![]() ![]() And yet the story moves toward an emotional conclusion. She interrupts the neatly choreographed ceremony her children and grandchildren have organized to show her their love and voices her frustrations for the first time. If love is obligation, she can’t love anymore. ![]() “Love isn’t a matter of feeling, it’s a matter of will.” Finally, at another family gathering, the grandmother decides she’s had enough. The grandmother in “A Journey to the South” - like most of the protagonists in these stories, we never learn her name - remembers her own mother imparting this lesson. You love your children and your spouse because you must. They’ve grown up with the idea of familial love as obligation. These are not easy realizations for the men and women of Schlink’s generation - the “Nachgeborenen,” Bertold Brecht called them, “those who came after” the war. Only as he approaches the last decision of his life does the professor realize he has to fully open his heart to the woman who loves him. “If this summer’s right, every previous summer was wrong, and if every previous summer was right, this one’s not.” But when he apologizes to his wife for a lifetime of emotional distance, she begins to suspect something is amiss. His grandchildren command his full attention for the first time. ![]() He stops working, finally, and spends long hours gardening. The professor in “The Last Summer” is dying of cancer - and has managed to keep it a secret from everyone who loves him. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |