The Reader

Rating:
Summary: how can you be so removed from everything
Review: I thought this was an excellent, quick read on a topic I, as an American, certainly haven't pondered in great depth. One thing that struck me most about the book was how removed Micheal is from virtually everything in his life. He reports on everything in a most dispassionate way - his near fatal illness, his affair with Hannah, the trial (he doesn't even become outraged at the ineffective assistance of her counsel), law school, his relationship with his father, his marriage, etc. For example, look how he went to the judge and could never bring himself to talk to the judge about Hanna and the episode instead focuses on how the judge is just a civil servant after all. I would have thought that any or all of these events would have produced more passion. Oprah continues to do a great job of picking good books on thought provoking topics and getting Americans to READ!

Rating:
Summary: Fast but not great read
Review: Fortunately you can finish this book in a couple of hours. If I'd had to spend more time on it I would have been VERY disappointed. It was an o.k. book but nothing to talk about. I won't be urging anyone I know to read it. I had been looking forward to reading it as the conversations about it on "Oprah" were interesting...much more so than the book!

Rating:
Summary: GREAT READING
Review: I have already written, I would like to know if this book is available in spanish. Lourdes perdomo

Rating:
Summary: I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS LOVELY, SO EASY TO READ.
Review: I found this book to be wonderful. To me this was a love story. He loved her dearly even though the age difference and all that did happen. I found it so interesting I was not able to put it down. In the Oprah meeting, abuse was mentioned, perhaps, but to me it did not come accross as such. It was a love story in a very different way from the usual. There was much more of course to this story, it had lots of things for one to think about. The time it took place, but even in todays time could very much be.

Lourdes Perdomo [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Exquisite book
Review: The Reader is a story that everyone can identify with. The identification does not have to be literal. The questions are thought provoking for all of us.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, I expected more....
Review: I was hoping this book would provide me with something much more. As a person born in post war Germany with parents who were teenagers during the war, with grandparents who experienced their realities I thought this book could have given more. I found the inner struggle that the protaganist expresses superficial and empty. I kept thinking maybe the book lost something in the translation. I gave the book to my parents to read and they felt the same way. Fortunately it was quick to read but at the end I felt nothing. I was hoping for more.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, slightly disappointing
Review: I am not offended by this book, although I do feel that Hannah's relationship with "The Kid" was abusive. I think there is depth in this book that I did not feel, because the writing style did not click with me. I did enjoy the story. I did appreciate the way the book depicted the affect of the abuse on the boy's whole life.

Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking character study, unusual story.
Review: This book combines several elements that, by themselves, would have made interesting stories. Put together in this one tale, I found it one of the most thought-provoking books I've read in a long time.

The author's recognition of the fact that our first sexual encounters often shape our impressions and expectations of future relationships is well-done but not over-done. And, unlike many authors, Bernhard Schlink does not attempt to explain the behavior of the world or necessarily even the behavior of the most minor characters in the narrative. The story haunts me even now that I have finished the book.

Rating:
Summary: made me look into myself a little deeper
Review: This book at first seemed to simplistic for such a deep subject. However as I read I began to question myself...what if this was me...what would I have done. I am not sure I have come up with the answers that I "assumed" I would. Over all I enjoyed the book it was a very quick read.

Rating:
Summary: My conscience was battered remembering those I neglect
Review: The hurt that Schlink inadvertenly puts on his readers. Or maybe he purposefully made you remember those people, lovers and friends, who you found reasons to avoid or just fail to call or write or in this case, visit. I found the premise plausible. Where else could she turn to love and what an education he received...in love and leaving.I will suggest it to our book club.