BOOK REPORT: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Title:                                     The Book Thief

Author:                                  Markus Zusak

Original Copyright Date:    2007

My Rating:    5 out of 5 stars  ( simply amazing )


Backcover Description

It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath.

Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

      By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow.  It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.
      But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

My Thoughts

Prologue

featuring

an introduction and an explanation of format 

Why do I find it harder to write book reports for the books I love versus others?  This particular book report has been especially difficult given how much I loved The Book Thief and how much this book has impacted me.  I finished it over a week ago now and I've thought about this book everyday since.  I am still obsessed with it and I'm telling everyone I know who reads on a semi-regular basis to read it.   I've found it hard to articulate exactly what I want to say in a somewhat brief book report without overwhelming the reader or giving away too much of the plot line.

The format of this book report is a bit different as well.  I've broken it up into four main parts similar to the way Markus Zusak breaks up the book where he gives hints as to what is to come with a "featuring" line.  I just thought this was clever and decided to mimic it for this report.

Part One

The Book Report

featuring 

A rave review and a reader jealous of the author

When I finished this book, I told Maggie that even if I don't finish the twenty-five books I set out to read last fall, this project was worth the time and energy because it led me to this book. This is the best book I've read this year. Hands down.

Even though it is technically classified as Young Adult or Children's Fiction, this is not "light" reading; it is a glimpse of the ugliness of War seen through the eyes of a 10 year old orphan girl.

 And it is beautifully done.

Actually, that is one of the major themes of the book.  That humans, can have moments of beauty, tenderness, and joy, even when their world is collapsing, sometimes literally, around them. 

How does Markus Zusak achieve this?  Besides being simply a great, well written story,  he uses two fairly standard literary constructs in interesting ways.

First is his use of Death as the narrator.  I can hear you mumbling as you read this, "How can Death make something as tragic the holocaust readable? That would seem to make it MORE depressing".  Well, Death in this book isn't the tall, stoic, black-robed, scythe-wielding figure we all know and love from the movies.  He cares for the stories of the people he helps cross from the land of the living to where ever they go.  He is an emotional player in all of the events which occur around characters, even before Germany invades Poland.   Death is not an omnipotent third person narrator either. This is Liesel's story, with Death's poignant commentary added in.

Second is Zusak's use of blatant foreshadowing.  Death tells us up front when something significant will happen, including a few details about the event, then backs up a bit and continues telling the story.  Sometimes the forshadowed event will happen within the near future, sometimes within a few months, and sometimes, the event is years away. These events are not always tragic, or sad, or life-changing, but they are important. But when they are heartbreaking, knowing about it before hand doesn't lessen or trivialize the tragedy of the moment, it just takes away a *bit* of the surprise,... sometimes... Blending this interesting use of foreshadowing somehow adds weight to small happy moments in Liesel's life, allowing you to enjoy them more completely with her.

On a side note, after I finished The Book Thief, I did a bit of research to see what else Markus Zusak has written.  I found out that he is now 36 years old as of this writing.  I am 35.  He's written 8 or 9 books in his young career. Needless to say, I am jealous of his creative success...

and this leads me to: 

Part Two

The Inspiration

featuring

A potential early "New Years Resolution"

Many of you know that I've played around with the idea of trying to writing a short story ever since I posted a link about National Novel Writing Month back in November.  The goal of NNWM is to get people to write down 50,000 words (~175 pages) of a story; it doesn't have to be perfect or even good, the organizers just want to inspire people to put pen to paper and get started. Neil Gaiman's notes about The Graveyard Book inspired me further when he said he's had the idea for the book ever since his son was two years old and wandering around a graveyard behind an old church.

Markus Zusak builds into The Book Thief simply written and illustrated  stories created by the characters themselves and shown completely within the narrative Death is giving us; a short story within a book if you will.  These stories, these characters actually, are the metaphorical straw that broke the novelist camel's back and I am now determined to actually write something of my own...

I don't have any subject, characters, or special theme in mind as of yet; I just know I want to write something. I also don't have any expectations that what I write will be any good. I am now constantly looking out for inspiration in everything I  do.   I figure I would start with simple story at first, which I can then, over time, expand into a legitimate short story that I wouldn't mind if some else actually reads. I think I will make this my next "New Years Resolution".  I haven't worked out the logistics of it or anything, so stay tuned.

The Ending

featuring

wrapping up the book report

I don't know why I seem to have a connection to books about war.  I'm not talking about non-fiction accounts of the political causes thereof or military strategies employed during such-and-such battle, but the personal and social ramifications of one of the most devastating wars ever.   Night, by Elie Wiesel, and One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn still impact me even though I read them waaaaay back in high school.  And I know, The Book Thief will live long in my memory as well.