Book Review: The Reader

Yay!  The first book review of the first book I have read for my Spring Reading Thing Challenge!  I am also incorporating this review into 5 Minutes For Book’s I Read It meme.  Because I am all about the multitasking. :)

I’d seen The Reader on a lot of book lists and saw the review for the movie/book on 5 Minutes For Books so I threw it in on an order I placed with Amazon a while back.  I finally got around to reading it.  I actually started it about a month ago, but for me the beginning was a little hard to get into.  The writing seemed dry and the subject matter (15yo boy’s affair with 35yo woman) just didn’t sit well with me.  But once I made my way through the first few chapters I got into the book.  For me the writing improved (the descriptions of the countryside on their Easter biking vacation were excellent) and the story shifted from their physical relationship to a deeper one.  Add to that the element of discovering Hanna’s secret and the book turns into a real page turner.

The characters are well developed, but still mysterious.  It’s hard sometimes to equate the Hanna we know with the Hanna of the past…maybe because we only learn of Hanna’s past from other character’s accounts.  Hanna never explained any of her decisions and actions herself.  Michael (the “kid”) is quite the philosopher and it’s enjoyable to read his deliberations on the morality of the situations both he and Hanna have been in.  All in all a good book.  I’m just not sure about seeing the movie…I know Hollywood is going to go gangbusters on the physical relationship between the two, and I don’t know how well a movie can portray the complex emotions the relationship reveals over the years.  Plus I don’t get to watch too many movies on my own lol.  Oh well, first book down, back to the pile. :)