Gen Y book review: The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

This week author Markus Zusak addressed 400 fans at the Highland Park Literary Festival and recalled that his very first reading of one of his works at a library near his home in Australia was attended by... nobody.  “But the librarian still made me read from my book – just to her.” She may have realised Zusak would be thankful for the practice in the future - now that he is in demand globally. Starting as a writer for young adults The Book Thief has charmed readers of all ages. But what does a typical Gen Y reader from Zusak's hometown think of the highly acclaimed novel? Let's see...                                                               Click cover to buy>>

Why am I reading The Book Thief?

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a good novel.

1. It is situated in history. The majority of the book is set between 1939 and 1942 in Nazi Germany. The fictional town of Molching just outside the city of Munich has in it a Himmel Street, where such despair and love and humanity can be found. All this in the midst of a World War that is a machine in motion beyond the control and comprehension of these average Germans we are reading about. The Book Thief is incredibly written, such that the essence of what it is to be a powerless individual trapped in such machinations is a profound visceral experience for readers.

2. It is narrated by death. I've never been so impressed by the choice and execution of perspective in a novel. It is quite simply unstoppably interesting. As you might imagine, given the historical context, death himself is quite busy. And as narrator, it tells you that. Zusak makes death himself a relatable character. Unstoppably interesting.

Markus Zusak, The Book Thief, bestsellers, Australian book, book review
3. The characters taste real. I mean real world real, experiencing the real of 70 years ago. These soft-hearted good Germans; they're free compared to the Jews, but they're still trapped. The young Jewish German they are harbouring is tormented, learning what it means to have an identity less than human imposed upon him. Death is quite good at articulating the experiences of these characters, and his insights read fresh.

4. It reads easy.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Picador, Australia; Knopf, USA. First published March 14, 2006. More than 2.5 million copies have sold in the US alone.
- Josiah Hallett

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book review: The life to come by Michelle de Krester

Image
One of the characters I most enjoyed in Michelle de Krester's The life to come is Sydney's inner west. I arrived in Newtown on a yellowy January morning in the early 1980s and lived above King St near the start of Erskinville Rd for six months before a succession of terrace houses across Newtown, Emmore and Macdonaldtown. Coming from the country to study 'Communications' I could easily have been minor character fodder for the author, momentarily shuffling by in ill-fitting jeans alongside the ubiquitous Pippa and George (that is, they are the only characters appearing in all five sections of what is an artfully decentralised narrative). I might not have done too well descriptively from de Krester's pen. She finds a way to poke holes in all of her characters, perhaps with the exception of expat Christabel who is the most downtrodden of characters, but not by the author, who otherwise sustains a mildly scornful, disapproving or comedic tone. For example, Geo
Read more + comment »

Book review: The Nowhere Child by Christian White

Image
Little Sammy Went is gone, and while The Nowhere Child tells us where fairly quickly - who, how, why and at what cost takes the rest of this fast-paced book to uncover. I use the cliche 'fast-paced' on purpose because like most genre books, except for the exceptional few, the 'fast-pace' does rely on cliches to a fair degree. Which is not to say The Nowhere Child is a poor novel. Rather it is a clever book, with more than enough periods of real tension and surprise to keep the reader turning pages (or flicking them as the case may be). Clever because it embeds just enough themes that are deemed praiseworthy and admirable in the subjective group-think world that is publishing. (That is not a criticism of the book or publishing, just a reality in these days of thought-fear.) Of course there is the obligatory references to reading and authors - we must worship at the the book altar of course. Being set in both Australia and the US may explain why at times Matth
Read more + comment »

Author Richard Flanagan's speech to the Garma Festival 2018: full transcript

Image
When my father died at the age of 98 he had largely divested himself of possessions. Among what little remained was an old desk in which he had collected various writings precious to him over the years: poems, sayings, quotes, a few pieces he had written, some correspondence.  Photo: From Garma Festival 2017 Among them my elder sister found a letter written by one of my father’s cousins many years before. In it she told my father that his mother, my grandmother, was of Aboriginal descent, and that in her family she had been brought up to never mention this fact outside of the home. My father loved discussing interesting letters with his family. He never discussed this letter. Yet he kept it. The story of covering up Indigenous pasts was a common one in Tasmania, where such behaviour was for some a form of survival. There is no documentation to prove my father’s cousin’s story is true, but that doesn’t make it untrue. It leaves the story as an unanswerable question mark over my
Read more + comment »