Customer Reviews

The Reader: A novel

5 star:		(221)
4 star:		(194)
3 star:		(104)
2 star:		(92)
1 star:		(96)

 

 

It is much easier to write a scathing review than to be humbled in the face of what for me is, to date, the best book that I have ever read. THE READER By Bernard Schlink is only one of ten books that I have already read this year and though I have recommended it to others no one has had quite the irreversible effect from its reading that I did. I finished it awhile ago and yet there is not a detail that I don't still recall. I am not often up for a second reading of anything except WUTHERING HEIGHTS and yet I can hardly wait for the third copy I have purchased and loaned to be returned so that I can read it again. I am so afraid that I may have missed something in my first and second reading.
The reviews on this novel are honest and for me they spell out clearly why it meets so precisely my criteria for the near perfect story. Schlink never uses an extra word, never describes an event not absolutely essential to the story, never wastes or neglects a minute of your time. Truely, this is a story for the ages.
For weeks after reading about the middle-aged woman who would rather be exposed for an ex-Nazi guard than be found out to be uneducated in post-war Germany,I could only debate the decision of her former lover not to help her at her trial. I kept remembering how he had once loved her and how he had failed,in the course of his life, to find a relationship as important to him as the one he had had with her. I debated his choice with a vehemence I rarely feel, for any characters in a novel; afterall, it is once and for all only fiction, correct?
I was truely sorry to finish this book; it is unfortunately, a very quick read. Though it needed to be no longer in length, it was a genuine loss when it was finished and a story that I am still dizzy from.
This is a very small investment with a king sized reward!

Winner of the Boston Review's Fisk Fiction Prize, this thematically complex story is written in clear, simple, lucid prose. It is a straightforward telling of an encounter that was to mark fifteen year old Michael Berg for life. The book, written as if it were a memoir, is divided into three parts. The first part of the book deals with that encounter.

While on his way home from school one day in post-war Germany, Michael becomes ill. He is aided by a beautiful and buxom, thirty six year old blonde named Hanna Schmitz. When he recovers from his illness, he goes to Frau Schmitz's home to thank her and eventually finds himself seduced by her and engaged in a sexual encounter. They become lovers for a period of time, and a component of their relationship was that Michael would read aloud to her. Michael romanticizes their affair, which is a cornerstone of his young life. They even go away on a trip together. Then, one day, as suddenly as she appeared in his life, she disappears, having inexplicably moved with no forwarding address.

The second part of the book deals with Michael's chance encounter with Hanna again. He is now a law student in a seminar that is focused on Germany's Nazi past and the related war trials. The students are young and eager to condemn all who, after the end of the war, had tolerated the Nazis in their midst. Even Michael's parents do not escape his personal condemnation. The seminar is to be an exploration of the collective guilt of the German people, and Michael embraces the opportunity, as do others of his generation, to philosophically condemn the older generation for having sat silently by. Then, he is assigned to take notes on a trial of some camp guards.

To his total amazement, one of the accused is Hanna, his Hanna. He stoically remains throughout the trial, realizing as he hears the evidence that she is refusing to divulge the one piece of evidence that could possibly absolve her or, at least, mitigate her complicity in the crimes with which she is charged. It is as if she considers her secret, that of her inability to read and write, more shameful than that of which she is accused. Yet, Michael, too, remains mute on the fact that would throw her legal, if not her moral, guilt into question. Consequently, Hanna finds herself bearing the legal guilt of all those involved in the crime of which she is accused and is condemned accordingly.

The third part of the book is really the way Michael deals with having found Hanna, again. He removes himself from further demonstration and discussion on the issue of Germany's Nazi past. It affects his decisions as to his career in the law, eventually choosing a legal career that is isolating. He marries and has a child but finds that he cannot be free of Hanna. He cannot be free of the pain of having loved Hanna. It is as if Hanna has marked him for life. He divorces and never remarries. It is as if he cannot love another, as he loved Hanna. Michael then reaches out to Hanna in prison, indirectly, through the secret they share of what she seems to be most ashamed. Yet, he carefully never personalizes the contact. The end, when it comes, is almost anti-climatic.

The relationship between Michael and Hanna really seems to be analogous to the relationship between the generations of Germans in post-war Germany. The affair between Michael and Hanna is representational of the affair that Germany had with the Nazi movement. The eroticism of the book is a necessary component for the collective guilt and shame that the Germans bear for the Holocaust, as well as for the moral divide that seemingly exists between the generations. Yet, the book also shows that such is not always a black and white issue, that there are sometimes gray areas when one discusses one's actions in the context of the forces of good and evil. There is also the issue of legal and moral responsibility. One would think that the two are synonymous, but they are not always so. It also philosophizes on the ability to love another/a nation who/that was complicit in war crimes. This is an insightful, allegorical book that defies categorizing. It is also a book that is a wonderful selection for a reading circle, as it has a wealth of issues that are ripe for discussion. This is simply a superlative book. Bravo!

