The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
“Liesel Meminger’s life is changed when…she picks up an object…left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words as Liesel, with the help of her foster father, learns to read. [...] Narrated by Death, The Book Thief is a story about the power of words and the ability of books to feed the soul.” — and so read the blurb at the back of my copy of the book.
I was tempted to pick up this novel because of all the raving reviews it received. I did not come across a single negative review…i.e. until after I’d read the book. Then I wondered if I was the only one who found this best seller nothing but a dead bore. It was tough going for me as I forced myself to turn every single page and move on. If you’re wondering why I kept at it, it was mostly because I was looking for something I might have missed…something that was to say I’d finally come to the best part, the part that makes this book such a rave. But towards the end of the book I was just plodding through to the finish, having made it so far already.
So then, what was it about The Book Thief that made this experience so monotonous for me?
1. The Characters
They were so dry. There was no soul in them, save maybe a little in Papa Hans and Rudy. The women, including Liesel the protagonist, were absolutely colourless. They lacked any kind of personality, a special something that could make me respond to them — be it in a negative or positive way. I wasn’t able to connect with any character emotionally, or at any other level really. They were just pieces on a board being moved around to the finish.
2. Style
Contrived. That’s the word that kept going through my mind as I read the book. The whole language and writing style is so absolutely contrived. It made me think of the days of my creative writing classes when many of us (mostly unskilled writers) were trying to oust the others in coming up with the most bizarre similes and metaphors we could think of. Most often they never worked — they simply showed unhoned skills at best or a lack of true talent at worst.
A few examples from the novel:
a) the colours that Death sees — the so-called colourful descriptions of the sky — “chocolate coloured sky” and “breakfast coloured sun”
b) “hair like feathers”
c) “cardboard face”
I found these images distorted and messed around with my ability to imagine what the writer was trying to show me as a reader. The heavy and most often, bizarre imagery, only served to confuse my imagination. And almost every other sentence was splattered with imagery of this kind that finally formed either a hazy or a grotesque picture in my mind’s eye.
I hated it.
3. Words
The book claims to be a book about words, the soul of words — but all it proved to be was absolute drivel. I think the reason I went so far into the book before I felt just must not stop, was because I was hoping for some magic in the description of words. But urgh! I think, when my son learns to read, I could tell a better tale of his wonder and amazement at finding that the odd squiggly lines have meanings, that they can paint a picture, that they can be sheer poetry, that they can give freedom to and express thoughts…and I am no writer.
Zusak’s description of words are as dry and colourless as his characters and his story. It was nothing but sheer disappointment on so many levels.
I’d bought the The Book Thief with a great deal of excitement and opened it to read with much anticipation. Now, I’m delegating it to my box of rejects which I hope to send for a sale soon. It definitely isn’t worth keeping. