Rating: 
Summary: The world is not just black and white. There is also grey!
Review: In my opinion this is one of the greatest books in recent history. I am not going to talk about all the different great aspects of it, the language (at least in German), the way the story develops and the realistic way Schlink portrayed post-war Germany. Instead I want to say something about most of the negative reviews on this site. I do grant everyone his/her own opinion, but it seems to me that most people who wrote a negative review actually do this because they cannot handle dealing with a narrator who can still see positive and likable sides in a character who does things that are not socially accepted. Here we have Hannah, a mature woman who obviously seduces a fifteen year old boy and really makes him obedient to her. And if that was not enough, we later find out that she has been working in a concentration camp. So why does this woman not come across as an egomaniac monster hungry for power over other people? I think everybody has to find this out on his/her own and then judge Hannah and also Michael by himself/herself. One of the great freedoms this book gives to us is to decide for ourselves how we feel about the characters, especially Hannah. I realize that many people are not used to this and would rather prefer a book where it is simple to love or hate a character, which teaches us a lesson that is, oh, so simple to gather from the story, because it is written out on every page. If you are looking for this then do not read this book. Read it if you like to make up your mind on your own and if you accept it that all people have positive and negative character traits. And by the way, please do not read the review below if you have not already read the book because it might spoil the climax for you. The solution is not that hard to figure out, but still nobody should scream it all over this place to rob people of their enjoyment of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Sadness
Review: The Reader Sadness. Sadness permeates this beautiful little novel like a winter fog. It imperceptibly closes round the story enveloping the reader with the characters, drawing them together for what little warmth they can find. The characters themselves are not unlovable, in fact Hanna the anti-heroine and subject of the story is quite ordinary - she is a conductress with a tram company - but her secrets isolate her even from her youthful lover.
The narrator, the Reader of the title, is a nameless, blameless individual who accidentally stumbles into Hanna's world one afternoon in his mid teens. The love affair which ensues follows a fairly ordinary trajectory until one day Hanna is gone, no explanation, no recrimination, only his youthful tears at his loss, but, well, he'll soon get over that. And he does.
As a child of the WWII generation he enters law school and amongst his studies are the judgements of Nuremberg and the ongoing pursuit and trial of the participants from his parents generation. Hanna, of course, is part of it and his next view of her is as a defendant in a concentration camp trial. If this was an ordinary novel then it could slide at this point into the familiar rehash of confused motives and idealism with which we are all too aware. But it's not. Schlink is more thoughtful and more literary than that. He takes this as a starting point and allows Hanna's tragic story to unfold. Her former lover, her former friend, as an embryonic lawyer with a conscience, sees it as natural justice that she should be punished with a long jail sentence. He can dismiss her and march on into his new world. Except his own world is almost as messy as hers and time slowly pushes them together again. Not together enough for him to ever forgive her. Her crimes are too heinous and she has tainted him by association, but enough for him to start sending her books, novels which he has dictated onto cassettes, but cassettes only, no greetings, no enquiries, no news, only the audio books - The Reader of the title. And that is how he appeases his guilt, audio books to make her feel better, his voice because she loved him to read to her, but real communication would be going too far.
It would be wrong to release the ending of the story, wrong to reveal how the gulf between the two of them is finally crossed but, as with the fog on a cold January afternoon, the dampness persists even when you come indoors.
Schlink has tried, successfully, to show what it means to have your parents mistakes on your conscience but equally, how do you avoid them yourself ? The tawdry Jewess who features near the end of the novel refuses to show any signs of forgiving or of understanding, even when the Reader explains to her that Hanna could never have committed the crimes for which she was imprisoned. Hanna's crimes are passed from country to country, residing at present in Palestine, and, ominously, from generation to generation.
A novel, presumably perfect in the original (I read the translation by J C B, a work of art itself), which will haunt your memory long after the book is closed.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible, apologistic work.
