"It does not invite one to identify with it and makes no one sympathetic....It never gives the barracks leaders, the female guards, or the uniformed security force clear enough faces to or shapes for the reader to be able to relate to them, to judge their acts for better or worse." (page 119)
When Micheal talks about the book published by the survivor of the tragedy that involved Hanna, it further reinforces the numbness that Michael felt and observed others experiencing. The book was written in a way that the author expressed and described the events exactly the way she perceived it. I think it's similar as to how Michael chooses to narrate "The Reader", He wants to preserve the emotions he felt at that exact moment and write as if he was experiencing it at that moment not really stepping outside of the moment and reflecting on it. The author of the book probably didn't want to reflect on the situation, just merely wanted to retell the events and what she saw and perhaps felt. I also had an idea of how powerful this numbness is, it's not just an absence of feeling, but something that you're unconsciously imposing on yourself and not something you can easily shield yourself from.
"...we learned that the girls read aloud to her, evening after evening after evening. That was better than if they....and better than working themselves to death on the building site. I must have thought it was better, or I couldn't have forgotten it. But was it better?" (page 116)
This passage explains why Hanna would always ask Michael to read out loud to her. I view it as almost a haunting experience because Hanna is probably reminded of the girls when Michael reads out loud to her. Hanna's treatment of the weak girls were also very similar as to how she treated Michael with such care and not wanting them to fall sick. Her motherly instinct is genuine, not exactly manipulative. Honestly, I sympathized with Hanna more than I expected to. I don't see her as a guilty, raging monster killing people, but more of a helpless victim of her own decisions, not knowing what to do with her mistakes. It's probably because of how Michael does write in an sympathetic tone, but not to the extent that he is empathizing with her. His emotions for her are detached and no longer there, he is aware of her appearance and her movement, but it no longer affects him as it had before.
I completely agree with you on your analysis for the first quote. I think Bernard Schlink included it in the book to draw a parallel between Michael and the author of the book, to show how Michael's numbness was similar to the numbness of the victims during WWII. I also thought the reason why the book by the survivor was written so that it doesn't make the reader sympathetic is because the survivor thought there was no point. She didn't want or need the sympathy of her readers because all the events she writes about is in the past and nothing can change that.
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