The story, presented more or less convincingly, is a means of grappling with the larger questions of crime and punishment as they relate to people who personally experienced Germany's Hitler regime and to the postwar generation that tries to understand it retrospectively. The reader quickly finds that old assumptions regarding victims and perpetrators have to be questioned, at least suspended, to come to terms with that ever pressing question: "How could this happen?" Unwillingness to follow the author along this route will only leave the reader irritated, realizing perhaps that this unwillingness may be grounded in unacknowledged prejudice. Those who will follow the author may learn that some human conflicts are too traumatic to ever be resolved, but that love may overcome hate in trying to understand. Given the mostly singular perspective offered by today's media in the representation of World War II events, this is a refreshing book that should not be missed by anyone trying to fathom the more extreme diminsions of the human soul.

I have just finished reading "The Reader" and must say, that I disagree with the previous reviews. I'm not a particularly well-read reader but found this book slow-paced and I nearly gave up on it several times. I also found "the secret" very obvious from the start and not a very believable or realistic reason as to why Hanna would take the blame for the wicked event which took place.

Michael's behaviour during the trial was at times very frustrating and at the end of the book when he could have made amends he failed her again. I don't think I would recommend this book to anyone but value and appreciate other readers opinions.

This book presented me with a moral question; could I feel compassion for a woman who participated as a guard in the Nazi death camps and is later convicted of murder. The book covers four decades after WWII in the lives of two central characters from two different generations of germans. Hanna appears first in the novel as a compassionate and efficient middle aged woman. However I was puzzled by her sexual relationship with a 15 year old boy, Michael. He becomes besotted and is willing to do anything to keep her. She asks him to read to her before they make love. Later in the novel the author reveals that she asked certain prisoners in the death camp to read to her. Both the boy Michael and the man Micheal are deeply compelling characters and I felt tremendous empathy for him throughout the book. Hanna Schmitz I never understood from begining to end. While details illuminate her explicit cooperation, other details reveal that she was perhaps a deluded follower and not an instigator. However the author carefully and very slowly gives tiny bits of insight into her fears, shames and guilt. Beautifully written and surprisingly suspenseful I will read this book again. Can there be redemption for either Hanna or Michael? The Reader is a keeper on my bookshelves.

In mid-century Berlin, a young boy falls ill on the street; he is assisted by a woman who helps him clean up and sets him on his feet again. When he returns a few weeks later, to thank her, the two begin forming a pattern for their time together: making love and reading.

First he reads to her and then they make love. This relationship never leaves the spare rooms. The boy holds his secret safe inside; it warms him and comforts him, bolstering his self-confidence.

And then she is gone. The rooms are vacant and there is nothing left behind - no clues to why she left or to her current whereabouts.

The boy - Michael Berg - misses her, this woman, Hanna Schmidt. He compares each subsequent relationship to the one they had and all others fall short. Even though his relationship with the woman was very narrow and contained little in the way of sharing - just the reading and the sex.

Years later, while a student, Michael is involved in legal coursework, which leads to his attendance at a trial. Several defendants are being held accountable for deaths in the concentration camp - people who died in a burning church. One of the defendants is Hanna.

As the facts emerge throughout the trial, Michael begins to piece together several clues that reveal a deep secret held by Hanna - a secret that, if told, could actually improve her lot in the case. But she says nothing. And Michael, who struggles with whether or not to come forward, also remains silent. And she is sentenced to life in prison.

Through the years, he confronts the issues again and again, wondering if he did the right thing. His struggle is against the possibility of altering someone's fate - especially when that person has obviously chosen not to act on her own behalf - or remaining silent and allowing a miscarriage of justice. Eventually, he stifles the conflicts in order to get on with everyday life. But underneath, informing all of his choices is the emotional muffling that occurs when strong feelings are suppressed in such a way.

A deep and moving exploration of moral ambiguities and conflicting choices, The Reader (Movie Tie-in Edition) is memorable and emotionally stirring.

Laurel-Rain Snow
Author of: Web of Tyranny, etc.

Having been fascinated with modern Germany throughout my life, this book literally left me in tears. Most reviews see the book on a surface level. That of a story of a young German in the late 1950's falling in love with a beautiful, older blonde, 36 year old Hanna, whom in Part 2 of the book we find out shockingly was a 21 year old SS Guard during the last two years of WWII.

Not knowing what you now know above, but being very sensitive myself to modern Germany, and the feeling of modern Germany and its contrast with the older Nazi period and the feelings that entailed, I became aware that "Hanna" was more than the "girlfriend" of young Michael Berg in the book, she was an allegory for the feelings many many Germans felt for the period itself. The deep love affair that Germany had with Nazism and the ultimate realisation of the newer generation of what happened in the past is mirrored in the book.

The book stands as it is. Although non fiction it states the case "as is". To me it is clearly anti-Nazi, although that does not mean that it does not appreciate the affair that Germans have and had with their national psyche and their past.

