However, I was mostly annoyed by Michael’s lack of true introspection and his contentment to blame everyone else, which seems like the easiest road to take:

http://30greatbooks.blogspot.com/2009/04/9-reader-bernhard-schlink.html

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your well-written rebuttal for those of use who did not like this book! I understand the points you are making, but I disagree. I’m not sure you can entirely draw a parallel between the enslavement of African-Americans with Hanna being illiterate – although I will agree that if one cannot read they are significantly limited in society (and many slaves were illiterate too). I would argue, however, that most illiterate slaves did not perform evil acts – in fact, the rich history of African Americans shows a strong moral base even during the periods of slavery despite illiteracy and regular abuse by their captors.

What is the basis of morality? How does it develop? There are many wonderful studies and articles that deal with this…which would be an article on this blog in and of itself! Being illiterate does not mean that Hanna had no heart in her chest – she stood and watched a church burn with women and children locked inside even though she held the key to save them. This, I think, was less about her being illiterate and more about her being completely embroiled in the Nazi doctrine and afraid to be the only one who would do the right thing.

Certainly we do not condone (or excuse) the acts of the serial killer because his parents abused him…we acknowledge his horrible childhood and we still convict him of the crimes (and often give him the death penalty). So, although there were reasons Hanna may have acted as she did (and we want to understand them), we should not excuse her actions because of those reasons. Likewise, the terrorists who attacked our nation were misguided in their religious zeal, and yet there are few (if any) of us who would argue that what they did should be excused because they were misguided.

Lastly, I do not think that an adult woman preying on a child is less than an adult man preying on a child. The damage to the child is no different based on the sex of the abuser. Yes, Hanna had her needs met…and that narcissistic behavior had far reaching (negative) impacts on her victim. I don’t care why she did it. She was the adult; she needed to resist her own selfish needs (wherever they came from) and not do what she did.

I want to make one final point – although I disagreed with this book’s basic premise, I might have rated it higher (based on how it stimulates discussion) had Schlink been a decent writer. But I thought his writing was dull…poor in fact. He took what could have been compelling (in my opinion) and weighted it down with crappy prose…which was (and is) one of my biggest complaints of the book.

Thank you for your comments, Serena – although we disagree, I have found this to be a stimulating and interesting discussion!

So, I believe that, while her deeds were evil, her morality and motivation were misguided, similarly to the mentality that is conditioned to believe that genocide is justified for whatever doctrinal reason, if that’s all theyve known. It usually takes a strong moral re-conditioning of some sort that turns someone around who had believed that evil-doing was righteous; which is what happened to her at the end. Her awakening by Michael’s simple question about her thinking about the past resulted in jarring her self-loathing and contrition, hence her desire to give the money to the daughter. Everyone deserves redemption, but so many are hardened to it by over-powering oppressive conditioning.

Amy: This may be the first book we completely disagree about *smiles* I’m with you on illiteracy, I just didn’t think Schlink wrote a very good book about it (and it bothered me immensely that he put it on the same level as the Holocaust…I never bought that Hanna’s illiteracy is what made her do the horrible things she did). I think this book tends to polarize people…either they love it or hate it. I’ve seen equal amounts of comments on both sides.

Anna: I would be flattered if you wanted to link to my review…feel free to do so