FRIEND GROUPS * THE READER

Friend Groups are wonderful, kinetic and whatever else you put into and get out of them. In my case, some of them have group names, like the Bead Group and The Posse. There is also my group from High School, and a loose group from College. They aren't loose, really, (at least any more) (I mean I really don't know, I don't think they are), It's just that I tend to see them individually, whereas, in the other groups, we mainly get together in some form of the group. And now, there's a new group. My neighbor Kelly suggested that a group of neighbors and moms get together to see a movie every month, and sure enough we've done this 3 or 4 times, and it's been great. I'm hosting next month, and I think we have a movie we're supposed to see, but I've forgotten what it was! Last Thursday night 4 of us gathered at Kristen's house and saw

The Reader - of course it was a great movie. It was nominated in a zillion categories, the book was compelling, and anyone who saw it recommended it. The reason I hadn't yet seen it was because I although I liked the book and couldn't put it down, I remembered that there was something about it. After processing for a few days, I realize that it's about the limited nature of the character Hannah. She is central to this story about post war Germany, and generally the main character to a story is someone we get to know and to figure out as we read and watch. Most of the time, this person is also heroic in some way. In this case, Hannah is so disappointing. We put it all on her shoulders for this story, and she lets us down, both in the book and in the movie. You can only take away that she did all she knew. She did her best. She didn't know to do any different. In her mind, she had no choice. She was follower and survivor. A small person who had a big impact. So here was a story about a person who frustrates us and makes us angry, and we can't do anything about it, because we only know the story after we find out what Hannah did. There isn't anything we can change.