The Book Thief by Markus Zusak It is a story about a young girl who is taken in by a foster family. It takes place in Germany during the Nazi occupation and “Heil Hitler”. Liesel, the main character, earns this nickname” The Book Thief” clearly from her heartfelt and sometimes desperate need to steal books for various reasons you discover throughout this incredible and memory making book. It clearly shows what it may have been like to be a child or a German citizen, particularly when you choose not to become a member of the Nazi party by choice or chance. Family members make their choices but the whole family suffers the consequences of any one choice. The first book stolen is at the gravesite of her younger brother which is shortly before she sees her mother for the last time. She doesn’t even know how to read or what the book is about, just that she had to have it. It turns out to be a book about how to dig a proper grave and is ultimately used as a tool by her foster-father to teach her to read. Each book stolen is tied to a specific period of time in her life such as stealing from the library of the mayor’s wife for firing her foster- mother or just for when she and her best friend Rudy just needed to win at something since life was more than difficult with food shortages, little work, living in the poorest city on one of the poorest streets in their town. She is a thief but an extremely particular book thief when making a selection of the perfect read at any point in time. Her love of words and reading also brought comfort to others like during an air raid in a bomb shelter where she started reading aloud from one of her beloved books. She reads to the Jewish man hidden in the basement of the home where she is staying while he is extremely ill. His name is Max and is the son of the man who saved her foster-fathers life in a previous war time situation. She experienced great hardship as a young girl in Germany and physical pain as well when she was beaten by a soldier using a whip for her talking to a young Jewish man among the hundreds being paraded through town on the way to Dachau. The young man was Max, the one that lived in their basement for over two years who became a dear friend. They shared books and he wrote one for her birthday called “The Standover Man”. At a particular point in time, she realizes the power in words and of words and decides that she hates words. But a “word shaker” cannot escape them for long. It is suggested that she stop reading and start writing. She does. She loses everyone she loves and who loves her, except for one that I will not name here, in one night while she alone was spared. How was she spared? She was writing a book of her own in the basement that was supposedly not secure enough to be a bomb shelter and was pulled from the rubble. Her story does not end here even though the book that she wrote which chronicles her life through the various books that she owns is lost to her forever until returned to her in her old age by the narrator of this book who is “haunted by humans”. Of note It took me awhile to figure out who the narrator actually was which proves to really be the perfect “source” of the information imparted as needed. I have such affection for certain characters on Himmel Street plus one other, all of whom may have loved Liesel even more than me: • Lemon haired Rudy whose athletic abilities won him three medals and the unwanted attention of those building a super race of “his kind”, whose idol was the Olympian Jesse Owens, and the one thing he wanted most was a kiss from Liesel but when he finally received it he was not aware, • Hans, the silver eyed, caring, protective, anti-Nazi, accordion playing papa, • Rosa, the outwardly stern, name calling, terrible cooking mama who really did have a well disguised caring heart for people, • Max, the Jewsish fist fighter with hair like feathers who had a dream of boxing Hitler but that dream also included the war of words from Hitler that invited those not in the ring to join him in the destruction of all Jews beginning with this one, a survivor thanks in part to Liesel along with her foster parents, and • Ilsa, the mayor’s wife who had a personal library of perhaps a thousand books, who had lost her only child, who received a verbal bashing and “the” letter from her book thief Liesel which fueled the spark that brought her back to the living. Please read this endearing book that is being made into a movie for all the right reasons.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 03:11:51 +0000
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