Jerry Bonnell Reaction #1

The Reader has been a peculiar read. The way it starts is almost startling – a boy vomits almost anywhere and everywhere. Later, we discover that he is diagnosed with hepatitis and should spend time away from school. So, the book begins with a narrator whose reality has been cursed by sporadic illness and weaknesses. Yet I wondered to what degree is this boy’s sickness psychological?

His whole world seems to change at the snap of a finger when an older woman helps him with his vomit spell. Whether it is his heart or his body, something seems to be raging. Even more so, when he is a growing teenager raised in a religiously grounded family. As such, his body craves sex while his mind is struggling to suppress it. Especially after you are taught about the “dirtyness” of pleasuring oneself, sex suddenly becomes this fantasy that you cannot escape. Just knowing that makes you crave it even more. “Forbidden” love.

He elaborates on his past much in the same fashion that Julian Barnes did in Sense of an Ending. He is looking back, as if he is searching for a message in his past. As such, it seems as if the narrator is almost regretful for choosing this path. Were his religious teachings correct? Was his love affair worth the price? What that price may be is unknown to us, though there clearly seems to be a catch here. The narrator dates someone clearly out of his league, yet it just makes him yearn for her more. She represents all that is mysterious and incongruous. She is the “outside” world to him and by being with her, he feels that he has one-upped himself on the social hierarchy. This is even more of an accomplishment when the person moving up could not even hold his food down after dinner. Now he is willingly to resume his academic career.

Will Michael be able to overcome this awkward relationship? How damaging is this affair? Is it helpful to some degree? Why is Hanna so hesitant about revealing her past? What kind of mysteries could she be holding back? She is no different from Veronica in Barnes’ tale, the girl of wonder and “firsts.” Yet she haunted and scarred Webster’s life long after their relationship ended. Will this be the same case here?