3 Stars
Goodreads Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, February 1999: Originally published in Switzerland, and gracefully translated into English by Carol Brown Janeway, The Reader is a brief tale about sex, love, reading, and shame in postwar Germany. Michael Berg is 15 when he begins a long, obsessive affair with Hanna, an enigmatic older woman. He never learns very much about her, and when she disappears one day, he expects never to see her again. But, to his horror, he does. Hanna is a defendant in a trial related to Germany's Nazi past, and it soon becomes clear that she is guilty of an unspeakable crime. As Michael follows the trial, he struggles with an overwhelming question: What should his generation do with its knowledge of the Holocaust? "We should not believe we can comprehend the incomprehensible, we may not compare the incomparable.... Should we only fall silent in revulsion, shame, and guilt? To what purpose?"
Review: I picked up a copy of The Reader after watching the beautiful movie version (in which Kate FINALLY got her Oscar. About time!). Sadly the book did not live up to the movie at all. It read like a technical article. It was cold, stiff, and unemotional. The best part of the book was when Michael was a teenager, and even then I had a very hard time connecting emotionally to the characters. Once we move on to the trial the book completely lost me.
I think that this book is best for the people who lived during the time the book was published. It is an interesting look at the group of people trying to come to term with the crimes of their parents generation. There was so much opportunity with the idea of this book, but while the movie executes the themes in a way that will just crush your heart, the book falls far, far behind. This is one of those rare moments where I would say skip the book and watch the movie. Further, you MUST watch the movie, it is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen.
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