"The truth of what one says is in what one does"

I'm going to go in reverse discussing my last 2 reads, doing my best to avoid spoilers.  Having just finished The Reader a few minutes ago, I am still reeling a bit and find myself at a loss as to how to explain it in a way that will do it the amount of justice it deserves.  For a fairly short (and definitely a fast) read, it contains an abundance of thought-provoking subject matter and themes.  Even just taken for the surface story you encounter love, betrayal, fear, shame, guilt and moral dilemmas pertaining to relationships, the Holocaust and life in general.  I found the writing to be captivating and I was deeply emotionally invested in the characters.  As I read along with Michael's story, I found myself evaluating the roles in which the fear, shame and/or guilt we feel under the surface so deeply affect our behaviors and our motivations in how we interact with others, as well as the influence of our past experiences on our everyday lives.  I particularly like this quote from the book: "The tectonic layers of our lives rest so tightly on top of the other that we always come up against earlier events in later ones, not as matter that has been fully formed and pushed aside, but absolutely present and alive."  YES.
I know some people have an issue reading it because of the fact that the main characters' relationship begins in an intimate way when he is only 15 and she is 36.  Personally, this did not pose a problem for me.  Do I think that in itself is wrong and abhorrent?  Absolutely.  However, this is a book about fictional characters and the story is about WAY more than that.  The book presents information in which the reader could potentially choose a side (Michael vs. Hanna) as to who was to blame for the others' pain, but ultimately I think what comes through is that both characters are deeply flawed and to a large degree bring their own problems on themselves by way of insufficiently dealing with their own shame, guilt and fears.  In a nutshell, I found The Reader to be added to the list of my favorite books.  I found it profoundly moving and thought provoking and would highly recommend it.   

The Lovely Bones is not as cut and dry.  I found myself feeling conflicted about this one.  The writing was superb and grabbed me in such a way that I genuinely felt as if I were seeing everything through the narrator (Susie)'s eyes, feeling her experiences right along with her.  The book addresses life after death, morality and grief, with a unique view of the afterlife which I found to set it apart from other books that deal with the same issues.  My only issue with this book was the ending... overall I loved reading this book, but at a point it seemed as if the writer just realized "oh!  I better end this book now!" and set off on a path that did not seem to fit with what had been going on and quite frankly was just bizarre.  It ended up wrapping things up for most of the characters in a way that made sense with the rest of the novel, but for a few (being main characters) it simply did not (IMO).  It's a shame because the rest of the book was compelling and gripping and even though dealing with the afterlife felt like I was "in it".  It kind of burst the bubble when it started off on this strange path and took me from feeling complete understanding and compassion with the narrator to not being able to relate at all, which essentially ruined it for me.  It's worth the read, as the vast majority is so well written, just be warned that when you get into the last 20 or so pages, shit's gonna get weird!

Now I'm moving on to Winter's Bone.  It seems I am on quite the book/film kick right now.  Time to read!