A Writer Ponders His 'Reader'

Schlink on the war-torn past and the movie version of his bestseller



Bernhard Schlink, 64 years old, has waited more than a decade for his story about love and betrayal, "The Reader," to be transformed into a film -- rights were originally acquired by Harvey Weinstein and Miramax Films in 1996. The movie version, directed by Stephen Daldry and starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes, opened nationwide this weekend.


Mr. Schlink's novel tells the story of 15-year-old Michael Berg, who is seduced by Hanna Schmitz, a 36-year-old streetcar conductor. Hanna then disappears from his life, only to later re-emerge as a courtroom defendant in a war-crimes trial. Their relationship, always conflicted, allows the narrator to reflect on the Holocaust, cruelty and pride. The book has been translated into 40 languages since it came out in 1995.

WSJ: Did the generation gap portrayed here between the World War II generation and their children ever narrow?

Mr. Schlink: No. There was a sense of speechlessness. The parents didn't share much of their experience in the war, or with the Third Reich, or their experiences directly after the war. The kids often had contempt for the involvement of their parents, and they didn't share those thoughts, either. Neither talked much to the other.

David Kross and Kate Winslet play conflicted lovers in 'The Reader' - The Weinstein Company

David Kross and Kate Winslet play conflicted lovers in 'The Reader'
David Kross and Kate Winslet play conflicted lovers in 'The Reader'
David Kross and Kate Winslet play conflicted lovers in 'The Reader'

The law students in the novel and the film project enormous moral superiority. What is the response today when your students study the actions of the World War II generation?

It's different. It has lost much of its emotional intensity because they didn't experience that generation directly. They read about it and see movies about it, but for my generation the intensity of the moral superiority came from being entangled with the guilt of the older generation and having to decide how to deal with it. Do we distance ourselves? What is our own guilt? This emotional conflict isn't there for students who today learn and study about that time.

One of the key scenes involves a moment where Hanna looks at the judge and asks what he would have done in her situation. In the movie, there is no answer. Was that a lost opportunity?

The judge was well trained and serious, a career judge who knew what it meant to reply. He wasn't secure enough, or hadn't thought deeply enough, to have an answer. That's because the answer isn't simple. Once you have entangled yourself in that kind of system, there is no solution for struggle within the system. You are stuck. She didn't understand what the job as a guard meant. But she began the job, and she did it with a lack of moral awareness.
[Bernhard Schlink, who wrote the book on which the film is based] Keystone/Landov

Bernhard Schlink, who wrote the book on which the film is based

There seems to be an increase of interest in material relating to WW II and the Holocaust. Why now?

A very good friend of mine, the novelist Joyce Hackett, told me that after all the years of moral ambiguity associated with the Bush administration there is heightened interest in moral problems where there is a clear answer. If we talk about the Holocaust, the answers are very clear. And if you talk about war crimes, the answers in WW II are also very clear. That makes sense to me.

The movie follows the book's narrative closely, with the exception of the use of flashbacks. Did you worry about the possibility of confusing the audience?

It was an attempt to anchor the story in the here and now. It was also an attempt to explain the ending that David Hare, the script writer, gave the movie. The book ends with the protagonist finally writing down the story. That couldn't have been the end of the movie. So David invented an ending where the protagonist tells the story to his daughter. This is why he gave [scenes set in] the present a presence earlier in the film. I understood that and respected it. I think moviegoers are pretty movie-smart and won't get confused.

Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page W9
 BOOKS -  JANUARY 10, 2009
By JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG
A Writer Ponders His 'Reader'