The Book Thief, Markus Zusak, Alfred A Knopf, 2005, 550 pp
I may be the only person who never read this book before. One of my reading groups will discuss the author's next book, Bridge of Clay, this month. Since I had The Book Thief on my shelf I decided to read it first.
When I started The Book Thief once before, I just got creeped out at the idea of Death as a narrator. Somehow it now makes sense to me and I found it a good, if quirky, device.
The setting is Germany, 1939. Hitler has full power over the people with his Nazis. We all know that story. Liesel Meminger is being taken by her mother to a foster home in Berlin, the mother being too poor to take care of her two children. On the way, Liesel's brother dies. She finds a book in the snowy graveyard where he is buried, The Gravediggers's Handbook. She cannot read yet but wants it as a talisman.
Liesel's foster family is kindly enough, though her foster mother is gruff and borderline abusive. When the girl has nightmares, her foster father sits with her through the rest of the night and eventually teaches her to read. He and her book are her best companions, along with a neighbor boy, so she begins to steal more books. These people are almost as poor as Liesel's mother, whom she never sees again.
It is an awfully sad story interspersed with bittersweet moments. I guess because there are so many kids in the book, the publishers decided to market it as a teen read. What? I would have kept a ten foot pole between myself and this book as a teen. Heck, I did so for the past 15 years.
I will say though that Zusak does a wonderful job of portraying what war, anti-semitism and poverty is like for kids growing up. His style is unusual but his characters are people you come to know and care about. The depth of oppression in Nazi Germany is palpable and he shows the different effects it has on both children and adults.
I read this book several years ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. We have a copy in the house so it is perhaps time to read it again. Nazi Germany was in so many ways the very worst period in history, and though there have been horrors since, more than enough, nothing seems to rival that period for the total suppression of the human spirit and the obliteration of identity. The Pol Pot regime in Cambodia would come closest, I suppose. Watch out in the US - your own dictator is on the ascendancy if you let it happen.
ReplyDeleteI am glad you liked the book as well. I think Nazi Germany was so horrific because of how broad was the scope of that war. Yes, we have a potential dictator here and I pray it won't continue past this year.
DeleteInteresting. I would have thought you certainly read that book ages ago.
ReplyDeleteBut you are right, it is a daunting story. As you can see in my review, you are not the only one to be uncomfortable with death as the narrator. But I thought it was the only way and you seem to have thought so now, as well. You will also read, that one of our members remarked that the author managed to draw a picture of the ordinary German people, the non-Nazis and that you saw that people in Germany suffered the same as the people in other countries. They liked the description of that side of the Germans.
I really liked your review.
I am honored that you liked my review. I didn't want to give too much away but I certainly did see, as did one of your group members, that not all people in Germany were in agreement with Hitler and how dangerous it was not to be non-Nazi, how hard the war was on the German people, how they were not all anti-Jew. I am going to read your review now.
DeleteI do *own* it but haven't read it - yet. I will be doing so though! BTW - Review pile is now stabilised at 11.... [lol]
ReplyDeleteI will be quite interested to read what you think of this book, once you do read it. My review pile just went to 9. I will finish a book today, it may be hopeless.
DeleteI read this one years ago and while I did like it, it wasn't my favorite. There's no way I could read this one now in my mindset. It's a dark book to be sure and I still have no idea why it's marketed towards teens. It's not a teen read at all.
ReplyDeleteGlad you agree with me on the marketing. It's more for adults who need to realize that war is bad for kids.
DeleteI've never read the book. I have a difficult time with books set in that time and place and tend to, as you say, keep a ten foot distance between me and them. I grew up on World War II era stories and had enough of them by the time I was an adult. I think reading the book right now would prove especially fraught, but I salute you for making the effort.
ReplyDeleteThank you for clearing up for me why I steer away from WWII stories myself!
DeleteWhile agree with all of you that it is daunting to read about such a troubled past, I think books like this are important so that we can learn from them. So that history does not repeat itself. I also grew up with stories about WWII, how my grandfather was prosecuted because he had warned people not to vote for Hitler. How my father had to go to war at the age of sixteen. Luckily for him, the war was over soon enough for him not to get killed or wounded like all of his elder brothers (two died, two heavily wounded). How my mother told me how they had to learn at a very young age (she was five when the Nazis took over, so was my father) not to say anything outside the family, e.g. that they listened to BBC Radio. etc. etc. Even in her eighties, my mum would tell us "those are brown" which meant the family had followed and proclaimed Nazi idealism.
ReplyDeleteAnd we have to learn from these kind of books because in films, even today, you only ever get shown black and white. My kids were 4 and 9 when we moved to the Netherlands and were called Nazis by other children. Where did they get it from?
And as your friend David ^^ mentions, there are new nationalists on the rise everywhere, especially in your own country. We need to stop them. We need to make people aware. And teenagers are a lot smarter than we think, they get their information everywhere. Books like this might help.
I read this one for a book club in 2012 -- it's quite dark especially the ending, not sure why exactly young adult either. here were some of my thoughts of it at the time: https://www.thecuecard.com/books/the-book-thief/
ReplyDeleteI read your review and left a comment. I agree with everything you said.
DeleteI also left a comment and I agree with everything, as well. Of course, because I always agree with Judy. :)
DeleteI haven't read it either, or I may have started and DNFed it, because I thought it would be tough emotionally for me. Plus I have read and studied so much on that period. I have it heard it's great, but I'll pass
ReplyDeleteThat is your prerogative, Emma, and I understand.
DeleteI have not read this book either. It's one of those books that I want to read so badly but never do... I did watch the movie and I only remember being really moved.
ReplyDeleteRead it! You will be moved again.
DeleteI've not read this one either, but keep coming back to it time again and wondering if I should.
ReplyDeleteIf you keep coming back to it, someday you probably will. You would love the way the foster father teaches her to read and all the book stuff in the story.
DeleteJust checked out the e-book. Will get onto it shortly, after I finished making my rounds!
DeleteYou are not alone, I haven’t read it either! I really should read it!
ReplyDeleteI have been relieved to learn, since posting this review, that I was not alone! It was well worth reading and I don't know you that well yet, but I think you would like it.
DeleteI never read this. My wife did when it first came out.
ReplyDeleteJust based upon your commentary and what I have been told, I think that a lot of people go into this book not realizing his dark it is. It seems that books are so often misclassified as the YA label in this indicates.
Some day I might give this a read.
I sure did not realize before I read it how dark it is.
DeleteYou are not the only one who has not read this novel!! I've had this novel in my possession since 2012/2013ish and have yet to read it. I've heard great things about this novel, but have yet to read.
ReplyDeleteIt turned out to be a really good novel!
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