The Book Thief: A Review

I finished The Book Thief. But I am not moving on. A book can provoke a thousand different emotions all at once and I like the feeling of being scattered – happy and sad and poor. The Book Thief broke me a hundred times over but, for a million lifetimes, I would want to keep it in my heart, to stay close with the words, and to keep on loving the souls that once lived on Himmel Street.

THE BOOK

Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief sits on a huge space in my heart. As you might have read from my previous post, it stirred something in me and I held onto it. I read it and it did not disappoint. The feeling when I first wanted it stayed. It glowed and burned. I did not have a change of heart.

I don’t really know how I should start describing the book. All I have are feelings. And it doesn’t feel right locking it up into a jar of adjectives. So everything I have to say about The Book Thief, you have already read on top of this piece.

So let’s proceed to the characters. I love Liesel. A strong, brave girl. I like the part when she recalled a quote from one of her stolen books: “My heart is so tired”. In Liesel’s reality, it refers to her heart. Really, a girl her age does not deserve a young, tired heart. But how can she not be? She’s always left behind. Her parents were taken to a concentration camp. Her brother died on a train. Her foster parents were bombed. Her best friend lay dead on the street. And Max, whipped away by German soldiers on a cruel, Jewish parade.

I love Liesel but Hans and Rudy took my heart. Like Death described, they “step on my heart”. That Rudy, the boy with a hair the color of lemon. I like his honesty and innocence. He makes me hope. In many parts, there is tons of sadness in Liesel’s life but I envy her in having Rudy by her side. Always a best friend. Always a lover boy. Always real. Oh how I regretted the kiss that Liesel gave Rudy. A kiss on the lips of a dead boy. And for one last time, I’ll tell you, Rudy is the only character who made my heart ache. Even when the times are happy, I remember him dying. It kills me.

Hans is like a hero. So much of an ideal father. Not to mention he is a lucky man. Not only that he escaped death twice, but everyone loves him too. Except the Nazis, of course. He is called the Jew-lover. At that time while Hitler and his loyal people hate the Jews and the Jew-lovers, Hans is there, playing his accordion, painting the windows black, saving lives with his kindness, giving bread, and being loved.

Then there’s Max, the Jewish fist-fighter. I like Max and his drawings and words. He is brave enough to accept that he is afraid. I always thought it was a love story between Max and Liesel. There’s the age gap but I shooed the thought away. That, until Rudy died. It’s funny though, but I am guessing it’s still Max and Liesel at the end.

Many times, it makes me wonder how Markus does it. He makes all characters lovable that “even death has a heart.” Every one of the characters has left me a piece of their lives. And they felt so real I want to hug each of them. Tight.

The Book Thief is a sad story that requires a big, big heart.

THE AUTHOR

At this point, every one of my friends knows that I am in love with Markus Zusak. But they wouldn’t understand. And I don’t have to explain. I wouldn’t.

I like the familiar humor in the book. I have never been in Germany but I have spent my childhood on the streets. I also played football and I also had those fist-fights.

I like the style. It feels so free. I imagine his hand writing so lucidly and smoothly, ideas coming like running water in the faucet.

Best adjectives. This is why I feel inferior using any adjectives at all. Markus is best at putting words together and painting it clearly on my mind. I see the color of the sky just as the bombs starts to shower. I see the twitching face of Tommy Muller. I see Rudy running round the oval with his coal-covered body. I see everything so clearly. Markus did it so well I just can’t stop reading and loving him.

SOME QUOTES

And it would show me once again that one opportunity leads directly to another, just as risk leads to more risk, life to more life, and death to more death. –Page 90

The only thing worse than a boy who hates you, is a boy who loves you. –Page 53
‘After all, you should know it yourself, a young man is still a boy, and a boy sometimes has the right to be stubborn.’ –Page 235

If your eyes could speak what would they say?

Even Death has a heart. -Page 262

I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both. –Page 522

The sun stirs the earth. Round and round, it stirs us, like stew. From Page 211 of The Last Human Stranger. –Page 551

A human heart doesn’t have a heart like mine. The human heart is a line, whereas my own is a circle, and I have the endless ability to be in the right place at the right time. –Page 522