The first clue that the author gives us that Hanna does represent the "old" Germany is the description of the apartment block she lives in. Then the way she seduces him...(just the way many Germans perceive that the "movement" grabbed Germany itself) and the ending and her sudden disappearance (just like the Nazi regime came to a sudden end).

This book is about the deep murmurings of the German soul. And its search for forgiveness, for answers, and the suicide of Hanna and the small donation she left behind signifying the sorry state that represents the resolution of the problem for Germany in the years since the war.

Namely that the war does and will continue to knaw at the German soul. That it is impossible to really reconcile what happened. That, as Schlink so clearly states that films like Schindlers List drive open the reality of what happened in a way that even many people involved could not appreciate at the time, and it makes salient points about the feelings, repressed and otherwise that Germany and Germans carry with them to this day.

Had Germany won the war, an ex SS man noted on a documentary I was watching the other day, no one would have been writing all this up as so terrible - just the price of war on the eastern front. After all, it is the victor who usually gets to write the history of the event.

And in all this lies the brilliance of the book. On the one hand it extends out the hand of understanding and sympathy (not forgiveness) to a people, regime and phenomenon of a time corrupted by a force of evil that and who's consequences were so terrible that they continue to invade and pervade the nation of Germany to this very day.

In a sense the reality of the limited atonement and bewilderment of a nation defeated and shamed but once proud and in a sense still proud feels. The juxtaposition might lead one to see the book as having Nazi sympathies, but I think not. It is rather a presentation of the facts

An affair of an entire nation with a movement that existed and a time that came and went with a generation that has for the most part now died but whom in the 1950's were still very much part of German life.

At the end of the book Mark arranges a holiday to go off with Hanna again, but she commits suicide just before her release from prison. This is after she has read, understood and atoned.

This to me signifies closure and the death of the movement. Its about moving on. And yet the reality of the book conveys that there can be no simple closure and that some things are always there....

First of all, this is not a "touching love story." This is the story of a 15-year-old boy and his raging hormones who becomes sexually invovled with a 36-year-old woman. The woman manipulates him physically and emotionally. The boy becomes obsessed with her; this obsession lasts until her death, and beyond. Very sick, very sad.

As you most likely know from reading other reviews, it turns out that the woman, Hanna, is a Nazi war criminal. One who left a bunch of Jewish women locked in a burning building to die. Because if they all stampeded out in panic, how could she possibly control them? And anyway, they were on their way to be killed, so what's the difference? During her trial, she asks the judge, in all honesty, "what would you have done?" She clearly has no concept of what she has done. And you have the feeling she would do the exact same thing if she had it to do over again.

In spite of all of this, the boy, now a man who has divorced his wife because she's not enough like Hanna (read: Not Hanna) soothes his former lover during her well-deserved time in prison by sending her cassettes of him, reading books to her. Because, you see, she's illiterate. Yes, this is the huge, shameful secret she's been hiding. Not that she stood up to be counted with the Nazis. Not that she helped to kill who-knows-how-many Jewish women. She can't read or write. Big deal.

Aside from a slightly interesting bit about how the post-Third Reich generation of Germans might feel guilty (as well they might) this book reads like one long excuse for those who were "only following orders." Completely disgusting.

I can't believe how compassionate and sorry I felt for such a strong willed, sometimes disturbed, and finally SS Nazi worker woman, who came across so cold and obnoxious at times.Unless you read the book this would be hard to understand.

Although I felt more pity than love for Hanna especially through the court proceedings, I found myself really admiring her after all the contributions she made in prison.

As naive as it sounds, I was really hoping that Hanna would admit her illiteracy in court and be able to go free.

I think Hanna never believed things would get so out of hand leading to prison, but I think if she was to do it over..she would do the same thing.

One area of the book I found difficult to believe was that Hanna actually would send these girls that read to her to their death just because they would expose her illiteracy. Maybe at this point I was in denial because I felt so bad for her in this occupation. I just wanted to think more of her.

Hanna could of truly contributed so much more to the world if it was not for her illiteracy that caused a series of negative chain reactions including her death.

I wonder how Hanna's life would of been if she was literate!! HAT'S OFF TO OPRAH !!

I never found myself fully engaged in this book, I did finish it hoping that something more would develop. This book is divided into three parts, the first is when Michael is a teenager, the second covers the trial of Hannah, the third section has Michael as an adult & Hannah in jail.

The book started out ok, although I found myself annoyed with Hannah & her childlike attitude & tantrums. The first section ends abruptly with Hannah disappearing and not returning until her trial 10 years later. The trial drags on, it never pulls you into what's happening. By the time the third section came around I was completely uninterested with Hannah in jail.

By the time the "big" revelation comes about in the third section, it's too late for you to feel compassion or sympathy for Hannah. I have to say I was very disappointed in what was an attempt to tie the entire story together & make you understand Hannah & her behavior.

Don't waste your time with this book, there are certainly better choices out there.