The Reader

Boy let me tell you I had some thoughts on this book. Few books have managed to infuriate me as much as this one.

My main issue is the plot of  ‘teenage boy falls in love with a woman that could be his mother because she's somysterious and loves him in a way that no girl his age ever could because they're so immature  and horrible and selfish' trope. Of course they are! They're literal children being compared to an almost 40 year old woman, wtf do you expect?
Hanna is never put in a particularly bad light which is a bit concerning considering she's an actual war criminal standing trial throughout most of the book. Michael chooses to always see her as a beautiful and proud woman incapable of making mistakes. Even as a grown man he does not see any fault in what Hanna did to him as a boy, and as a reader we are never given the impression that Hanna is a sexual predator and that what she did was not just morally wrong but illegal.

My second issue is the character of Hanna and her so called ‘big secret'. During Hanna's trial Michael realises that the other women Hanna is standing trial with are all joining forces in order to frame Hanna as the big bad wolf to get a lighter punishment themselves. All it takes to disprove what the other's are saying is for Hanna to show that she doesn't know how to write. That's all. Yet she's more prepared to be sentenced to several additional years in prison rather than admitting that she does not possess the ability to write, and Michael's right there with her; refusing to present this vital evidence to the judge simply because he respects her too much to humiliate her in such a way. I mean sure she was a prison guard who most likely tormented jews infringing on their basic human rights during the war but by all means let's shield her from the embarrassment of having people know she doesn't know how to write! Obviously that's the most horrifying thing about her! Honestly.. eye roll

Then there was the constant romanticising of Hanna. Given that their summer affair was Michael's first taste of what he presumed was love he was never able to love someone like he “loved” Hanna. He was constantly comparing any woman he met to her. He even confessed that he never managed to love his own wife as deeply as she loved him because of Hanna. Not once does he stop and wonder if perhaps he is wrong about assigning Hanna to this Goddess like status. No, he just thinks every woman that is not her is undesirable simply because well; they're not her. To conclude the ridiculousness of how Michael portrays Hanna we have this part in the book where he visits her in prison and becomes notably upset she's not the ‘same' Hanna as he remembered (rather he's upset she's not the idealised version of herself that he has created in his own head over the course of several years) but instead is old and frail-looking. Hanna sees the way Michael looks at her, realising he does not ‘love' (read: lust for) her in the same way as before and as a result she HANGS herself the day prior to the date she's due to be released from prison. AND FOR WHAT? WHAT WAS THE REASON?

I get that this story is narrated by Michael and therefore none of these things are addressed because he's obviously obsessed with Hanna. But I would've enjoyed it so much more if Michael grew as a character and realised that Hanna was a predator who used him. Instead we get this weird fanfic about a young teenager and a middle aged woman having sex. 

Finally I want to add something positive. The writing is somewhat impressive with certain beautifully constructed sentences and philosophical reminiscing done by Michael throughout the book. But yeah it's safe to say this book really wasn't for me.