The Book Thief
How do I even being to review The Book Thief? I've been reading it at a pace of about two chapters a day with the Mark Reads project. Mark Oshiro, who runs the blog, reads and reviews books a chapter at a time. The Book Thief has incredibly short chapters, hence the accelerated reading speed. He's already read the entire Twilight saga, the Harry Potter series, The Hunger Games trilogy, and is now finishing up The Book Thief. Next he starts on His Dark Materials, followed by The Lord of the Rings. He's also working his way through Infinite Jest,
which I gave up on pretty quickly, but may eventually revisit. Reading
these books along with him is a lot of fun, and I highly recommend it.
He also runs a sibling site called Mark Watches, in which he does the same thing with episodes of television shows. Past projects include Firefly and Doctor Who, the current project is Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the announced future projects are Battlestar Galactica and Buffy. He also does weekly liveblogs of new episodes of Fringe and Doctor Who.
Mark's reviews are not only fun to read, he uses them to talk openly and frankly about privilege, the ways it manifests in our culture, and how it leads to prejudice and bigotry. He also has a tendency to completely geek out about the source material, which is awesome and a lot of fun. Since he has no prior knowledge of the series he reads and watches, and has an incredibly strict no spoiler policy, he is usually genuinely surprised by plot twists and character development. Reading and watching along with him is like reading or watching something for the first time. If any of the aforementioned series sound interesting to you, you should definitely check his sites out.
The Book Thief, written by Mark Zusak, was an interesting experience. This is partly because I was able to maintain the same pace as Mark Oshiro and read his review between chapters. (I tried to read The Hunger Games this way and failed utterly). Holding myself back to a chapter or two a day was incredibly difficult. I usually average about a book a week (which you may have picked up on if you read this blog regularly), so this was definitely a departure for me. I only succeeded by simultaneously reading two other books. It was a nice change, though, and certainly got me thinking more in depth than I would have otherwise. I also picked up on foreshadowing a lot more readily than I normally do, and saw most things coming. This is partly because the book has a tendency to spoil itself. I was still completely sideswiped by the ending, though.
The Book Thief is narrated by Death. He tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. They "meet" three times over the course of World War II as Liesel witnesses three very different deaths. At the last of these meetings, Death comes into possession of Liesel's journal and recounts the tale of her childhood on Himmel Street.
At nine years old, Liesel arrives on Himmel Street to live with her new foster parents. She has already stolen her first book, but she can't yet read. It is Hans, her foster father, who eventually teaches her to read. They read together in the early morning hours, working through books a chapter at a time. The family is incredibly poor, but Hans trades tobacco to buy books for Liesel for her birthday. After this, she begins stealing them, one at a time. She steals her second book from the fire of a book burning, then begins to break into the Mayor's private library. She also receives a few more books as gifts.
Liesel befriends a young boy named Rudy, who wants to be Jesse Owens and doesn't fully understand why his admiration of a black man is so dangerous. Their friendship is beautiful and tragic, because Death can't help but tell you how it ends. They get into all kinds of shenanigans together stealing food and books. Rudy expends a lot of energy trying to convince Liesel to kiss him, but she refuses every time.
Himmel street includes a whole cast of wonderful characters. There's Tommy Muller, who twitches and can't quite hear. Frau Holtzapfel, who is feuding with Liesel's foster mother, Rosa, and has two sons fighting the war in Russia. Frau Diller is the most fervent Nazi supporter around, while Rudy's father only joined the party to protect his family.
Death tells the story in a slightly meandering way. He basically follows the temporal order of events, but he makes occasional asides. He comments on the story, on human nature, and on how it all ends. But even though he drops hints and flat out reveals the end of the book, I found myself unprepared for the complete tragedy of it all.
The hints at what is to come maintain a base level of tension throughout the book. Every happy moment is colored in by the inevitable ending. Every missed opportunity glares out at you. Every small tragedy just builds up to the final one. The language of this book is gorgeous and has a calming effect. Death is simply a fact; it happens to everyone. There's an awful lot of happiness and hope packed into these pages. Most of it stems from the fact that Liesel and Rudy are very young and don't have an entirely clear view of what the war around them means. As the grow up, the reality of World War II becomes harsher and more terrifying.
More than once I cried on the metro while reading this book. Sometimes I found myself smiling through my tears. Other times I couldn't see my kindle through them and had to stop reading until they had cleared away. I became incredibly invested in all of the characters. I had to know what was going to happen and I wanted so desperately for them to all live happily ever after. Of course, that doesn't happen.
This book was inspired in park by Zusak's grandmother's stories of growing up in Nazi Germany. He does a good job of showing the hardship of living in poverty, the way the war caused that poverty, the constant fear that comes from hiding a Jew in your basement, the terror of a bombing raid, the various reasons people supported or didn't support the Nazi party, and the consequences of their choices. I don't know how much of this really happened, certainly the characters are all fictional. But the events are real, and the emotions those events inspire are what this book is about. It's bleak, yes; it takes place during a war. But it's also hopeful and poignant.
Ultimately, this book is about words and their power. Liesel's maturation parallels her growing ability to read and, later, write. Words can both heal and destroy. They bring pain and comfort. They are Liesel's solace and her power. And the beauty of the words chosen in this book reinforces that nicely. Zusak has a unique way of stringing words together that paint some pretty stunning pictures in your mind.
