The Reader in Read a book from each country

Jan 04, 2009 Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it really liked it

Shelves: location-germany, read2009

Very quick read, and no easy solution I don't think. "What would you have done?" ...more

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Jun 16, 2009 Coqueline rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

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I love this book tremendously. I have always loved books with flawed characters, but The Reader paints a very human story about these flawed characters and I feel a degree of relatedness to them that I don't think I have ever felt with any other literary characters.

I don't think it's got anything with sympathising with the Nazi. The two characters are products of their time and choices. And it asks the questions that resonates with many people that lives in Europe nowadays. How will you take the ...more

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Feb 21, 2009 martin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I wanted to read The Reader for a long time and the hype around the film finally spurred me to get a copy in the original German.

It's not a long novel but it is exceptionally intense and surprisingly moving. The language is at times brutally simple and concise, at others remarkably poetic. Schlink has an inventive, creative way with the language. I would hate to have to translate this book!

It raises all sorts of questions about honesty, morality, human dignity, loyalty and betrayal. It looks at ...more

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Aug 01, 2007 Duc rated it liked it

07.31.08 acquired
How did this unlikely romance begin? If it is a work of fiction then the author has to create the situation in which the characters meet and how the relationship develops. He is 15, she is in her thirties. Yet because of his education and the ability to read, he is superior to her in the mind. She takes pleasure in his reading to her. But she is so much experienced in life. She sees him vomiting because of his illness. She helps him to clean up. He can't seem to get her out of i 07.31.08 acquired
How did this unlikely romance begin? If it is a work of fiction then the author has to create the situation in which the characters meet and how the relationship develops. He is 15, she is in her thirties. Yet because of his education and the ability to read, he is superior to her in the mind. She takes pleasure in his reading to her. But she is so much experienced in life. She sees him vomiting because of his illness. She helps him to clean up. He can't seem to get her out of is mind and thinks about her, comparing her to girls his own age. She calls him Kid. So far nothing is physical in the relationship until he came to her place and she is carrying coal from the basement to make a fire in her apartment. He decides to help her. When he came to her with a bucket of coal, his face is full of soot. She laughs at him and suggest he take a bath. So that is how the erotic affair began. But the affair is from the Kid's point of view. He has a good understanding of her. He analyzes her and there seems to be no age difference between them. There are a few incidents where they interact in public that later both miss read. Because their affair is not normal by social standards, they both hide this fact because they fear public opinion of them. The one incident occurs on the bus where she works and another time, it was at the public pool where his friends gathered.
She suddenly disappears. She moves without a forwarding address. The Kid thinks that it's because he did not acknowledge her at the swimming pool.
She seems vulnerable to him even if he is much younger then she is.
During the secret affair, they took one trip together, posing as Mother and son. He reflects upon this. Before, the idea of going anywhere with his mother was embarrassing. Thinking now about her sudden disappearance we are not given a reason yet. But during their vacation, she got so angry and shocked when she woke up alone. The kid had gone out to get her breakfast and flower. He left a note but she did not see it. I believe this is where she takes a thin belt and whips him and cuts his lips. Later she apologies. She seem to dominate him in the relationship. He has to admit blame and defeat and he is the one crawling back to her.
This work of fiction reminds me of anther book call 'The White Hotel'. Both deal with sex and the Holocaust. Though, White Hotel was much more graphic.
Later, we see that she was working for the SS at the concentration camp. She is on trial. The judge asked her so you just kill people to make room for more prisoners? She said yes and then asks "What would you have done?" This puts the judge in a tough position of having to answer her question but he didn't have a better solution to the problem. ...more

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