Author | Markus Zusak
Rating | 10
There’s something about historical fiction that’s fascinating. Maybe it’s the perfect combination of fact and fiction. Maybe it’s the connections we make to the world we live in today. Maybe it’s the unique perspective of life that we see through the eyes of a person, albeit unreal, from the past.
There’s one thing I’m sure of, though. No matter what you are looking for in historical fiction–or any other genre, for that matter–you can find it in The Book Thief.
This brilliant novel written by Markus Zusak follows Liesel Meminger, a girl growing up in Germany during World War II. And yes, she is a book thief. The author leads us into a world of friends, families, words–and a hidden Jew. But as the world around her descends into chaos, the safety and reliability that Liesel had built slowly crashes down.
However, The Book Thief is unlike any other WWII novel I’ve read, though it may sound cliché. My short summary is not enough to describe the beautiful yet intense words and experiences that flow so wonderfully through the pages. Everything is perfect–the emotion, the suspense, the characters, the story.
This review is not nearly enough for everything this book deserves (I would go through every chapter if I could). There’s just so much in the 592 pages; I can’t quite seem to put my countless feelings into words. But I’ve tried my best and I hope that it will do some good.
Enough with the rambling. Let’s get started.
①
|| Perspective ||
Let’s begin with the narrator of The Book Thief. It’s guided by Death, collector of souls, and that was enough to get me hooked. Death is not what you would normally think; he himself says, “I do not carry a sickle or scythe. I only wear a hooded black robe when it’s cold. And I don’t have those skull-like facial features you seem to enjoy pinning on me from a distance.” He’s not ruthless. Nor is he apathetic. In fact, he’s got a unique personality and feelings of his own; he experiences a wide range of emotions, such as joy, sadness, pity, horror, and stress. Zusak’s portrayal of Death is so relatable and so real. The fear I had of him was swept away, and I ceased to think of him as terrifying or heartless. Instead, it was replaced with a sense of closeness, maybe even understanding. And so the story unfolds.
②
|| Characters ||
The characters in this book are crafted wonderfully, each with their unique personalities and motives, such as Liesel Meminger, her kind foster parents Hans and Rosa Hubermann, and her bold and carefree friend Rudy Steiner, to name a few. And it’s not just the major characters, but the minor ones too. Zusak doesn’t waste a single character. For instance, take Liesel’s brother, Werner. Despite his untimely death at the very beginning of the book, he makes several short reappearances through Liesel’s dreams and memories. What was really aweing for me, however, was the way the author showed Liesel’s change in three different scenes at 8 Grande Strasse, where the mayor and his wife live, through her brother. During the first scene, Liesel is at the height of her fury toward the mayor’s wife. “Immediately. Her brother was next to her. He whispered for her to stop, but he, too, was dead, and not worth listening to… Her brother, holding his knee, disappeared.” Next, we see Liesel beginning to forgive, and yet again, “her brother found her. From the bottom of the steps, his knee healing nicely, he said, ‘Come on, Liesel, knock.’” When at long last she grows and freely knocks on the Hermanns’ door, “Liesel did not look back, but she knew that if she did, she’d have found her brother at the bottom of the steps again, his knee completely healed. She could even hear his voice. ‘That’s better, Liesel.’” The subtle changes in Werner’s descriptions and actions (which are really just a figment of Liesel’s imagination) clearly show us the main character’s development throughout the book. Her brother is only one example of many minor characters that Zusak included to further enrich the plot and the theme.
③
|| Theme ||
On the surface, The Book Thief is merely an exciting story of a German girl. However, after reading it, I was left with a profound feeling of having learnt many things. Oftentimes there are books or movies that try to cover too many topics (for example, the Chinese show Serenade of Peaceful Joy) and, instead of achieving the desired effect, just make the entire thing feel scattered and unfocused. But it’s different with this book. Although it’s still covering many topics, nothing feels unfinished. Zusak depicts the power of human kindness and love when he shows us how the Hubermanns take Liesel in with care and treat her like their own, and when the three of them go even further to shelter a Jew. There are also small but significant instances of kindness throughout the story, such as Rudy giving the dying pilot his teddy bear. But the author also shows the dark side of humanity–the cruel mistreatment of the Jewish people during the Holocaust, and the concentration camps. And Zusak shows us the power of words and stories through the connections Liesel makes to people as she grows, and the refuge she built for herself. She bonds with her foster father as she begins to learn how to read; she and Max exchange stories to connect; she reads to her fellow townspeople during air raids to calm everyone down; in the end she even bonds with Death, who has read her book thus far and has been deeply touched by it. And lastly, but importantly, there is love and lasting friendships consistently throughout the book; between Liesel and both her foster parents; between Liesel and Rudy; between Liesel and Max. Despite the war and despair raging around them, they are able to find strength through their inseparable bonds with each other.
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|| Writing ||
Some may say that the style of writing itself of The Book Thief is fairly simple. It actually is, but that doesn’t stop it from having beautiful figurative language of almost every single style that I can think of: hyperboles, similes, metaphors, personification, symbolism… all of this wrapped up together forms captivating descriptions. You’ll have to experience it for yourself.
All in all, The Book Thief is a book I don’t regret reading, and will re-read over and over again if I had the chance. Each time I skimmed through it again I found new bits of information that I hadn’t noticed before. Perhaps in the distant future I will forget the details and the plot, but not for now. No, I will be remembering and still savoring this book for many, many years to come.
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