Similarities (Carlye Nealon)

           The Reader reminds me a lot of a book I read named Boy Toy.  It reminds me of this book because in Boy Toy a teacher acts the same way to one of her students as Hanna acts to the narrator, Michael.  So in both there is a relationship between someone much older and a younger boy.  In Boy Toy, the teacher is manipulative and gets the boy to do stuff for her and to her and the boy admires her so much that he does everything she asks like Michael to Hanna in The Reader.  Both the student and Michal are inexperienced and just go along with what their superior does to them.  Also, they both become obsessed with the older woman and always want to please her in the best way that they can.

            This book is interesting so far.  I have only read one other book about a sexual relationship between a young boy and an older woman.  It is interesting to see the relationship evolve between Michal and Hanna.  Michal is a boy who is not experienced and it is sad sometimes watching him beg Hanna to take him back when they get into a fight.  Hanna is a mysterious woman who never answers any of the questions that Michael asks her.  This makes me question her character and if she is truly who she says she is.  For example when Hanna tells parts of her life to Michal he says, “She told me all this as if it were not her life but somebody else’s, someone she didn’t know well and who wasn’t important to her,” (page 39).  This makes me suspicious of her because why does she not sound comfortable with her own story.  If it is your life you have many stories and they are easy to tell because you experienced them firsthand.

             There are also moments when Hanna starts acting weird and freaks out at Michael for doing something that should not make her mad.  The worst pat is when she hits him with a leather belt for leaving to do something nice for her and make her breakfast.  This shows her controlling and abusive power over Michael.  It is sad because Michael does everything he can to impress her and she just does not care or at least does not show it.  I wonder where Hanna left to at the end of part one.  I feel bad for Michael because he is blaming her leaving on himself and knowing Hanna later she will blame him for it too.