The Book Thief/Markus Zusak

I didn't love it. I didn't hate it either, but I didn't love it, and because everyone else I've ever spoken to did love it, I can't help but think the problem must be with me.

The writing was brilliant -- there's no argument there. Zusak is a gifted author, creating metaphors that are so simple, natural, and original, that the images practically jump off the page. I love the meagreness of his writing -- less is definitely more. There is no doubt he is a master wordsmith with a refreshing style. In fact, I found myself rereading some passages (something I seldom do), because once just wasn't enough.

I thought it was clever to make death the narrator, especially for a story set during a war, and though I was prepared to hate him, I actually ended up feeling sorry for him -- his was such a relentless job tinged with regret and sadness. But, for me, the choice of narrator created a wall, a distance between me and the characters. The novel has an omniscient point of view -- who better to be everywhere and see everything than Death? -- but that narrative style almost always creates a wedge. It's like taking a step back from the action. Instead of being immersed in the lives of the characters, the reader is always aware -- albeit subconsciously -- that she is being told a story. The fact that Death regularly interrupts the tale with editorial comments further pulled me out of the novel. The use of vignettes didn't help either. Though they provided lots of opportunities for reading breaks, I felt they made the read choppy. As for the drawings and hand-written parts by Max, I didn't like those at all.

The story itself was heartbreaking, and though I'm sure that it is a good representation of what that time must have been like, the novel offers no hope, no light, no redemption, nothing to uplift the reader even a little. I'm sure that is fine for some readers -- but not this one. The tone of the writing is so sombre, that even the parts that should feel lighter, don't. I have no doubt that this was intentional on Zusak's part, which further proves his skill, but I didn't like it. A steady diet of death and heartbreak doesn't do it for me. The only positive outcomes of the story are Max's return from the war and the development of the relationship between Liesel Meminger and Ilsa Hermann, and those are related more as sidebars than happy conclusions. It was the story of apocalypse -- perhaps on a smaller scale -- but apocalypse nevertheless. Everything good was destroyed.

I was under the impression that The Book Thief was a YA novel, but after reading it, I would say definitely not. Cross-over maybe, but I wouldn't expect anyone below the age of sixteen to understand the depths of the story, let alone enjoy the read.

In conclusion: I get what Zuzak was trying to do, and I think he succeeded brilliantly, but did I love it?

Not so much.