I thought Bernhard Schlink’s “The Woman on the Stairs” was excellent. My initial feeling was that the plot was a little contrived somehow, and there was a part of me that was vaguely uneasy, as if I was the subject of some kind of con. However all such feelings were dissipated partly by the way the narrative simply rattled along, and partly by the third and final section of the book which is tremendous.
As with many good books, the story is as much about another character than the one in the title – and then, removed once more, as much about us, the reader, as we identify with / see ourselves through that second character.
A book with a huge dollop of emotional integrity and maturity if you make it all the way to the end.
And about the brevity of life – and the perhaps inevitable self-scoring of our own lives.
“6 out of 10. Must do better…”
Ian Gouge - Writer 