The Reader

Rating:
Summary: Deeper meaning behind the plot on the back
Review: Like many others I read the brief plot on the back of this book and could not wait to find out Hanna's great secret, but once inside the novel I was dissapointed with how much he developed this horrible secret. Then a day after reading it, I realized the horrible secret isn't the one he tells you but its the one the author doesn't tell you. You really can't see it unless you step into the character's and realize that Hanna's true secret was who her character really was and how she felt. I was very disappointed at the abrupt ending of the character Hanna. I think the author could have developed it more.

Rating:
Summary: beautifully written
Review: read this book, it is haunting, it is beautiful and it is very very harsh....the author and the translator have tackled one of history's most delicate themes very very deftly.

Rating:
Summary: Deceptive
Review: When I first picked up this book, I thought it would be an engaging story about a woman with a dark secret and a boy struggling to find his sexual identity. Was I wrong! This book is deceptive, in that it promises an engaging story but does not deliver. I was glad that I borrowed the audio tapes, becasue Campbell Scott's great voice kept me listening. I am not sure that I would have finished the novel otherwise. Oprah, please pick some more uplifing novels next year! I understand your choices of books that are supposed to make you think, but not put you to sleep.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting Read
Review: Easily understandable but lacked emotional depth almost as if the author only allowed himself to feel a certain amount of anguish and angst in his recant.

Rating:
Summary: Unsympathetic characters and a"no kidding"secret.....
Review: Although the premise seemed engaging initially, I soon found the characters--particularly Hanna--terribly unsympathetic and offensive. Neither character was very dynamic...neither changed or grew throughout the novel. Is the reader REALLY expected to feel anything but disdain for these two selfish, self-absorbed characters...especially one who feels that her inability to read and write is more shameful than her grotesque crimes against humankind? I couldn't quite figure out what all the fuss was about. The big "secret" was ridiculously simple to figure out..no suspense there. True, Schlink raises some interesting questions about morality, forgiveness, and the nature of who we love, but those questions get lost amid the loose ends pertaining to Hanna's years long guilt and shame over the wrong things and Michael's years long guilt over his possible "betrayal" of someone who was emotionally, physically and sexually abusive (afterall, Michael was only 15 years old). Schlink's messages get lost in a weak, bori ng story line. Overall, I was disappointed in what promised to be an interesting read. Additionally, the German point of view of the Holocaust as told by Schlink neatly omitted the fact that the crimes were a result of a plan for genocide. Instead, it almost seemed as if we, the readers, were supposed to feel pity for the plight of the poor guards and other SS personnel who were only "following orders." The old "What would you have done?" question that Hanna repeatedly asks the judge was a thin disguise for justification of Nazi war crimes. Oprah, what were you thinking?

Rating:
Summary: Amazingly powerful
Review: I felt I was zapped by a subtle web woven by this seemingly simple story of first love which grows into obsession and guilt, and then a powerful moral question. As a Jew living in Germany for 7 years and struggling to understand what happened and how it happened, this book so well captured people that I knew (in Heidelberg) and their attempts to struggle through the horrors of German history and responsibility after the War which, not surprisingly, also caused much conflict between generations. The power of this book is that it takes Hannah, an unsympathetic almost evil character, and makes us feel her humanity. And it takes The Kid, and allows us to feel his detachment, as he too is damaged by the forces of history. Germany is a very complicated place. This story cleverly took a small slice of the War's legacy and led us into some difficult philosophical questions. During the last pages I cried for a German woman whose crimes were monsterous, but somehow I understood. Wonderful writing.

Rating:
Summary: Morally challenging
Review: I didn't care much for the first part of the story, which concentrated on the affair between the boy and a woman much older than him. The part that made the deepest impression which I thought is also a challenge thrown to us, the readers is Michael's moral dilema on whether to save Hanna and deny her the dignity which she obviously cares so much about or to respect her wish and keep what she feels is so shameful, a secret. At the end of the book, Hanna is no longer ashamed of that inability anymore, but is in fact proud that she has overcome it. Does it make a difference to Michael, I wonder? The book did mention that he is proud of Hanna, but did the fact also made him more remorse and guilty?

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I read this book on a 16 hour flight to Thailand. I finished quickly, and what a waste it was. This book was boring as could be. There was only a few parts that were captivating. Save your money!

Rating:
Summary: jolted by honesty
Review: If someone were to ask you to write a story about a Nazi war criminal--one which allows the reader to sympathize with her--could you pull it off? I couldn't. But somehow, Schlink's "The Reader" manages to do just that. In just a few deft strokes, the author paints a compelling picture of an intelligent boy having an affair with a mysterious older woman, which is to become the springboard for a much larger story. Rather than take the safe, easy route of portraying Nazis as inhuman ("monsters!" we'd say, "nothing like ME"), he asks us, through Hanna, "What would you have done?" A compelling story, written with clarity and compassion--not to mention devastating candor--"The Reader" is the best book I've read this year. Buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Review: An easy read, yet thought provoking and very moving