The Reader

Rating:
Summary: Nazis are evil
Review: This book is doubtlessly sad and it presents any human spirit with a crisis. I therefore recomend it. My objection is similar to one my father once had. After I saw him crying at the end of the movie "Philadelphia," he dismissed his tears because the sympathetic character acted in a lewd manner in contracting AIDS. I disagreed with this objection (and chalked it up to bigotry), but mine is similar.

The sympathetic character was a Nazi who committed terrible acts. Primary materials teach that all of the guards in the camps chose to be there (See Christopher Browning's "Ordinary Men"). Perhaps in one or two generations this book will inspire the intended feelings about illiterates and abandonned veterans. Today, I feel, is too soon to beg sympathy for these characters.

Rating:
Summary: The Reader
Review: The Reader provides complicated issues for today's generation to think about. After World War II, many people stopped caring about what happened in the past because many people of today maintain affluent, happy lives, and the issue of Nazis is nothing more than the past history. This book talks about the gap between generations and what we must do with the knowlege of history. Also, I had to feel bad for Hanna who could never lead a happy life as a woman. She became a victum of her generation, and I can understand why her will chooses death. The Reader is absolutely wonderful!

Rating:
Summary: Makes you think
Review: I really want to give this 3 1/2 stars. While reading the book I kept waiting for it to get better.. but when I was finished it kept me thinking. The characters seemed shallow- after reading the book I thought that I couldn't relate to any of them, but I realized the author purposefully kept them at a distance. The novel gave a unique perspective into how one might forgive or even love another after they commit unspeakable crimes. I would recommend it, but don't expect much while reading it.. the impact is how the book makes you think after you're finished.

Rating:
Summary: An Adequate Reading Experience
Review: A plethora of thoughful insights hung on an improbable plot line written beautifully.

Rating:
Summary: A lot to do about nothing.
Review: This book is well written, and flows smoothly from chapter to chapter. It is a book of love, war, lust and ultimately disappointment. The book is full of disappointment and timidness. The writer does not make any progression throughout the book and ends up in same place he started. The heroine of the book is a female named Hanna, she is the only one that evolves, but to late in life for it to matter.

If you want to sit back relax, and read a story in the post WWII era this is a great book. However, if you are looking to increase your understanding of the world or find a deeper meaning in life, you will be truly disappointed with the Reader.

Rating:
Summary: I know my mother loved it, but...
Review: I'll have to vote with Mostafa on this one. Schlink is a decent writer, calm and understated; unfortunately, in this case, still waters run shallow. Much of the novel revolves around what is meant to be a shocking mystery, but the mystery is stupidly obvious. The characters are meant to be opaque and emotionally numbed, a favorite ploy of postmodernist writers, but I'm sick of flat characters bluffing produndity.

To be fair to Schlink, the story starts beautifully; I really believed I was opening a modern classic. Instead, the narrative loses momentum and the characters become less and less interesting.

Yes, the book was a sensation in Europe, and yes it has a beautiful cover, but if you're looking for great contemporary European novels I'd recommend two others: The Pigeon, by Patrick Susskind, and Class Trip, by Emmanuel Carrere (one of the spookiest books I've ever read).

Rating:
Summary: Unreal and trite, by fermed
Review: I object in principle to books of fiction that use the holocaust as a background or as a means of furthering a plot. Go somewhere else to find the motifs of fictionalized drama, and leave those things which are sacred and still painfult to thousands, alone. It is a very rare writer who can touch that theme without cheapening or trivializing it, and this is not one of them.

The theme of the book (love between and older, experienced woman, and an adolescent boy) is a cliche, and the book is riddled with one improbable event after another, making for a distracting and tedious reading. The characters in the book do not become alive, and in part this is due to an improper anchoring of the point of view. An omniscient writer is bad enough, but an omniscient protagonist is intolerable.

Are there no redeeming values here? Of course there are. The story is sweet and sentimental and, from reading some of the more of 500 reviews posted here, it has obviously been very pleasing to many people. In my view "The Reader" should have been rewritten a few times more until it condensed itself into an acceptable short story.

Rating:
Summary: the reader...
Review: I agree with the masses that this was a good read, it did have twists and turns, but still worth it. Unlike many, I did have compassion for Michael. He was stripped of his innocense at such a young age. This, I feel, set the stage of aloofness and depression that seemed to consume him throughout the rest of the book. Of course, he was interested in sex.. he was 15, but he was taken advantage of by the older woman in a very sick way. This odd obsessive love affair affected his every relationship; from his father to other females his own age. Hanna was his teacher in the beginning of the novel and later you see Michael become her teacher. Hanna taught him about passion, however warped it was. Then in the end you see that he taught her literacy and kindness. I would not rank this book very high with other stories of the Holocaust, but i think the story is a good one. I considered it more a focus on Michael as the Reader... her Reader.

Rating:
Summary: The reader
Review: The Reader is a novel which hooks the reader from the start. The plot ranges from love scenes between two very unlikely lovers, to their relationship that grows out of the initial lust. However the reader is quickly able to see just how much of an impact they had on each other when they are separated and meet again in the most unlikely place imaginable. The Reader combines great voice, diction, and imagery to create a story that is not only interesting but also greatly entertaining.

Rating:
Summary: From a Reader
Review: The novel The Reader was a very thought and emotional provoking book. The author does a great job showing the growth in the characters as well as their relationship. The historical context of the novel, displays the serious nature of not only the crimes committed but also of the bond between the Woman and the Man and also the problems of each person. The story shows the influence one person can have over another's life. Over all the book is very simple yet very refreshing as it is a love story and a triumph over problems. I would recommend the book to any persons wanting a very simple yet thought and emotion provoking story. The novel offers a interest which makes it difficult to put the book down because of the uncertainty of what is coming. I think that the story is definately worthy of 4 stars maybe even 5.