Review: First of all, this is not a "touching love story." This is the story of a 15-year-old boy and his raging hormones who becomes sexually invovled with a 36-year-old woman. The woman manipulates him physically and emotionally. The boy becomes obsessed with her; this obsession lasts until her death, and beyond. Very sick, very sad. As you most likely know from reading other reviews, it turns out that the woman, Hanna, is a Nazi war criminal. One who left a bunch of Jewish women locked in a burning building to die. Because if they all stampeded out in panic, how could she possibly control them? And anyway, they were on their way to be killed, so what's the difference? During her trial, she asks the judge, in all honesty, "what would you have done?" She clearly has no concept of what she has done. And you have the feeling she would do the exact same thing if she had it to do over again. In spite of all of this, the boy, now a man who has divorced his wife because she's not enough like Hanna (read: Not Hanna) soothes his former lover during her well-deserved time in prison by sending her cassettes of him, reading books to her. Because, you see, she's illiterate. Yes, this is the huge, shameful secret she's been hiding. Not that she stood up to be counted with the Nazis. Not that she helped to kill who-knows-how-many Jewish women. She can't read or write. Big deal. Aside from a slightly interesting bit about how the post-Third Reich generation of Germans might feel guilty (as well they might) this book reads like one long excuse for those who were "only following orders." Completely disgusting.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read
Review: I was amazed by the power of this book. I bought it in the used section for a dollar and didn't expect much from it. The book was so cheap because it was on Oprah selection so it sold lots. Take the time to read this frighting tale of obsessional love and you will not regret it.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the point?
Review: First off, I had to read this for a class. So that should tell you that after years of cruising over this book, I never really wanted to read it. Then after getting past a bit of the dryness (not dry humor, dry story) this book has a somewhat intriguing plot. I found Michael and Hannah's initial relationship interesting. It made me wonder where the story was going and what the psychological profile of Hannah was made up of. But then the interest dropped off there. The story jumps through Michael's life, briefly mentioning his marriage, child, then divorce. The next time we see Hannah, she is on trial. Yet again, we wonder about her, why she did what she did, why she is doing what she was doing in the trial. And then the story ends in what seemingly is supposed to be a tragic ending. But I couldn't care less. This gets three stars because it was such a quick read.
Rating:
Summary: awful, boring, boring
Review: The Reader was written by Bernhard Schlink. The story is about a 15 year old boy
who falls in love with a much older woman. In a confusing way they stay in love for a
while until Hanna, the older woman, suddenly disappears one day. Michael, the young
boy, must return to his life as an adolescent and forget his days of showering and making
love with Hanna. The next time Michael sees Hanna is during a trial. Michael finds out
Hanna's past, which he never knew of, and finds out more about Hanna than he ever
knew.
The reader targets teenagers and adults. Both genders can indulge in this book.
The Reader is an uncomfortable story of how a young man falls in love. The confusing
part is how he is in love. Hanna is described as big and old, not a character one can easily
fall for. Many young males lust for older woman, but they are attracted to good looking
woman. As a child you don't want to be in love with someone that isn't described as
beautiful, which Hanna isn't. The Reader gives the message that love is boring. Hanna
and Michael fall easily into love. But it does not seem as if Hanna is in love with
Michael. Hanna still treats Michael like a fifteen year old. Every day the two continue to
do the same activities. Michael and Hanna will read together, take a shower, and make
love. After pages of these activities love and sex become very boring.
I did not like this book. It makes a reader feel uncomfortable about sex, and
uncomfortable about love. The Reader is a boring novel which shows love to be
something that it isn't. Hanna's odd and quiet character is boring. She has all this
backround but none of it seems to matter after Michael and Hanna part.
The Reader is supposed to excited people and express feelings that others hide
away. Michael did not hide his feelings towards Hanna. In our society an uffair like this is
not accepted. Michael and Hanna showed us why this affair should not be accepted.
Bernhard Schlink tried to show love had its backround. Lust was more than just a feeling.
He did his job as an author getting across that love is hard work. The Reader neither made
you feel happy in the end, nor sad. It left you with a very queasy feeling like you
shouldn't have read it. The Reader was a confusing portray of a young boy trying to find
love in the wrong place.
Rating:
Summary: Real People...a response to negative reviews
Review: Schlink wonderfully introduces the reader to real characters. While reading this book (parts during my street-car commute) I felt as if the characters could be my streetcar driver. My neighbor. Schlink uses a seemingly unsual story to make us realize what we as humans ar capable of doing and how we as human often make mistakes when appraising others. Despite these horrid capabilities and sad mistakes we befriend each other, love each other, and need each other. The dilemma comes when we are forced (or feel forced) to justify one end of this spectrum with the other. I was surprised by some of the negative reviews of this book. For those who called it flat: I read "The Reader" in the original language (German: Der Vorleser) and must say that it was quite well written. When reviewing this book, several people noted their distaste for the relationship between a teen boy and an older woman. My retort to this is simple: it happens. The appropriateness of the relationship is not addressed directly by the author; Schlink does, however, acknowledge that this relationship at a formative point in the boy's live clearly affects his future relationships.
