Reading The Book Thief was a great treat. Our Thursday book group was filled with interesting discussion starting with the effect of Death as the narrative voice of the novel. We agreed that having the story revolve around the daily lives of children in a small German town during the atrocities of Nazi rule & war-making contributed to the readability of the book.
The Book Thief is filled with great characters. Rudy, the Jesse Owens worshiping youngster who aims to please on one hand & do the right thing on the other, which in the tragedy of war is easy to confuse. Hans, the gentle father figure who knows what's morally right & acts on it, only to suffer as a result. Ilsa, an illusive woman who has disappeared from living in the outside world until the book thief makes regular visits to her library. Which of course leads to Liesel, the 11-year old book thief with a heart of gold, fiery spirit & passion for living.
For those who haven't read this book, written for young adults by Australian author Markus Zusak, do yourself a favor & add it to your reading list this summer. You will be rewarded by this remarkable book.
Aside from the the Harry Potter series, I don't usually seek out books from the Young Adult genre and was a bit skeptical when I saw "The Book Thief" on our reading list. Portraying the life of a young girl coming to age in Nazi Germany intermingled with a theme of the power of books and words was a gutsy move for Australian literary newcomer, Markus Zusak, and one that I worried might be an unconscious imitation of "Diary of Anne Frank." All of these fears and worries proved to be unfounded as Zusak has created a one-of-a-kind work that reads as much like mixed media art as it does a novel. I appreciated Zusak's use of figurative language and how he played with literary form including the use of narration, inventive chapter headings/subheadings, and even something as seemingly benign as font.
ReplyDeleteBeginning with Death as the narrator, this is novel of paradoxes. Death is not the chain- rattling, scythe-wielding death of Dickens and Halloween. Death is contemplative and often puzzled by the violence, in this case, World War II and all that it entailed, continually perpetuated by the living. This is a novel in which Germans as a nation are engaged in brash acts against humanity and yet the Germans we meet on Himmel Street busy themselves with friendship, family,love and bold acts of courage. There are times when I almost forgot about the war and was instead focused on Liesel and Rudy's coming of age story but then something as simple and symbolic as a swastika on a bathrobe would jar me back to the reality of history and of Death's foreshadowing of many of the characters' fate. Zusak demonstrates how words and books can simultaneously unite and divide, be used as a call to death and also to save a life.
Great choice!
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ReplyDeleteHotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet -
ReplyDeleteDuvall Readers made an excellent choice with ehir summer bonus book! It touches our own region, many themes we've visited during our year & picks up somewhat where our final book left off, with the unsettled Pacific rim boiling over. All-in-all a fitting chapter for Duvall Reads. Enjoy!