SOURCE: Thomas, Michelle Haines. “Love and Indifference.” Quadrant 43, no. 5 (May 1999): 85-6.

In the following review, Thomas praises Schlink's examination of German history in The Reader.

Holocaust literature is an overburdened realm. The moral freight that accompanies even the slightest efforts in this genre can sit heavily with reviewers and readers alike and has resulted in the honouring of some rather lightweight novels purely on the basis of their subject matter. I hate to bring it up again but (gulp) The Hand that Signed the Paper is a case in point. Despite the initial fracas, time and a bit of perspective have shown that the book was a largely insignificant work of fiction.

I must admit that I thought something similar was happening with Bernhard Schlink's The Reader after I read the first section. It had been recommended to me in the highest terms and was stamped with a...