The Reader

Rating:
Summary: Slow moving plot
Review: I was not satisfied with Oprah's choice. Please choose better next time

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT
Review: I must admit, it took me a few chapters to get into the book. But after I did, I could not put it down. I can only describe the book as simplistic, but I mean that as a compliment in it's highest form. The author tells a beautiful story, rich in detail, but sparce in words. He gives you the dots, and it's your job to connect them. FABULOUS! Oprah has (yet again!) picked a winner.

Rating:
Summary: Very different, new reading...
Review: I enjoy reading very much. I have never read a book such as this. The story alone is what makes it so unlike any other. Any person would complete this within a matter of days and it is worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, wonderful book
Review: Another one who read this book in one day. Could not put it down. Very thought provoking. I really enjoyed the writing..its not often that you get to read a really well written book

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books I've ever read.
Review: Thoughtful, thought-provoking, engrossing. A thoroughly absorbing set of characters in a horrible time into which most of us have very little insight. Also into how internal love can be and the depths it plumbs for both people, no matter how unaware we may be - or wish to be. Don't miss this book!

Rating:
Summary: Truly one of the best books I've ever read...
Review: I couldn't put this book down. I can't wait to reread this work. The tale of Michael and Hanna and postwar Nazi Germany reminded me of not only the victims of the Holocast but the participants, and in this case, an explanation of sorts. I highly recommend this book as a keeper!!

Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: I read this book in 2 days. I loved it. I couldn't wait to pick it up again. It forces the reader to face some intresting social and moral questions. What a treat.

Rating:
Summary: A nice postmodern parallel here
Review: I sense an interesting parallel developing here that illuminates the import of the title...Just as the protagonist slowly is awakened to a significantly more complex moral universe in his experience with Hannah and the quagmire of modern German history, I sense that many readers of this book, who are generally not in the habit of reading serious contemporary European literature, or serious literature at all, are being awakened to a more complex fictional vista that goes considerably beyond the nicities of character development and "nice writing". Hence the complaints of poor writing and strange plotting. This is a curious phenomenon, when a serious work becomes pushed into the populist spotlight in front of an unsuspecting audience.. I am reminded of "The Name of the Rose" a few years ago. But "The Reader" reminds me of "The Painted Bird" by Kosinski. It has the same oddness about it. It will be interesting to see it disturbing genteel book discussions groups for awhile.

Rating:
Summary: This was a disturbing book for me.
Review: I found the subject of a young man having an affair with an older woman disturbing. There was too much focus on the affair, and not enough on the real story; the woman's involvement in the Hitler times. This is the first Oprah pick I have not liked.

Rating:
Summary: Eye opening.
Review: In reading about the Holocaust, I have never put a face or personality to any of the offenders. This book does this. Never excusing what was done at the camps, the author gives us a character who is human.