The Book Thief (review & rec)
Wow. I told you guys I was reading this book. I just finished. It promised to be amazing, it was amazing within the first 100 pages, and just having finished it, I am speechless. Ironically enough.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2006 - 550 pages
Review: Holy shit. There are many points this book pwns on. It takes place during WWII, a subject I absorb. Its protagonist is a girl, a nice difference from the multitudes of boy-centric novels.
The thing that caught me most, that made me say "I am reading this book, no matter what"?
Its narrator? Is Death.
As you might expect from such a narrator, the book has this tone - this oh tone - slightly humorous, mostly in the sick way. And ominous. He foretells many a fate, which I found slightly distressing - wanting it all to be unexpected - but all the same is an excellent storyteller. As he writes in the Prologue, You are going to die.
It's chilling, sometimes.
His style, also - and here I speak for Zusak - is preferable. Honestly, I think it's a bit like my own, when I do write. Descriptive, in favor of smells and sights and feels.
And of course, he always describes the colors. Of the sky, mostly.
It's not hard to read, but it's so intriguing as to keep one flipping from page to page, chapter to chapter, part to part.
Summary: Liesel Meminger is a young girl who is taken from her mother - her father already gone, never known to her - and given into the foster care of Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Her brother dies on the train ride there, and it is at his burial that she discovers her first book, The Grave Digger's Handbook. She cannot read, but through the undereducated Hans's nighttime aid (after her nightmares), she learns.
She soon becomes the book thief, stealing books from book bonfires and the mayor's wife's library and devouring them, reading them and learning words constantly.
And then Hans must keep his promise, the one he made in the first World War.
He takes in a Jew.
Max Vandenburg's father had served with Hans in the Great War and taught the man to play the accordion. He died there, and Hans delivers the news to Mrs. Vandenburg and her young son. He lets her know that if there's anything he can do for her, she will let him know.
Twenty-two years later, he returns the favor by harboring Max in his basement. At the start, Liesel is frightened by this new, strange man in her life.
She soon loves him.
They share a love for reading - Hitler's Mein Kampf, which he had carried on the train to the Hubermann's house, had been what had saved him, after all - and it isn't long before Max is using Hans's white paint to paint over the pages in Hitler's book, painting his own stories over the filth. They are gifts for Liesel.
The Book Thief is an amazing book whose themes, above others, include the power of words and humanity.
The humanity theme makes itself frighteningly clear on the last page, the last line (don't read it yet!), leaves the reader with a feeling that the room has suddenly gone cold. Or perhaps she needs to cry at the beauty of the book. Anyhow, it is something that to humanity itself - perhaps - has only yet been half-stated, never quite realized, and once the truth is seen, it seems so obvious, yet is so shocking.
(I know there's a quote out there somewhere along the lines of Man has capacity to do great good; man also has the capacity to do great evil or something like that. Am I right?)
Etc.: Reading this book was enhanced by my taking a year-long AP World History course and a semester-long Holocaust Studies course as well as my taking German. However, the overall messages are not hindered without this knowledge - just don't go into reading it without any knowledge of WWII whatsoever.
Needed to read: time. Love for reading. It isn't hard to read, but you should read it when you have the space to turn the page constantly. Not good to read distractedly.
Overall rating: 5/5
:D LOVED IT. Truly cannot put it into words enough. If you've read it before, would love to discuss. If not, please please read it ASAP. :)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2006 - 550 pages
Review: Holy shit. There are many points this book pwns on. It takes place during WWII, a subject I absorb. Its protagonist is a girl, a nice difference from the multitudes of boy-centric novels.
The thing that caught me most, that made me say "I am reading this book, no matter what"?
Its narrator? Is Death.
As you might expect from such a narrator, the book has this tone - this oh tone - slightly humorous, mostly in the sick way. And ominous. He foretells many a fate, which I found slightly distressing - wanting it all to be unexpected - but all the same is an excellent storyteller. As he writes in the Prologue, You are going to die.
It's chilling, sometimes.
His style, also - and here I speak for Zusak - is preferable. Honestly, I think it's a bit like my own, when I do write. Descriptive, in favor of smells and sights and feels.
And of course, he always describes the colors. Of the sky, mostly.
It's not hard to read, but it's so intriguing as to keep one flipping from page to page, chapter to chapter, part to part.
Summary: Liesel Meminger is a young girl who is taken from her mother - her father already gone, never known to her - and given into the foster care of Hans and Rosa Hubermann. Her brother dies on the train ride there, and it is at his burial that she discovers her first book, The Grave Digger's Handbook. She cannot read, but through the undereducated Hans's nighttime aid (after her nightmares), she learns.
She soon becomes the book thief, stealing books from book bonfires and the mayor's wife's library and devouring them, reading them and learning words constantly.
And then Hans must keep his promise, the one he made in the first World War.
He takes in a Jew.
Max Vandenburg's father had served with Hans in the Great War and taught the man to play the accordion. He died there, and Hans delivers the news to Mrs. Vandenburg and her young son. He lets her know that if there's anything he can do for her, she will let him know.
Twenty-two years later, he returns the favor by harboring Max in his basement. At the start, Liesel is frightened by this new, strange man in her life.
She soon loves him.
They share a love for reading - Hitler's Mein Kampf, which he had carried on the train to the Hubermann's house, had been what had saved him, after all - and it isn't long before Max is using Hans's white paint to paint over the pages in Hitler's book, painting his own stories over the filth. They are gifts for Liesel.
The Book Thief is an amazing book whose themes, above others, include the power of words and humanity.
The humanity theme makes itself frighteningly clear on the last page, the last line (don't read it yet!), leaves the reader with a feeling that the room has suddenly gone cold. Or perhaps she needs to cry at the beauty of the book. Anyhow, it is something that to humanity itself - perhaps - has only yet been half-stated, never quite realized, and once the truth is seen, it seems so obvious, yet is so shocking.
(I know there's a quote out there somewhere along the lines of Man has capacity to do great good; man also has the capacity to do great evil or something like that. Am I right?)
Etc.: Reading this book was enhanced by my taking a year-long AP World History course and a semester-long Holocaust Studies course as well as my taking German. However, the overall messages are not hindered without this knowledge - just don't go into reading it without any knowledge of WWII whatsoever.
Needed to read: time. Love for reading. It isn't hard to read, but you should read it when you have the space to turn the page constantly. Not good to read distractedly.
Overall rating: 5/5
:D LOVED IT. Truly cannot put it into words enough. If you've read it before, would love to discuss. If not, please please read it ASAP. :)