The lovely couple

           The beginning of this novel has left me with mixed feelings. Not about the book itself, because I don’t really mind it either way, but about the relationship between Hanna and Michael. Yes the relationship is wrong. She is 36 and he is just 15. She controls him and calls him “kid” yet she also has sex with him. She is obviously unhinged. She goes as far as to hit him across the face with a belt when she feels abandoned. She goes from happy to sad quickly and is never really loving with him. However for some reason she is good for him.

            Michael had been sick. Like the German people recovering from the war he was trying to recover from his illness and she represented help, like the German government. She starts by literally lifting him up in his illness. She helped him and from then on he was in her debt, at least in his mind, so she had control over hum. However, his internal need to please her and the time he spent with her served as motivation for him. He went back to school earlier then planned because of the life she brought to him. And she motivated him to finish the school year, not allowing him to use his sickness as an excuse. She makes him happy and brings him confidence even when she is controlling him. Everything is completely fine and happy until she calls him “kid” and you remember that he is only 15 and she is 36. I am interested to see what will happen and how my feelings may change over the course of the novel.