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A review by amrita_yadav
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
How can you not love this book? Isn't it the obvious choice of book to be placed in the list of books that everyone should read before they die. There are very few books about war and political situations that can make it through to the readers and not bore them. I had read The Diary of Anne Frank when it was an assigned reading given to my brother. You saw her life in Germany but it was a Jewish girl's perspective of people that were in the hiding. This book shows a Nazi girl's perspective. It is important to look at the story from this way too, to see all the horrible inhumane things happening and to be a part in its glorified narration.
To be on the other side, brainwashed into thinking it is all for the better, is to be blissfully ignorant. Ignorance is bliss. To have a heart, that beats for humanity, to know death, to understand the difference between right and wrong before knowing the difference between races, religion and culture, is truly the sorrowful thing. You are so miserable when you are in the know, miserable for other people's suffering, miserable for your helplessness to do anything about it. I'm reminded of a quote by Sant Kabir,"Sukhiya sab sansar hai, khaye aur soye. Dukhiya das kabir hai, jage aur roye."(The whole world is happy, eats and sleeps. Kabir is a sad slave, wake up and cry.)
The thing about history is that it repeats. It has only been a few days since the bombing in Rafah and I came to these lines:"...No one would bomb a place named after heaven, would they? Would they?...","...All while people slept.","...All sleeping. All dying." The political situation in India has given rise to polarized feelings in people, hatred has become a common emotion. To read how people are manipulated in thinking against a group, in small thought out steps. Make them feel the glory of their race, tell them about how they have suffered for generations, tell them they are all at risk of becoming extinct due to the take over of the other race, then finally give them a Messiah that will save them all.
Lastly, since this is a book narrated by death, all the different ways and places that people are destined to die is something that mimics the real life. Someone takes else's place in the army to save that person and ends up surviving rather than that person, someone goes to war 3 times and still survives to come home and spend the last days of his life with family, how an argument could be the last time you meet someone, how you can survive the war but not the guilt of being alive, and how there can be a single survivor amidst it all.
Five star. Definite, immediate read. Life is incomplete if you haven't read it.
To be on the other side, brainwashed into thinking it is all for the better, is to be blissfully ignorant. Ignorance is bliss. To have a heart, that beats for humanity, to know death, to understand the difference between right and wrong before knowing the difference between races, religion and culture, is truly the sorrowful thing. You are so miserable when you are in the know, miserable for other people's suffering, miserable for your helplessness to do anything about it. I'm reminded of a quote by Sant Kabir,"Sukhiya sab sansar hai, khaye aur soye. Dukhiya das kabir hai, jage aur roye."(The whole world is happy, eats and sleeps. Kabir is a sad slave, wake up and cry.)
The thing about history is that it repeats. It has only been a few days since the bombing in Rafah and I came to these lines:"...No one would bomb a place named after heaven, would they? Would they?...","...All while people slept.","...All sleeping. All dying." The political situation in India has given rise to polarized feelings in people, hatred has become a common emotion. To read how people are manipulated in thinking against a group, in small thought out steps. Make them feel the glory of their race, tell them about how they have suffered for generations, tell them they are all at risk of becoming extinct due to the take over of the other race, then finally give them a Messiah that will save them all.
Lastly, since this is a book narrated by death, all the different ways and places that people are destined to die is something that mimics the real life. Someone takes else's place in the army to save that person and ends up surviving rather than that person, someone goes to war 3 times and still survives to come home and spend the last days of his life with family, how an argument could be the last time you meet someone, how you can survive the war but not the guilt of being alive, and how there can be a single survivor amidst it all.
Five star. Definite, immediate read. Life is incomplete if you haven't read it.