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A review by traciemasek
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
4.0
I was actually surprised by how much I liked this book, because I'd recently had a conversation with someone about how stupid the movie is, and, yeah, I know the book is not the movie, but there's sort of a key thing that's held back in the movie and then presented at the end as if it's some big Six Sense moment, when really everyone is all "Duh" by that point. And I was worried that would happen in the book, and it sooooooooort of did, but the book handled it with much more subtlety and less "OMG HE'S DEAD"-ness, and anyway, it's sort of not the whole point of the book.
The book brought up interesting perspectives on things (largely related to WWWII and its aftermath in Germany; there's more philosophy to the story than I was expecting. This would be a great book to teach.
The narrator's a little distant at times, but that's very much the point. Not sure how much I was sympathizing (although not necessarily empathizing) with the Hannah character because I was picturing Kate Winslet the whole time, but I think the point was to sympathize with her (Hannah, not Kate) a bit and what does that mean?
Anyway, it's like 200 pages, short chapters, easy to read, gives you lots to ponder. I wish someone I knew had read this so we could discuss it. And isn't that a nice thing? When you read a book and really long to discuss it with someone?
The book brought up interesting perspectives on things (largely related to WWWII and its aftermath in Germany; there's more philosophy to the story than I was expecting. This would be a great book to teach.
The narrator's a little distant at times, but that's very much the point. Not sure how much I was sympathizing (although not necessarily empathizing) with the Hannah character because I was picturing Kate Winslet the whole time, but I think the point was to sympathize with her (Hannah, not Kate) a bit and what does that mean?
Anyway, it's like 200 pages, short chapters, easy to read, gives you lots to ponder. I wish someone I knew had read this so we could discuss it. And isn't that a nice thing? When you read a book and really long to discuss it with someone?