The Reader

Rating:
Summary: A poignant and bittersweet lesson in memories.
Review: If you have ever had a memory that clung to you despite your efforts to forget, this book is for you. Bernhard Schlink turns remembering into a journey into self. A bittersweet and tender lesson in how and what to remember.

Rating:
Summary: The most intelligent book I've read in a long time.
Review: I often read the amazon.com customer reviews after I've read the book, as a substitute for a good book club discussion. It was interesting to me that so many people disliked The Reader. Almost all of my favorite books have centered on a strong female character, with multidimensional characters, detailing of events and lush description. I can't even remember a favorite book with a male protagonist. Spare prose is normally depressing to me. Thus, I was surprised at how much I loved this book. The spare style is perfect for the author's purpose in that it allows the reader to fully reflect upon and identify with the moral questions; allowing you to examine the answers to those questions in your own life and in the collective consciousness. The relationship between Michael and Hanna is a metaphor for the post- and pre-war generations, respectively. I see Michael's love for Hanna as the love that generation had for both it's parents and pre-war Germany. It is only after the KNOWLEDGE of their involvement with the Holocaust that there is shame and guilt over that love, even though the love was experienced after the actual fact of it. Towards the end, Michael realizes that his desire for Hanna did not have her as its object; it was, in a sense, a desire to come home (almost exact quote). this implies a desire to return to the hearth of childhood, i.e., a time before the war. In the past 6 months, I've started a dozen books and not finished one. I'm a pretty picky reader. I loved Schlink's prose and ideas. That I could love a book so seemingly contrary to my idea of "a good read", and that it could make me think more than any book in recent memory, puts me in awe of The Reader.

Rating:
Summary: Complex Novel
Review: I read this book on my day off and it left with a very unresolved feeling. While the story progresses with an extremely thought-provoking plot, I found the moral dilemmas presented a little unrealistic. For instance, the premise that Hanna's deep secrete of illiteracy drove her to murder and her ultimate self-destruction during the trial is a little hard to relate to. I suppose it is a comment on the dangerous nature of pride, for she would rather commit herself to a life prison sentence rather than face the embarassment of her inability to read. This inability is also supposed to be the cause for her initially accepting the job as an SS German guard and as the original foundation for her relationship with the main character. She makes ammends for this in prison by correcting her handicap, but then it ends with the shock of her final decision. Throughout the story, the main character also feels like he has somehow betrayed her, and he lets their failed relationship practically haunt the rest of his adult life. I found the characters' motivations a little hard to relate to, but then again, who ever said the type of complex emotion expressed here had to be rational? I was left with a variety of valid questions, but it seems as though the answers can only be found within the heart of every individual Reader.

Rating:
Summary: Do I have to even give it one star????
Review: Okay, maybe picking this up after reading The Testament and The Client was a bad idea, but this book isn't something I'd recommend to my best friend, or a stranger, for that matter.

First of all, it started out very very slow. There wasn't any human dialogue until the second or third chapter.

The book is divided into two or three parts. I didn't get past the second part, so I'm not sure. The first part is an intriguing read, I must admit. Maybe the idea of a 15 year having an affair with an older woman drew me into it. But in the second part, when the trial begins, it is boring. The only setting is the courtroom and it gets really slow. I couldn't stick with it, so I put it down, permanently, and picked up The Street Lawyer, which is pure poetry compared to this book.

Give it a chance, but only if there's nothing else to read!

Rating:
Summary: I found this book to be very thought provoking on issues.
Review: I am a bit surprised to read so many negative reviews of this book. I question if the fact that a fifteen year-old boy had a sexual affair with a woman more than twice his age is the reason for the negativity. If Michael had been twenty and Hanna forty +, would that have changed the perspective of many readers? The importance of this book is that it deals with the complex issues of guilt, revulsion, denial, rationalization, etc. of German people in dealing with the horrors and truths of the mass murders of WWII. Similar to Stones From The River, this book takes you inside the German psyche and poses, but doesn't answer, many complex moral questions. One example of this complexity occurs during the court trial. Hanna's demeanor and thoughtful responses and questions posed to the judge cause one to reflect: What would I have done? A second example was very well written in the dialogue between Michael and the third driver who picked him up as he was hitch-hiking to the camp of Struthof. Do his comments and rationale really suspend belief? I believe that Hanna's final decision in killing herself expresses her torment over the choices she made. It certainly makes one think of what one's own actions would have been given the situation she was placed in.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting...
Review: The writing was very simple, however it seems like some things might have gotten mixed up in the translation at times. It was interesting in a kind of "passing the time" kind of way.

Rating:
Summary: It vocalises one's inner yearnings yet it left no impression
Review: The book speaks about a young boy's journey through adolescence into adulthood & the single most important factor that shaped his personality. The author is very vocal about the protagonist's frame of mind which is what i liked. The background against which this story was set was unimpressive, confusing and i could not relate to that post-war era relating to present day decisions.

Rating:
Summary: A Depressing, Dismal Tale
Review: I did not enjoy reading The Reader for several reasons. I'm usually attracted to very strong characters, and the boy/law student allowed himself to be a victim throughout the story. He allowed his teenage affair with Hannah to affect his whole life. I couldn't respect his attitudes.

I thought that Hannah would be the strong character. She endured prison and overcame her illiteracy, but then killed herself at the very moment her life could have begun.

I hate to call a book a waste of time, but this was close to it for me.

Rating:
Summary: Please, do yourself a favor and read it!
Review: I feel like I haven't read a good book in so long-- correction, felt. I have told all my friends about this book. It gripped my life for the few days I was reading it. I had just finished The Notebook and felt incredibly uninformed and dumb. It was so wonderful to read things that made my mind being to twist and contort in new thoughts again. I think the thing I adored most about the book was the analogies. There are more underlined words in my copy than not underlined. I haven't actually cared about a book in a long time. Throughout parts II and III I was totally held in suspense. If given the chance I would kiss Bernhard Schlink's feet. I loved it! If you like the romance stuff, part I will completely fulfill you. If you like the fast paced intellectual action, part II will keep you on your feet. And if you love plot twists, stick around for part III. Seriously people, you cannot pass this book by. You have to meet Hannah, wonder about this time period, go through the confusion and anger of it all. I adored it! Those of you who had tons to say about this book-- please e-mail me. I would love to hear it.

Rating:
Summary: Not interesting, but very thought-provoking
Review: As an American living in Germany I have confronted many of the issues that are addressed in this book. I was especially taken aback by the analysis of what the second (and in my case the third) generation should do with the information it now has of the Holocaust. In my time here I have visited several of the terrible concentration camps, and each time I am just as horrified at what I see. I think that this book does a good job of addressing these issues. While I can't say that I loved the book (the relationship between the young boy and 35 year old woman was especially troubling to me), it really made me think.