I mentioned in earlier posts on The Reader by Bernard Schlink, that it is a very well crafted novel, but a word of appreciation is also due the translator, Carol Brown Janeway. Although the story is always unmistakably taking place in Germany and addressing German issues, it's easy to forget it wasn't written in English.
I know three posts on one book is a lot, but as indicated earlier (Read While Walking: The Reader by Bernard Schlink), I'm treating you as my book club.
So why does the narrator act as he does? He refuses to forgive Hannah, he seems to have deep anger with her, while also caring for her. A central issue facing him seems to be him attempting to resolve why, or if, he loves her and how to work past that.
The descriptions of Hannah are fascinating, in that they don't depict her as beautiful, nor do they indicate what he likes so much about her, but they betray a fascination with her that he can't leave alone. The descriptions encompass both the attraction and the repulsion he feels. When he describes her scent in detail, he describes it in very tactile, but mostly negative terms as though trying to repulse himself, though when describing more positive times in their relationship, he simply says her scent was always clean. Similarly, his physical descriptions of her are bland, unless he dwells on that which simultaneously repulses and attracts him.
Why does he visit the judge to tell him about Hannah's illiteracy, leave without saying anything about it, and feel a sense of relief?
I think Michael feels sexually exploited. I don't know enough about German law to know whether his relationship with Hannah would be rape, or sexual interference or some other legally inappropriate conduct, but Michael seems to struggle between the idea that he initiated the contact, and encouraged the development of the relationship, but feels exploited nonetheless, as though without his consent Hannah forced him to fall in love with her.
There's no indication that Hannah knew he was underage, and much of the narrator's sense of malaise, aimlessness and willingness to dive into a relationship with an older woman feel more like The Graduate than an exploration of underage exploitation.
And yet, the level of intimacy that developed between Hannah and Michael indelibly marked him. He measures all future relationships against the one with her, he only feels right sleeping next to her, his fantasies relate to moments with her, and yet he feels, when she abandons him, that she didn't place the same fundamental significance on her relationship with him. He questions that somewhat when he discovers her clipping of his graduation, but doesn't seem to want to explore that question further.
When he discovers her history with the war, he wants to lash out and blame her for it. He notes that most of his classmates blame their parents for Germany's role in the war, which he does not appear to do, transferring that blame instead to Hannah. When Hannah asks the judge what she could have done differently, not only does the judge fail to answer, but Michael recognizes it as an impossible question. He doesn't know what he would have wanted her to do differently.
And yet Michael has been studying, perhaps wallowing in the history of Germany's actions in World War II, and identifying with the concentration camp victims. By identifying with the victims, he can remove himself from the heritage of guilt associated with his nationality. And when he finds that Hannah had reading relationships with some of the prisoners, he finds it easy to lump himself in with the victims, as one more victim of Hannah and therefore not one of the perpetrators of crimes in war, but one of its victims, with Hannah as the wrongdoer that he can blame.
Yet through all of this, Michael loves her, and I think is angry that she made him love her. To me, that's the principal crime that Michael cannot forgive, that she made him love her, as his first love, and he can't let her go. So my explanation for why he reads and sends the tapes is partly one-sided self indulgence, partly to make himself feel good about himself, but partly to make her fall in love with him as her only love, and be unable to understand why he abandons her like she abandoned him without explanation.
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