Rating: 
Summary: and the connection is?
Review: First of all, I never found any connection between the part of the book where Hanna and Michael are having a deeply sexual relationship and the part where she is on trial. I know that Michael ties it together with illiteracy, but to me that seems weak. I also didn't understand Michael's having an obsession with Hanna, which was not always sexual, for all those years. At the end something did seem to be showing a deeper message but I don't understand it still. The language kind of confused me, but it's really not that difficult. I don't know, see if you can understand this book or just enjoy it.
Rating:
Summary: An engaging meditation
Review: "The Reader" is a book to savor. Expertly written, this book pulls you in with moments of bliss and wonder as our protagonist's quiet life suddenly explodes with passion and yearning. The novel then shifts from the physical to the philosophical, as Michael encounters the uncertainties behind the ecstasy. We hear all this from the perspective of a grown man, carefully considering a lifetime of choices. As he unravels and examines his life, Michael confronts questions that are universal in scope. In relationships, in life, we are all faced with choices and our choices have consequences. Wrestling with one's own choices is necessarily a lifetime endeavor, but in "The Reader" it is evident how choices we made long ago can stay with us. We also find ourselves in situations that require us to judge the choices of others. This moral dilemna, constructing a reliable platform within our own ambiguous morality from which we can evaluate others, is wonderfully explored in this book. I found Michael's voice and character to be quite likeable and sympathetic; in his unassuming way, he is sweet and charming. Fate pairs him up with Hanna, a mysterious older woman, and he tumbles into love. Years later, still uneasy about questions of his own guilt in betraying Hanna, Michael unexpectedly finds himself in a courtroom where Hanna's larger actions as an SS guard are being judged. As her former lover, Michael is in an unusal position. Michael struggles to match the Hanna who called him "Kid" with the camp guard guilty of such unpardonable crimes. The time he spent reading to Hanna provides the prism through which he views her now. Remembering how this time they shared was a warm and intimate part of their trysts, and hearing that Hanna selected certain prisoners to read to her within the walls of the camp, Michael chooses to believe that his former lover's actions were not unkind. In a stark and dramatic scene, Michael encounters an older man who suggests that it was possible to kill the Jews because the Germans involved were indifferent. Michael is appalled by this idea, and despite her guilty verdict Michael can't be indifferent to Hanna. His care and concern for her continue throughout his life; he resumes the role of her reader. We never know exactly what Hanna is thinking, but her final actions are arresting. Inspired by Michael's recorded books, enough to become a reader herself, she nonetheless loses faith in herself when Michael fails to address her in his own words. Michael realizes only too late that Hanna felt the sting of his inability to forgive her. All in all, a very thoughtful and complicated novel wrapped in a concise and rewarding package. Setting "The Reader" against the Holocaust may be upsetting to some people, but it does indeed serve as a larger mirror against which our protagonist can measure his own worth.
Rating: 
Summary: Another great book.
Review: When Michael Berg is 15 years old he is getting over an illness and this is where he meets the woman who will be in his thoughts for his entire life. This woman will change how he see's some things in life and the world. Hanna is the older woman who comes into Michaels life and shows him a world at a young age. There affair begains when Michael is 15 and it continues for a while. Hanna has a passion for Michael that doesn't understand. Michael cares for Hanna in ways that she doesn't understand, mainly because he is so young and devlops such intense feeling for her so fast. Years later when Michael is in school he is in law class and is going to court to learn about a court case. There he runs into Hanna again, except for this time she on trial for acts relating to Nazi concentration camp activites. As Michael watchs the trials he begins to realize things about Hanna and starts to wonder what she is really like. As years go on he is still thinking about Hanna. This is a age old love story, that is beautifully written. The story moves at a fast pace. I loved how Michael dealt with Hanna and all the problems she had and how he grows to care for her more even after everything that has happen.
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