A review by kylegarvey
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

adventurous sad medium-paced

2.0

 

Liesel the heroine. Says constantly to others "Saukerl", "Saumensch", "Arschloch"; stepfather Hans Hubermann, stepmum Rosa, Rudy (a kid her own age), Max (the Jew they hide), etc. A Germany in the grips of early-'40s Third Reich fanaticism. "When she made it down to Munich Street, the book thief swerved in and out of the umbrellaed men and women—a rain-cloaked girl who made her way without shame from one garbage can to another. Like clockwork" (364). Real life, but saddened. Grey-smeared. Ok. 

 

Zusak's whole book, a YA Holocaust story if there ever were one, is narrated remarkably enough by Death. Not necessarily in mean judgment, but maybe just waiting: "Each one an attempt—an immense leap of an attempt—to prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it. Here it is. One of a handful (39). I like that style. I wish it held more. All supposedly in his voice, but in actuality not much; bits and pieces, but really not enough, other than the beginning and the end: "'Your job is to …' And I stop listening to me, because to put it bluntly, I tire me. When I start thinking like that, I become so exhausted, and I don’t have the luxury of indulging fatigue" (515). 

 

The style here I expected to be great, but to me I'm afraid it's the usual YA narrative hiss with a occasional blooms of MFA-style, ostentatious prose, like "A beautiful, tear-stomped girl" (781) or "Papa was an accordion! But his bellows were all empty. Nothing went in and nothing came out" (784). Unfortunately too much plain still. All in all. By the lot. 

 

At the end, when Zusak supplements his own book with meta-discussions about writing process, is really the only time The Book Thief really came alive for me -- "Usually, if an idea keeps calling you back, it’s the right one" (815) or when he discusses "the moment when you suddenly understand that if you keep working on the book, you’re going to start hurting it. You might be making things more correct, but never more right" (826). It's a little unfortunate how that happened, I suppose, but I think that's how it happened.