Rating: 
Summary: A Little Novel With Big Aspirations
Review: In the late 1950s, Michael Berg, a fifteen year old German schoolboy, meets and falls in love with an enigmatic working-class woman more than twice his age, thirty-six year old Hanna Schmitz. Thus begins Bernhard Schlink's short, sparely written novel, "The Reader". From there, the plot of this best-selling novel is well known. Berg spends many days with Hanna, reading to her and making love, the mysterious woman becoming the obsession and fulfillment of erotic desire. Then, Hanna suddenly disappears, leaving Berg's life as quickly and mysteriously as she had entered it. Several years later, in the mid-1960s, Berg once again encounters Hanna, this time standing trial for war crimes as a former guard at Auschwitz. His obsession rekindled, Berg's narrative follows Hanna's trial, disclosing her wartime crimes and her "secret", and relating the austere relationship which continued between them during Hanna's years of imprisonment."The Reader" is a little novel that has big aspirations, its austere prose and simple plot suggesting to the reader that there is something more, something unsaid, about the engimatic Hanna. Unfortunately, Hanna's ultimate "secret"-her illiteracy-does not bear the weight of Schlink's story, does not adequately explain Hanna's actions. It may become a wonderful television movie, but "The Reader" is not the classic work that, for example, George Steiner's profuse praise suggests. While the first part of the novel, a little erotic fairy tale of the affair between Berg and Hanna, is a concentrated work of spare, lucid prose which "hooks" the reader, the remainder of the book is not nearly so good and never carries the weight of the big questions Schlink wants to raise-questions of guilt and love and the relationship between generations in post-War Germany. It is certainly worth spending a few short hours with "The Reader", an interesting, if not profound, novel with some very good writing. Just don't expect a modern classic.
Rating: 
Summary: "What would you have done?"
Review: Michael Berg is confronted with unspeakable Nazi war crimes his former lover, more than twice his age when he became involved with her as a teenager, is accused of committing. Now an adult completing law school, he attends her trial as a student observing courtroom law. Powerfully effective is the question that Hanna, a former SS guard, puts to the judge inn response to his pinning her down regarding her responsibility in selecting prisoners to be sent back to their certain death at Auschwitz. She demands, "I...I mean...so what would you have done?" Can the reader render inconsequential the war time obligation to obey orders of authorities and superiors, a refusal of which could result in being put to death? Presented from Hanna's perspective that her actions were job related (guarding the many women prisoners locked in a village church) the question when posed the next time, "What would you have done?", is haunting. Hanna's testimony suggests that she and the other female SS guards didn't unlock the burning church for fear of personal consequences should the prisoners escape. By not acting, the guards caused the death of all but two of the women locked inside. But what of those bystanders, the villagers at the scene who didn't dare to challenge the five women guards? How did their inaction answer the question, "What would you have done?" The answer, cowardly or calculated, forever clinging to their consciences is, "Nothing". And is my answer a resounding, emphatic insistance that I would have acted to save the prisoners regardless of inevitable execution for defying the state, for failing to allow the SS to"do their job"? Am I too cowardly ,calculated or coldly careless to openly oppose murderous antisemitism? If so, my answer to Hanna's question, "What would you have done?" is the same shameful answer given by so many ordinary folks in the Nazi party, German army, concentration camps, German government bureaucracy, persons living beside Germany's railroad tracks, persons nearby the Jewish ghettos......all those "just plain folks" choosing not to become involved. My answer, unless I'm willing to risk my life, is the same answer that allowed wartime Germany's horrific atrocities to continue unchecked. If I am truthful, my answer is also, "Nothing".
Rating:
Summary: The Reader
Review: I have never read a book which made me cry as much as this book. I have also never read such close depiction of what one feels in love. I recommand that everyone reads this book. It's powerful.
Rating:
Summary: disturbing
Review: This is a very disturbing book. I am uncomfortable with a 36-year-old woman seducing a 15-year-old boy, and not being charged with some crime. I don't like the tone of their relationship, it wasn't loving, and it was more a case of Hanna controlling Michael. The way it tried to excuse, or at the very least minimize Hanna's guilt. You have a pedophile that was also a cold-blooded Nazi war criminal. That's not a love story. It's very disturbing just how many readers thought it was a 'wonderful' love story and seemed unmoved by her manipulation of a teenage boy. The Holocaust was one of the most horrific times in world history. Germany has to live with what they did. I think this is a case of trying to deal with the guilt that the German people still carry.
Rating:
Summary: Understanding or Condemnation
Review: One of the merits of good writing is to be thought provoking. This is the case with this clean, simply-prose novel that touches on a very sensitive topic, one of moral and ethical content. Following the steps of Primo Levi, the author deals with the issue of collective guilt from the point of view of the perpetrator, the German nation and the horrors of WWII. How is one generation to deal with the atrocities of the previous generation? Michael Berg, a young adolescent has his first romantic affair with Hanna Schmitz, a mysterious woman several years older. Seven years later Michael will reencounter Hanna in a court room where she is been accused of war crimes. Faced with the most unexpected, Michael has to cope not only with his disappointment but also with the dilemma of understanding or condemnation: if he is to understand Hanna's past he has to pardon the perpetrators and condemnation is out of the question. Hanna herself inflicts self-punishment by refusing evidence that would substantially reduce her sentence. This ia a novel of psychological complexity and a parallel to human guilt and atonement. Needless to say, the German example can be easily extended to similar events in history, to cite the ex-Yugoslavia war trials presently taking place in The Hague. Bernhard Schlink brilliantly transports the reader into the core of a contemporary issue over which much has been said but little has been written about. Congratulations!
Rating:
Summary: A must read!
Review: I read this book in one day. I don't know what it is about some books, but you know how you begin to read a really good book but can walk away from it for a day or two? I could not for the likes of anything put this book down. I was intrigued and destined to find out what was to become of the relationship Mr. Schlink evokes between the young boy, Michael and Hannah. This book is without a doubt, unforgettable and keeps you wanting more. Bernhard Schlink has a simple way with words. Instead of reminding us how tragic and devastating war can be. He leads us to this visual rendering of love, passion, betrayl, history, regret, and life lasting memories.
Rating: 
Summary: Over-rated and pointless.
Review: Maybe it's the translation, but what was the point of this book? It struck me as entirely superficial. The one interesting point raised is how the generation after the Nazis felt, and how they coped, and it is glossed over and dropped.
Don't bother.
Rating: 
Summary: I didn't think I would be writing this...
Review: It was not until page 188 (of 218) that this book clicked with me. Until that moment, "The Reader" was a quick read with little depth or reader engagement. Mediocre, at best. In a landslide, however, the story grabbed at my heart and tested my reasoning. The climax of this story makes it a worthwhile read. The final thirty pages depict a narrator torn by his past and present, and trying to reason his relationship with a Nazi SS Guard. Beyond the themes of anti-semitism, hate, and prejudice, the narrator grapples with the forces of human nature. His troubles are those that you and I will endure in our own lifetimes. This story and its particular outcome begin to place our own circumstances and stories in perspective. If for no other reason that seeing how you react to the climax of the story, I highly recommend "The Reader." It begins as a shallow harlot's tale, but eventually wraps itself around your psyche.
Rating:
Summary: Thought-provoking
Review: This is an amazing book about Post-War Germany and the guilt of the "second generation." It starts as a love story, but ends as a thought-provoking tradegy. Well written as well.
Rating:
Summary: a quick read
Review: This is a quick book to read and worth reading. The issues in the book are not often addressed in novels, such as how the Germans dealt with the aftermath of World War II.
|
