Book Review: Homecoming by Bernhard Schlink - Page 2

But when Homecoming shifted abruptly to in-depth scholarship, I was bumped right out of the narrative. Presumably this is done to demonstrate the intense immersion into deconstructionism that the narrator himself is going through – “the separation of a text from what the author meant it to say and its transformation into what the reader makes of it” – but it is disorienting, and a relief when the book turns away from the lecture and back to the story at hand.

There is no grand moment at the end of Homecoming, no sweeping revelation or riding off into the happily ever after. Peter Debauer, like most of us, does not get all his questions answered. Instead, Schlink ends his novel realistically, his protagonist returning home, quest over, to an imperfect but good life. It’s an affecting finish, human and untidy, and shows the author's considerable skill at reconnecting the reader with the characters.

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