Rating: 
Summary: I breathlessly awaited what each page would unfold.
Review: A spell binding, fast reading and touching tale of young love, obsession and growing up in a tragic time. A sickly teenage boy first finds himself and then loses himself in love with an older mysterious woman. His examination and questioning of love, ethics, forgiveness and contentment is both thought provoking and intriguing. The end came too soon and had me sobbing out loud with emotion I haven't felt while reading a book in a long time. At the end I found myself turning back to reread parts I had originally skimmed through to find out would happen next. Just wonderfully written and translated.I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rating:
Summary: Complex and mesmerizing
Review: This is an incredible exploration in allegory of postwar Germany coming to terms with its past. A novel of ideas not to be taken literally, it asks so many difficult questions about guilt and expiation. Schlink seems to feel that the postwar generation has to accept its love/hate/guilt feelings about its parents and move on. This book is not for someone looking for an easy summer read. It takes thought and the willingness to look beyond the literal. After an intense discussion at our book club, I intend to reread. I know that I missed much on first reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother.
Review: Another typical Oprah type book, regular snore which I couldn't even finish...I didn't see the point, as there was nothing captivating about this book at all. The characters and prose were dead as a door nail! So I went to the libray and returned it unfinished for a new book.
Rating: 
Summary: Ehhhhhhhh...
Review: Oprah, Oprah, Oprah. I usually loooove Oprah's picks but this one, not so much. I guess it kept my attention, but some parts were rambling by the author. I feel like something might have been lost in the translation. Anyhow, it's okay in a pinch, and you'll get through it in a day or two. Good to take on a weekend trip to the beach.
Rating: 
Summary: Tauntingly pleasing or hauntingly annoying?
Review: I thought that the book had that "je ne sais quoi" that kept me wanting to read it right up to the last page. The whole story could have been condensed a little in my opinion, as the passive moments profused a little throughout the story. However, that might have been the goal that the author was eventually aiming at. I used this book as some kind of introspection. What would we do in such a situation? I believe it to be some kind of study of life. Whoever has been in love with an older person, might understand the anguish and dejection this teenager felt as his mistress was mad at him for no apparent reason? It makes you wonder about some matters related to the heart. In short, a fear of the winner to lose it all and not be a winner any longer? And the fear of this boy, thinking he will never, ever find any other person to fall in love with if she does not want him? Many of us do prefer to be loved, no matter what you have to go through.Eventually, one also realizes that it is better to lose in love than to never love at all. We are all enslaved in the stratagem our heroes are bound by. The most interesting part took place, in my opinion during the trial when she looks at the judge and asks him "WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?". The judge remained stoical, in spite of his lack of wit. What are we supposed to say or do in certain situations? What do we do or say in certain situations, where a person is stuck in a place where everything may incriminate her and yet, there are different ways to look at it. She is NOT a bad person. Let's not forget that the time when that story took place is to be differentiated from our time now! How many people were given a choice? You were on their side or they would get rid of you! If you have not read the book yet, try it, keeping this in mind. Finally, as to the slow motion of this plot, it made sense to me to some extent, as it is maybe meant to mirror what took place within those characters. How fast does life go by when you are down? The despondency of a moment makes everything stand still and that may well be what the author was aiming at. Maybe I am wrong, but it may help get the full picture of these remembrances of things past!
Rating:
Summary: I was intrigued and fascinated with this double storyline.
Review: A teen's lusty coming of age with a woman 10 years younger than his mother leads Michael Berg into obsession hell. Temporarily numbed by rejection and regret, his time with Hanna achieves an unbeatable sensual rememberance making other relationships an empty experience. After she leaves, his life resembles normalcy to all except one professor of law, who actually calls him on it. In a special semester studying the trial of women persecutors of the holocaust, he finds Hanna a defendant. Horrified by her crimes, he attempts to understand the perpetration of crueltry and injustice upon other human beings. His abstraction becomes a destraction to me, the reader. Can he assuage his pain by reading to the imprisioned Hanna, whose secret he FINALLY discovers during the trial? Michael's character developes with dullness, while Hanna takes on a more interesting growth which the author fleshed out very little. In conclusion, Hanna's shame deals her the death card rather than endure with a world of haunting faces in a society burdened with the horrible past. A good read and turn pager for me.
Rating:
Summary: What ? Who ? When ?
Review: i cant figure out whats so great about this book. i read the triumph and the glory because it was mentioned favorably by a lot of people and it was great. but the reader left me bewildered at its lack of direction. what was the point of the theme? i'm going to read back through the reviews and see what more is said and maybe try reading it again. i just got to be missing something somewhere . . .
Rating:
Summary: Mediocre is an understatement
Review: I found this book disturbing as it abdicates personal responsibility for the evil things that people do. The author has written this book to dupe the unsuspecting reader. His distant style and debauched view of the world, leave a bitter taste in the mouth. We are not all that prison guard as he would have us believe.
Rating:
Summary: Very thought provoking on the subject of Holocost, and youth
Review: This book gave me information that I had never grasped about the whole society being caught up as willing victims of the Holocust. What would you do as a women living as this women did not being able to read or write. Who could you tell? Where could you go? The knowledge of it all is just so over-whelming. I also got a glimps of the wrongs that adults do when they have sex with youth. He was consumed with this women most of his life and called it love. I believe it was rape of the mind body and spirit. I read this book like it was a memior, it was believable....well written. A bit of education for me. Thank you Schlink, and Janeway!!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing.
Review: I found the concept superficial. Small book but didn't hold my interest even for that short amount of time. No depth to the story.
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