The Thumbnail Book Reviews
by John Q McDonald --- 21 September 2004
by Bernhard Schlink
In this volume, Bernhard Schlink, author of the well-regarded The Reader, assembles seven elegant short stories, all with the theme of love. Throughout, the protagonists seem to have a set of interconnected personalities, men with accute conciousness and a somewhat somber outlook on the world. But these men are also dreamers and romantics. Each story has a sharply defined arc, and each has its moving moments. But Schlink also imparts a dreamy quality and an almost obsessive absorption to these lives. One man is obsessed with the beautiful young woman in a painting tainted by history. A second, a German man in love with a Jewish woman, becomes obsessed by the cultural histories they have and decides to take a drastic secret step. Another is so bouyed by the love of women that he takes all he can from them until they learn to team up and take back. Still another is obsessed by his own dream, and when confronted by its realization, commits an astonishing act of abandonment. There is just enough edge of fantasy to make these stories exceptionally entertaining. And there is a deep level of understanding, observation and depiction that make the stories quite compelling. An often fascinating, often moving, and entertaining book.
Also by Schlink: [The Reader]