Kaylee's Reaction to Part 3

            After finishing part three of The Reader, I can say that it is my favorite book we read this year. Bernhard Schlink creates a beautiful yet disturbing story of an unexpected relationship, while simultaneously providing a boarder image of post war Germany. Michael and Hanna are both complex characters that affect each other immensely throughout the book. Although completely strange, I liked reading of Michael experience of his first romance and his transition into manhood. It tragic that a person’s first love may haunt them for the rest of there life, however it is something that is apart of life I guess. Seeing Gertrud in constant comparison with Hanna made me sad. Michael’s self-proclaimed numbness was just a way to block Hanna’s memories out of his mind, but in the end they could never escape him. Another thing that was Michael was unable to escape was the guilt he felt for being in love with Hanna, the criminal. Almost mid-way through part three, Michael finds reconnection with Hanna through literature and a tape recorder. I think that this was a way for Michael to find peace with Hanna, while revisiting his youth. One thing I found weird, that was later asked by the warden, was why Michael had never written any letters to her. However, it’s really isn’t weird at all because their relationship was based on pure physicality. Through all his memories of Hanna, they are of her body, her smell, her feeling and her actions around him. Their relationship did not hold any bond mentally. And that’s why she did not leave him anything behind either (not even a thank you for spending hundreds of hours reading to her while she was locked up, b*tch). I liked how the book ended because Michael and Hanna were not meant to end up together. They had their time, things changed, and although Michael was ultimately hopeful, Hanna’s death freed him from further expectation and suffering.