The seventh book read in my ongoing attempt on 100+ books this year was The Reader, by Bernhard Schlink.This is a spare philosophical novel with many layers of meaning. A German academic is looking back over snapshots of his lifetime. He is interrogating the meaning of particular memories and memory itself.
"I knew none of this then - if indeed I know any of it now and am not just making patterns in the air."
As a fifteen year old he became involved with an older woman. One day she left without warning. In some way he felt that he had betrayed her - "I didn't acknowledge her."
Later he finds out more about her and his memories of his time with her are forced to change.
