A well-known Jewish psychiatrist from Vienna, gets deported into a Nazi concentration camp. Despite not being particularly fit, he survives the the hoA well-known Jewish psychiatrist from Vienna, gets deported into a Nazi concentration camp. Despite not being particularly fit, he survives the the horrors of the Holocaust and even manages to build himself a new life afterward, along with a whole new theory for treating his patients' mental disorders.
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For the longest time, I was convinced that I had read a truckload of Holocaust-related literature, but turns out that none of the books I read actually detailed life in the camps. The Diary of Anne Frank, The Book Thief or Exodus seem to describe the actions leading up to imprisonment, or the aftermath, but the actual imprisonment... not so much. The Reader delves into a bit of prison life, but fairly superficially.
Reading through the episodes detailed by Dr. Frankl, I started wondering how I would have coped with such a situation. I started out convinced that I wouldn't make it past the initial selection stage, however as I progressed through the book, I began to doubt that outcome. Perhaps my continuous penchant for daydreaming would end up saving my life after all.
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The second part on the other hand, where the author explains and exemplifies his psychiatric theory just didn't resonate with me. Obviously, it is not meant to be an exhaustive document, but the examples just felt too simplistic to me. Almost as if his patients had somehow managed to overcome their problems within a few dozen sessions. And who knows? Maybe they had... and I'm just a lost cause. *sniff sniff*
Then again, I'm not a professional therapist, nor do I have any plans to delve deeper into the subject, so perhaps I'm just not the right target audience for this type of literature.
Score: 3.3/5 stars
Plenty of interesting ideas to ponder, and I've also had some surprising revelations about what my idea of love may be. But on the whole, I feel like this book was wasted on me. Not in its entirety, but digging into it during one of my more awful bouts of reading slumps was perhaps not the best approach....more
This book has been translated into English, as The Reader.
If you're waiting for a sign to read this book, THIS IS IT! It's short, tackles two serious This book has been translated into English, as The Reader.
If you're waiting for a sign to read this book, THIS IS IT! It's short, tackles two serious topics and it can end up being sort of interesting too.
The main reason for adding The Reader to my list was its length. I knew it had been made into a film, a serious-business type of film, not a run-of-the- mill-young-adult variety. So naturally I was expecting this to have been a classic, from the time of The Great Gatsby. I was even somewhat disappointed to find out that it was first published in the mid 90s.
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15-year-old Michael gets really sick on the way home, luckily a kind stranger notices his plight and helps him home. After weeks of bed rest, Michael is well enough to go out for short walks and he decides to find his rescuer.
Hanna lives in a run-down apartment, has a boring job, treats Michael with a joking superiority and yet our hero can't help but find her fascinating. It doesn't take long for the two to start a brief but torrid love affair. Michael is aware of the impossibility of their relationship, of Hanna's inexplicable mood-swings, but still he convinces himself than things are fine the way they are. Until one day, she just disappears, only to unexpectedly turn up again during the war crime trials as one of the accused.
It's a bitter-sweet love story, and a sad remembrance of the horrors of the Holocaust. I'm not sure if I actually cried or not, but I could definitely sympathize with the narrator all the way through. I actually suspected the nature of Hanna's secret far sooner than the author. Then again, I am not a 15-year-old in the throes of first love.
There was nothing really wrong with the story. I was actually quite taken with both the first part, where Michael and Hanna's sexual encounters are detailed quite graphically, as well as the second. where Hanna's past is revealed.
That said, there was nothing compelling me to gush about the book to everyone. I guess I'd rate it 3.3/5. More than average, but not quite on the same level as other similar books, such as Exodus or The Diary of a Young Girl....more
Ms. Smartarse
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