Rating: 
Summary: A book that profoundly impacts you.
Review: When I began reading this book I wondered why I was reading it and why was it so highly recommended. The early parts details quite explicitly the love relationship between a young man (Michael) and an older woman (Hanna). I thought this part was tedious but the rest of the book was based on this short love affair and it was necessary to understand this woman and how her life changed the course of the young man's life. This affair affected everything and every part of his life. It also affected me as I'm still thinking about the story line several weeks after its conclusion. The philosophical bent was interesting -- pondering one's and others' weaknesses and where this might lead you in life because of such weakness. I also thought the translation was wonderfully well written.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening
Review: Bernhard Schlink's novel starts slowly, but gradually pulls you in. It is an incredibly subtle work. The reviews on the back of the book make you all too aware that this is a Holocaust novel. The narrator strikes out any stereotypical images though, and conveys the various ways in which history treats its survivors. Displayed in 'The Reader' is the contrary, agonising human nature of the perpetrators and their survivors. Above all, this is a novel about an extraordinary love affair, which is powerfully erotic. The characters are portrayed extremely well: their tragedies become your tragedies. You cannot help but feel for them, and walk around in their shoes. Although this story mostly concerns death, it is highly vibrant, with an exceptional ability to move. It is also quite timely, for war wages in Europe yet. As we now see all too familiar atrocities, and wonder how people could do such things, and how we could let them, 'The Reader' brings a timely message from the past of what the future might bring. It's the best novel I've read this year.
Rating:
Summary: Love and loss in Post-war Germany
Review: I haven't read many novels regarding the holocaust, but i have always felt emphatic towards the jews and their struggle. It was interesting to see a viewpoint on how the Post-War Germans dealt with the conflict.The central characters in the reader,Michael and Hanna were very well drawn, and though at times it may have seen impossible to sympathize with them and their struggles, my heart went out to them, as they struggled to deal with the atrocities of war, and their love for each other. The prose in the book is clean and straightfoward, and yet its power is luminous from beginning to end. Anyone who is curious about the holocaust, or simply about how the power of love can affect two people should definately read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Find another book
Review: A different perspective of German life during WWII but not done well at all - Stones from the River was so much better and not as predictable.
Rating:
Summary: enlightened and moved
Review: I had never given it a thought on how the German people were victom themselves during times that were so differant than today. Oh, I am not excussing the horror that that country put upon the world, only trying to understand the complexities of it all. It has given me the opertunity to have great conversations with a few older friends that actually lived on the same street Hana lived during the sametime. My friends had no idea that that was going on right next door. And the emotional tramma that occured from having a long term sexual relationship with an older women who he really didn't know and how it affected his whole life. This book was stimulating because of the history in German life and mentality, before and after the war.
Rating:
Summary: No easy answers
Review: This is the story of a love affair. And this it is the story of postwar Germany.I had been tempted to put the book down at the beginning. At first I was annoyed at what seemed like an awkward translation, too much description of buildings and scenery and the romantic details of the love story between the teen-age boy and an older woman. I'm glad I pushed on though as the complexity of the story deepened. Questions were raised. Deep moral questions. Questions of law. Questions of conscience. How does a generation of young Germans too young to have personally experienced the Third Reich deal with the past? How do they view their parents? What are the internal struggles of the individuals? At what point are choices made? And what exactly is love? There are no easy answers. This book examines some unexplored issues though characters so real that I feel that I know them. It never answers the questions it raised. Instead, however, it enriches perception and understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: The Reader - short and fluid, but predictable
Review: Because of all the hype I heard, I was expecting something much greater than what I read. The story was predictable, and the writing was obviously a translation. There are better books out there to read if you only have limited time.
Rating:
Summary: Miss. Understanding
Review: It is difficult to write a synopsis of The Reader. The intellectual interpretation is that it is a very good story of a relationship gone sour with lack of closure. The emotional interpretation is that the book is filled with anger and resentment. We meet the narrator as a fifteen year old boy. Although he is a grown man now telling this story, his character remains static as he lacks compassion and refuses to understand the world at levels below the surface--i.e. there is no introspection that allows him to grow, understand, find piece. As children are narcissists interpreting the world unto themselves--forever responsible for the actions of the universe--so is the narrator. All of a sudden his lover abandons him. But, as we learn she had a dynamic and perplex life of her own that motivates her. The tragic flaw of the story is the lack of communication. The gift of the story are the questions it raises during the debate which is the most moral decision: to support someone's autonomy and freedom or to support their happiness? For any of you who have children, this is the question that keeps us awake at night. This is the question that shadows this novel.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: I found this book demeaning and depressing. Suggest you spend your money on something else.
Rating: 
Summary: A Most Unusual Novel
Review: This is a fine novel, once one moves beyond some of the more unusual aspects of the plot. It flows quite quickly and smoothly, a tribute to the translator as well as the original author. Its theme is thought provoking.I would imagine that this book has touched nerves, particularly with the original German audience. It is well worth the time.
| 
