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Such abeautiful and moving story. And actually one that was very well transported into the big screen, with Kate Winslet.

Not what I was expecting, but definitely a good book.

for a book that is about women who committed war crimes during the holocaust, there isn't enough of her or the effects of her actions

Here's my problem with books like these: they have an interesting hook, a very promising storyline, and even juicy blurp, and then that's it — that's where all the work ends.

The Reader is about a boy and her fantasy obsession Hannah. This young boy who physically grows up and becomes a man is still a clingy confused teenager all his life. I don't blame him entirely for it. Our lad needs therapy, lots of it. He falls for a much older woman and has an affair with her only to find out a few years later that she is being prosecuted for her role in Nazi Germany. This “erotic clandestine affair” is neither racy not romantic; it is an older woman almost exploiting a teenager and his boy living out his teenage fantasy. If anyone views or appreciates this book as a romance, get help immediately! It raises compelling arguments about what constitutes a “fair” punishment for those who were part of the Third Reich, both the individuals directly involved with the SS, running the concentration camps, and also the population at large that stayed quiet and looked the other way. But that's it, it just teases these pointers and fizzles away into whinny complains of this man-child who misses Hannah and divorces his wife of five years and mother of child because “she doesn't smell like Hannah, feel like Hannah.” Oh, the heartbreak (-_-)

The potential of this book was endless. One of its central themes is that of illiteracy and how it affects one's life, and that is covered with some decency through the length of the book. But honestly, for a book about a woman and the turmoils of post-WW II Germany, there was not much of either of them.
The writing was windy and went on pointlessly in many chapters. The main chunks of the story — the difficult parts were handled in a loose, nonchalant fashion. Scenes that were of importance didn't feel impactful and the rest felt like nonstop rambling.

Boy let me tell you I had some thoughts on this book. Few books have managed to infuriate me as much as this one.

My main issue is the plot of  ‘teenage boy falls in love with a woman that could be his mother because she's somysterious and loves him in a way that no girl his age ever could because they're so immature  and horrible and selfish' trope. Of course they are! They're literal children being compared to an almost 40 year old woman, wtf do you expect?
Hanna is never put in a particularly bad light which is a bit concerning considering she's an actual war criminal standing trial throughout most of the book. Michael chooses to always see her as a beautiful and proud woman incapable of making mistakes. Even as a grown man he does not see any fault in what Hanna did to him as a boy, and as a reader we are never given the impression that Hanna is a sexual predator and that what she did was not just morally wrong but illegal.

My second issue is the character of Hanna and her so called ‘big secret'. During Hanna's trial Michael realises that the other women Hanna is standing trial with are all joining forces in order to frame Hanna as the big bad wolf to get a lighter punishment themselves. All it takes to disprove what the other's are saying is for Hanna to show that she doesn't know how to write. That's all. Yet she's more prepared to be sentenced to several additional years in prison rather than admitting that she does not possess the ability to write, and Michael's right there with her; refusing to present this vital evidence to the judge simply because he respects her too much to humiliate her in such a way. I mean sure she was a prison guard who most likely tormented jews infringing on their basic human rights during the war but by all means let's shield her from the embarrassment of having people know she doesn't know how to write! Obviously that's the most horrifying thing about her! Honestly.. eye roll

Then there was the constant romanticising of Hanna. Given that their summer affair was Michael's first taste of what he presumed was love he was never able to love someone like he “loved” Hanna. He was constantly comparing any woman he met to her. He even confessed that he never managed to love his own wife as deeply as she loved him because of Hanna. Not once does he stop and wonder if perhaps he is wrong about assigning Hanna to this Goddess like status. No, he just thinks every woman that is not her is undesirable simply because well; they're not her. To conclude the ridiculousness of how Michael portrays Hanna we have this part in the book where he visits her in prison and becomes notably upset she's not the ‘same' Hanna as he remembered (rather he's upset she's not the idealised version of herself that he has created in his own head over the course of several years) but instead is old and frail-looking. Hanna sees the way Michael looks at her, realising he does not ‘love' (read: lust for) her in the same way as before and as a result she HANGS herself the day prior to the date she's due to be released from prison. AND FOR WHAT? WHAT WAS THE REASON?

I get that this story is narrated by Michael and therefore none of these things are addressed because he's obviously obsessed with Hanna. But I would've enjoyed it so much more if Michael grew as a character and realised that Hanna was a predator who used him. Instead we get this weird fanfic about a young teenager and a middle aged woman having sex. 

Finally I want to add something positive. The writing is somewhat impressive with certain beautifully constructed sentences and philosophical reminiscing done by Michael throughout the book. But yeah it's safe to say this book really wasn't for me. 

I feel this may be a book that I end up thinking very fondly of; already I'm surprised that I gave it only three stars, and that was just a few days ago!

Written with simplicity and clarity about something that is neither simple nor clear (a young man's first relationship with a much older woman, who turns out to have been a concentration camp guard). I really enjoyed it - in a way, the “simple” prose masks and, paradoxically then, emphasizes the complexity: you end up unsure of what to feel, but there are certainly strong feelings. I couldn't bring myself to hate Hanna, even though I felt I should be hating her - I was certainly irritated and troubled by her. Was that the “numbness” that Schlink describes? The inability to really wrap your head around it all?

In a way, this book is all about the next generation of Germans following WWII - their guilt, their anger at their parents (and the way the personal becomes political and vice versa; i.e. every teen rebels/hates their parents, but now you have, well, a really good political/moral reason to if you can accuse them of Nazi collaboration!), their inability to really understand everything and - I guess - inability, thus, to come to terms with the Holocaust.

This book was good, but the story flew by. I almost felt as though there should have been more detail or more something...but then again it didn't really feel like anything important was missing. Very strange indeed.

The reader would have never crossed my mind if I havent seen the movie trailer starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes. I usually like to read the books first before watching the movie because I want to make sure that the movie is good because of the drama AND because the director did a good job of keeping it relatable to the book. If I saw twilight before I read the book, I might have liked it. But i didn't. And THAT movie is horrible. So I wasn't making that mistake again!

The story takes us to post-WWII Germany and the main protagonist, 15 year old Michael Berg has an affair with a ex- nazi camp guard Hanna Schmitz (who is at least twice his age). After the lustful affair, she suddenly dissapears without saying goodbye. His next encounter with her happens to be years later as she is put on trial for war crimes during the Holocaust.

With that in mind, I always questioned Bernhard Schlink's reasonings for naming the book The Reader if it had to deal with justice and a lustful affair? But throughout the book, it was no doubt that reading became an essential piece of the whole trial. It was the glue that kept the affair bound even after all the sex. It was the hinderence that possibly cost Hanna her justice and her innocense, and it definitely was the barrier that she was not willing to climb over in order to maintain her pride and dignity. Not that assisting in war crimes is prideful.

If you want to know how the book all falls into place, I would definitely suggest that you read the book. And go see the movie after because Kate Winslet won the Best Actress Nod (finally! lmao).

Perhaps this one was better in the original German. I can't see what all the fuss is about. It didn't strike me as particularly well written nor did I care for the subject matter. Maybe it was just me....