Question for readers of The Kindly Ones

On each Friday for the next two months we will be posting a question for readers of The Kindly Ones. We welcome your responses to each question.

Today’s question:

Bernhard Schlink’s internationally bestselling novel, The Reader, spoke to the question of guilt among Germans—especially the second generation, the children of the war and the Holocaust. If you have read the book or seen the movie, what insights did it offer you about the ordinary Germans who perpetrated these crimes? How might that influence how you approach a book like The Kindly Ones?

The Kindly Ones now in bookstores!

You’ve heard about the controversy, now check out the book yourself!

Here is what a few of your fellow readers are saying about it online:

A reaction to the NY Times review here.

In the context of the controversy over The Reader.

Follow the thread as bloggers react to the debate on the book.
At Normblog. Max Dunbar. Harmless Fraud.

On the Kakutani/Korda debate over at Omnivoracious.

For more about Jonathan Littell, check out this article at the Wall Street Journal written by Jeffrey Trachtenberg.