住的地方，还有行刑的地方。真的是惨不忍睹。参观过真的会很痛恨那些纳粹坏蛋。可是本书里的女看守。从作者的角度，已第一人称叙述， 能感受到作者的矛盾所在。这里人性，道德，法律的界限。。。让人思考。