The Book Thief by Markus Zusak Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Book Thief
Book Review: this book will stay with you forever
Summary: 5 Stars
This book moved me so much. I think everyone should read this book. It is full of human ups and downs during such a turbulent time in German history but it is told so beautifully and simply. It really made me think about the suffering during the war in Germany. It should be on your book shelf.Book Review: An irritation treated itself to the reader...
Summary: 3 Stars
This is a tough one. On the one hand, here is a good story about a little girl who survives horrors, a story of family love, and heroism and sacrifice. It is set in the Nazi period, and there are hints that it is a fictionalisation of real events that happened to the author's family, or to people whom they knew. So far, so good - and who would want to criticise any of that?
On the other hand, this good story has not been well told by its author. There are illiteracies such as the chapter heading "A Seven-sided Dice", but I forgive him those. If he doesn't know that "dice" is plural, fair enough, though an editor might have picked it up. My real objection is to the use of various sorts of imagery. There are so many jarring notes that at one point I actually checked to see if the book was written in another language, then translated into English by an over-excited translator, but apparently not. Individually these false notes are of little importance, but gradually they build into real annoyance with an author who is striving far, far too hard for "poetic" effect, and thus undermining himself. For example (page numbers from the Doubleday hardback):
147 An awkwardness treated itself to the room...
270 [the sun] had broken through like God sitting down after he'd eaten too much for his dinner.
280 She was suddenly aware of how empty her feet felt inside her shoes. Something ridiculed her throat.
412 Her wrinkles were like slander.
And my absolute favourite:
270 Standing above him... was the hand of time...
Just a couple of lines later comes the rather good line "What great malice there could be in allowing something to live", but you are unlikely to notice it. You will be too busy visualising a free-standing hand, perhaps wearing crimson sling-backs to show off its nicely painted toenails.
There is nothing wrong with poetic language. When Ian McEwan writes (in Atonement) "...the long grass was already stalked by the leonine yellow of high summer.." the image works brilliantly because we know about lions, and their colour, and what happens to grass in hot weather, and the two meanings of stalk. When Markus Zusak tells us about God overeating I have no point of reference. Is God about to vomit? Have your feet ever felt empty? Mine have not. Itchy, sweaty or painful, yes, but empty? No. Why were her wrinkles like slander and not like libel, or perjury? Why were they not like something that would have given me some idea of what her wrinkles were like?
So there's the problem. There are stretches of the book where he forgets to write like this, some of them quite long. At these times the narrative and characterisation move along nicely, engaging the reader and working well. There is even some good imagery. But then, and you can almost feel it happen, Zusak thinks "My goodness, I haven't been poetic for a while..." and we get yet another irritating purple patch.
If you want a good novel, or a book about holocaust survival or the Third Reich in general, look elsewhere. There is plenty of choice: Schindler's Ark/List springs to mind. If you want a good non-fiction book about family love, and heroism and sacrifice and a little girl who does not survive the horrors of the Nazis, try The Diary of Anne Frank. Choose The Book Thief if you are extremely tolerant of sloppy imagery and generally irritating style. But be warned: it is not in the same league as either of the books mentioned earlier in this paragraph.
Book Review: Beyond my power to describe
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a book so deceptively simple, so easy to read that its astonishing depth only reveals itself towards the end and, in fact, retrospectively. It draws you into itself and you see everything through the eyes of its heroine Liesel and form attachements with people as she does. I have read extensively on the holocaust and the second world war in general but never have I seen it with this much personal clarity. I was left deeply moved and reflective and wanting to buy copies to give to everyone important to me. It's that powerful, and I believe, that important.Book Review: a classic in the making?!
Summary: 5 Stars
Firstly may I begin by urging you to ignore the other reviews that seem to have discredited this fantastic novel. The book thief is beautifully written. It is very funny and extremely emotive- I found myself crying towards the last 10 pages or so. I truly didn't want the book to end and I am so sad it has but I am sure I will read it again and again. A true classic in the making.Book Review: the best story ever!
Summary: 5 Stars
My first experience of this book was in audio form read by the brilliant Allan Corduner. The story of Liesel Memminger accompanied me over 1000 km of German autobahns. Never has a weeks driving gone so quickly. I was entirely swept up by the characters the language, the brilliant images and metaphors created by the author. Living in Germany, this has extra poignancy for me. It gets right away from the stereo typical novels of this nature. It really makes one think about our place in this dreadful history.
I was very puzzled to see the low rating given by other reviewers. Don't worry one of these reviewers gave four stars to a Marion Keyes novel after calling the book thief trivialisation. I call this shooting oneself in the foot!!!
I am totally in awe of the talents of Markus Zusak.