We made up our mind last night that no matter how heavy the snow storm was, we would go to the reading by Bernhard Schlink, the author of "The Reader". Paul sent us the links to three consecutive events of his reading and discussion in Boston area, but we couldn't go to the first two.
I read "The Reader" a long time ago when I was in Baltimore. Catherine pulled it out of a shelf on one of our trips to the bookstore by the harbor and recommended it to me. I thought the writing was very stripped-down and efficient in a German way, and the story was so provocative that it left a strong impression on me. Someone said it was about a love that could not be fulfilled, but on top of that, I felt the book was more about morality, about the boundaries between desires and rules, duties and justice. Sometimes these boundaries were so blurred that we couldn't make decisions that were considered correct, because we were helplessly determined by our perception, if not our emotion. Then it turned out that they made the book into a movie last year. I am obsessed with all movies happened in Berlin during the cold war. As a matter of fact, walking around Berlin itself feels like a movie to me.
So we saw the movie with Paul and were very taken by Kate Winslet's performance. I thought that David Kross who played the young Michael Berg deserved a huge round of applause too. So all these brought us to the reading of the "The Reader" last night. Out of the three evens the author was having in Boston, one was an interview in Boston University with Mark Feeney, a reporter from the Boston Globe, which we missed; a reading and discussion about "The German Cellective Guilt" in Brandies University, which we couldn't go; and the last one in the Goethe Institute in Boston last night, which we decided to brave the snow storm to make it.
It turned out that the last event was completely in German, so basically Curtis and I couldn't understand a word other than "Danke". Well, we certainly tried. A nice woman sitting next to me volunteered to translate for me, but still... So we slipped out of the building in the middle. By then the Beacon Street was covered thoroughly with the snow. With its brown stones and rows of gas-lit streetlights, it was quite a beautiful sight. So we took a nice walk in the snow along the deserted street and caught the bus home.
I only missed American Idol for 10 mins, which I could live with.
2 comments:
I like that you are receptive to both great literature/Oscar Nominated film material and American Idol. I suppose the two aren't mutually exclusive though. Jennifer Hudson was amazing in Dream Girls. Also great at the Superbowl, though I heard later that it was lip synced.
Anthony, sounds like there's another language in your future! No, not Spanish which you already have under your belt, but German! Your blog evoked thoughts and memories of the movie "The Reader" which we saw together and our engaging discussion that ensued.
I also enjoyed reading your description of Beacon St. under snow. The visualization of it put thoughts of "The Reader" in another light.
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