The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Discuss the December 2013 book of the month, "The Book Thief" by Markus Zusak
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rath010
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Post by rath010 »

"The Book Thief" took a lot longer than I anticipated in order to read through. Unfortunately, I struggled getting into this book. One negative to the narration of the text is it comes from the perspective of Death - a unique technique that I came to enjoy by the end of the novel, but one that confused me from the start. The author is not direct in stating who is narrating, but rather leaves somewhat subtle clues before finally confirming this role about 1/4 of the way into the book.

Aside from the more dry start to the novel, I did find myself engaged in the story of Liesel and her quest to read and write. Hans (Papa) is easy to fall in love with for his affections and love for the education of his adopted daughter. The majority of character development falls on these two characters while the rest age around them - including the Jewish man, Max whom they hide in their basement.

Unlike previous novels, this title directly relates to the story told within the novel, though the setting of WWII Nazi Germany provided a unique perspective. This title, however, was loosely held onto within the movie adaptation of the novel. But, before delving into that, I would give my rating of "The Book Thief" as 3 of 5 stars - an engaging read, but difficult to start and quite distant in character development.
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Post by gali »

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"In the case of good books, the point is not to see how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you." (Mortimer J. Adler)
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