The Reader by Bernhard Schlink (3.5 stars)

This novel begins strongly - Schlink paints detailed pictures as they are frozen in the young Michael Berg's brain: Hannah pulling on her stocking, riding her bike. As Michael's interest in Hannah dwindles with his increasing interest in his peers, my interest also dwindled, where was this leading? Lots of spoilers ahead...

The story soon switches gears and Schlink places the contrast of Hannah's previous life as a SS guard in the concentration camps over Michael's image of her as a lover. In Michael's struggle to both understand and condemn Hannah's crime, Schlink raises the dilemma of the post-WWII German youth: wanting to point the finger in shame and anger at their parents' generation and yet understand and love them as family at the same time.

I wanted to pose myself both tasks - understanding and condemnation. But it was impossible to do both.

Michael struggles with a new picture of someone he thought he knew well. Faced with the evidence of her having Jewish children read to her before sending them to the gas chambers he questions their entire relationship - what sort of person is she?

Would she have sent me to the gas chamber if she hadn't been able to leave me, but wanted to get rid of me?

And given he had chosen her, what sort of person did that make him?

But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. Not only had I loved her, I had chosen her.

I found this section of the book intriguing as it was a subject I had wondered about myself after visiting Auschwitz and then Germany. However, while it was interesting I didn't find it particularly moving.

At the end of the novel we discover that Hannah has spent much of her time in prison first learning to read and write, then learning about the Holocaust. To me this felt a little disingenuous and a ploy to try and make the reader sympathise with Hannah. I also thought her suicide before Michael had to deal with the reality of interacting with her and caring for her was a huge cop out.

Thought provoking. This is also one of the rare instances where the movie is almost as good as the book.

3.5 stars.