The Sunday Salon: The Book Thief
By Kristen on Nov 2, 2008 in Reviews
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Release date: 2005 / 552
Synopsis (from back cover): It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier even 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 acto of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and worlds, as Liesel, with the help of her accordian-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.
First line: “First the colors. Then the humans. That’s usually how I see things. Or at least, how I try.”
Review: Boy, I’m struggling to review this one. I first heard about The Book Thief when a customer inquired if I had a kit premade for it. I didn’t, so I looked it up on Amazon and read it described as “Harry Potter meets the Holocaust.” I decided to buy it in case the customer wanted to order a custom kit. So, there it sat for weeks, and then months. And soon I was hearing about it and seeing it everywhere. Well, eventually my book club chose it for our summer pick, to be discussed at the end of October.
Mid-October and it was still sitting there… So, I divided up the pages and days and reluctantly began to read. I really, really do not like reading or watching anything about Holocaust. I am definitely informed and educated about this horrifying period in human history, but I hate being confronted with not only the depths of evil humans are capable of, but of how willing we are to blindly follow charismatic individuals and suspend our own moral compass for the charm or allure of a strong personality. Teaching adolescents for fifteen years only strengthened this fear — although obviously adults are not immune by any stretch of the imagination.
However, I am very glad that I read this novel. It is extraordinary in many, many ways. The point of view is “Death” although the story belongs to a young German girl, Liesel, and her family and friends. She is the Book Thief and the story is actually written by her. I like that Zusak chooses to view Nazi Germany through the eyes of Germans — Germans who do not blindly follow Hitler in their thoughts and beliefs, so their fear is palpable as they hide a Jewish man in their basement.
Did I ever read past my allotted 50 pages? Absolutely not. Happy ending? I would hope not. Inspiring? Not in the least. But beautifully written? Yes. Zusak’s diction is especially striking — “Death” is obsessed with the color of the sky, so phrases like “breakfast-colored sky,” “chocolate-colored sky. Dark, dark chocolate” or “the graying light arm-wrestled the sky” quickly become commonplace, as do many other quirky, original ways of describing the mundane.
It’s tough to recommend a specific audience for the Book Thief, but I would NOT recommend it for anyone younger than high school. In fact, I think this would be an excellent novel to teach to high schoolers, not only for my reasons stated above, but because it is the sort of novel that adolescents would devour.
So, I would love to hear others’ perceptions of this popular novel… What did YOU think?
Welcome back!
Great review. I totally loved it. A book I say, is a must read!
Darcys, Bingleys, gang wars and a dog too
gautami tripathy | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
I adored The Book Thief, I agree it’s a very challenging book in subject matter but so beautifully written. The ending made me cry. I liked how it wrote about the war from the German person on the street perspective and the reasoning behind why a lot of them supported the Nazis. An absolutely beautiful, necessary book.
Lacer | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
This book made my top ten books of all time. I loved Zusak’s amazing language. I agree with Lacer – ‘an absolutely beautiful, necessary book.’ Here is my review.
Wendy | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
I absolutely loved it. Here is my review:
http://smallworldreads.blogspot.com/2007/08/book-review-book-thief.html
SmallWorld Reads | Nov 2, 2008 | Reply
My book club just read this last month and every one of us loved the book. We talked for a long time about the use of color, and the perspective of Germans who maybe didn’t follow Hitler blindly during the war. Definitely a great book, and yeah, not for younger than high school. It’s interesting that it was first published in Australia as an adult novel, but here in the US it was YA.
Nancy | Nov 3, 2008 | Reply