First of all, a Happy Birthday to my dad who turns 77 today! His secrets to good health: lots of fresh air, working in the garden, catfish from his own pond, and daily meetings with his buddies at the coffee shop. Happy Birthday, Dad!
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I finished The Book Thief last night. This is one of those YA titles that appeals to both kids and adults. It's also a book that's received a lot of media attention (or hype, if you will). The novel is by Marcus Zusak, a 30-year-old Australian writer, and regardless of what you hear, this is not his first novel. Apparently the book was first marketed in Australia as adult fiction, but in the U.S., it's being marketed and sold as a YA.
The story takes place in Nazi Germany. After the death of her young brother, nine-year-old Liesel Meminger has been sent by her mother to live in a foster home in a small town near Munich. As you might expect, Liesel has trouble adjusting to her new foster parents, new friends, and the memories of the family that has been taken away from her. Liesel quickly develops friendships with three very different people: her foster father Hans, a young Jewish man hiding out in their basement, and a boy named Rudy who idolizes Jesse Owens.
Although Liesel and Rudy are a part of Hitler Youth, they both rebel against Hitler's authority – Rudy by acts of childish defiance and food theft, Liesel by stealing books. Of course there's much more to The Book Thief than stealing books: subplots abound dealing with war, death, loyalty, family, love, fear - all of which readers have seen before. But what makes Zusak's novel unique is its narrator: Death.
The use of Death as a narrator produces some of the book's strongest and weakest elements. Death's point-of-view helps Zusak to write with remarkable restraint, avoiding scenes that would typically come across as heavy-handed and sentimental. While it knows what's going to happen to each character (and when), there are many things Death doesn't understand about humans. It attempts to relate human emotions to the colors of the weather, which is effective, if somewhat overdone.
Death also has a tendency (not unlike the Lemony Snicket books) to frequently interrupt the story with word definitions and asides in bold type, leaving no doubt that this is a YA story in which readers should have things spelled out for them. Also much of the book is written in short, sparse sentences, which, when added to the narrator's many excursions, tends to deprive the novel of another level of depth that it should have had. Possibly I'm being too picky. The novel works quite well and is frequently gripping, but I think it could have been superb.
It seems that many readers are ready to immediately elevate The Book Thief onto a list of classic children's/YA literature. I'm not sure I'm ready to praise the novel that highly, but I did enjoy it and have no reservations about recommending it. Good enough to buy.
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Cindy and I will be on vacation for the next several days, so everyone have a great 4th and beyond!
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