Schlink deals swiftly with Germany’s colonial aspirations in south-west Africa, the Herero genocide and its role in two world wars, while Olga’s life is related in careful, unadorned prose. Olga is the antithesis of Herbert, a woman defined by her love of education Olga remains in Tilsit, finding solace with her neighbours’ son, Eik, whom she regales with Herbert’s adventures, until the second world war drives her west. The couple carry on regardless, spending more time apart than together, as Herbert indulges his wanderlust until his disappearance in the Arctic in 1913. His parents disapprove of their relationship and threaten to cut Herbert off from his inheritance if he marries Olga, while his snobbish sister conspires to have her transferred to a school in East Prussia: “the end of the world”. Herbert is an adventurer who yearns for vast, empty spaces. She dreams of becoming a teacher and educates herself in order to be able to attend the local training college. Olga, an orphan, is brought up by her aloof grandmother in Pomerania, where she falls in love with her aristocratic neighbour and childhood friend, Herbert. Bernhard Schlink’s latest novel about an ill-fated couple is quieter, more reflective than his international bestseller The Reader.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |