The hype about the movie based on Bernhard Schlink's The Reader spoiled the plot for me, but the plot is not what's most compelling anyway. The book takes place in post-WWII Germany, where thirty-something Hanna comes upon fifteen-year-old Michael Berg, who is obviously ill. She walks him home, and, after getting over a bout of hepatitis, Michael visits Hanna to thank her. Thus begins an unlikely affair. (I'm reminded of The Last Picture Show without the comic element.) Moreover, Hanna harbors two big secrets that are wildly different in magnitude, but she guards them both equally closely. Hanna exits Michael's life abruptly but leaves a lasting impression, and then their lives cross again under very different circumstances while Michael is in law school. The book is largely about sins of omission, on the part of both main characters. It raises several disturbing questions, such as what constitutes betrayal and whether one should risk embarrassing a person in order to save him/her from larger consequences, when that person seems unwilling to save himself/herself. The biggest question, though, has to do with the Holocaust and what steps should or could the guards have taken to save the prisoners. Translations always seem a bit dispassionate to me, but in this case, emotional numbness is one of the primary themes, so that the absence of passion seems to be appropriate.
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