You should definitely read The Book Thief. It doesn't have a happy ending. Or a happy beginning, or middle. There are little moments of happy sprinkled through it, but it is mostly a bleak and depressing book. It's an important book, though. You'll be happy you read it and got to meet the brave, hopeful people who inhabit Himmel Street.
He also runs a sibling site called Mark Watches, in which he does the same thing with episodes of television shows. Past projects include Firefly and Doctor Who, the current project is Avatar: The Last Airbender, and the announced future projects are Battlestar Galactica and Buffy. He also does weekly liveblogs of new episodes of Fringe and Doctor Who.
Mark's reviews are not only fun to read, he uses them to talk openly and frankly about privilege, the ways it manifests in our culture, and how it leads to prejudice and bigotry. He also has a tendency to completely geek out about the source material, which is awesome and a lot of fun. Since he has no prior knowledge of the series he reads and watches, and has an incredibly strict no spoiler policy, he is usually genuinely surprised by plot twists and character development. Reading and watching along with him is like reading or watching something for the first time. If any of the aforementioned series sound interesting to you, you should definitely check his sites out.
The Book Thief, written by Mark Zusak, was an interesting experience. This is partly because I was able to maintain the same pace as Mark Oshiro and read his review between chapters. (I tried to read The Hunger Games this way and failed utterly). Holding myself back to a chapter or two a day was incredibly difficult. I usually average about a book a week (which you may have picked up on if you read this blog regularly), so this was definitely a departure for me. I only succeeded by simultaneously reading two other books. It was a nice change, though, and certainly got me thinking more in depth than I would have otherwise. I also picked up on foreshadowing a lot more readily than I normally do, and saw most things coming. This is partly because the book has a tendency to spoil itself. I was still completely sideswiped by the ending, though.
The Book Thief is narrated by Death. He tells the story of Liesel Meminger, a young girl growing up in Nazi Germany. They "meet" three times over the course of World War II as Liesel witnesses three very different deaths. At the last of these meetings, Death comes into possession of Liesel's journal and recounts the tale of her childhood on Himmel Street.
At nine years old, Liesel arrives on Himmel Street to live with her new foster parents. She has already stolen her first book, but she can't yet read. It is Hans, her foster father, who eventually teaches her to read. They read together in the early morning hours, working through books a chapter at a time. The family is incredibly poor, but Hans trades tobacco to buy books for Liesel for her birthday. After this, she begins stealing them, one at a time. She steals her second book from the fire of a book burning, then begins to break into the Mayor's private library. She also receives a few more books as gifts.
Liesel befriends a young boy named Rudy, who wants to be Jesse Owens and doesn't fully understand why his admiration of a black man is so dangerous. Their friendship is beautiful and tragic, because Death can't help but tell you how it ends. They get into all kinds of shenanigans together stealing food and books. Rudy expends a lot of energy trying to convince Liesel to kiss him, but she refuses every time.
Himmel street includes a whole cast of wonderful characters. There's Tommy Muller, who twitches and can't quite hear. Frau Holtzapfel, who is feuding with Liesel's foster mother, Rosa, and has two sons fighting the war in Russia. Frau Diller is the most fervent Nazi supporter around, while Rudy's father only joined the party to protect his family.
Death tells the story in a slightly meandering way. He basically follows the temporal order of events, but he makes occasional asides. He comments on the story, on human nature, and on how it all ends. But even though he drops hints and flat out reveals the end of the book, I found myself unprepared for the complete tragedy of it all.
The hints at what is to come maintain a base level of tension throughout the book. Every happy moment is colored in by the inevitable ending. Every missed opportunity glares out at you. Every small tragedy just builds up to the final one. The language of this book is gorgeous and has a calming effect. Death is simply a fact; it happens to everyone. There's an awful lot of happiness and hope packed into these pages. Most of it stems from the fact that Liesel and Rudy are very young and don't have an entirely clear view of what the war around them means. As the grow up, the reality of World War II becomes harsher and more terrifying.
More than once I cried on the metro while reading this book. Sometimes I found myself smiling through my tears. Other times I couldn't see my kindle through them and had to stop reading until they had cleared away. I became incredibly invested in all of the characters. I had to know what was going to happen and I wanted so desperately for them to all live happily ever after. Of course, that doesn't happen.
This book was inspired in park by Zusak's grandmother's stories of growing up in Nazi Germany. He does a good job of showing the hardship of living in poverty, the way the war caused that poverty, the constant fear that comes from hiding a Jew in your basement, the terror of a bombing raid, the various reasons people supported or didn't support the Nazi party, and the consequences of their choices. I don't know how much of this really happened, certainly the characters are all fictional. But the events are real, and the emotions those events inspire are what this book is about. It's bleak, yes; it takes place during a war. But it's also hopeful and poignant.
Ultimately, this book is about words and their power. Liesel's maturation parallels her growing ability to read and, later, write. Words can both heal and destroy. They bring pain and comfort. They are Liesel's solace and her power. And the beauty of the words chosen in this book reinforces that nicely. Zusak has a unique way of stringing words together that paint some pretty stunning pictures in your mind.
You should definitely read The Book Thief. It doesn't have a happy ending. Or a happy beginning, or middle. There are little moments of happy sprinkled through it, but it is mostly a bleak and depressing book. It's an important book, though. You'll be happy you read it and got to meet the brave, hopeful people who inhabit Himmel Street.
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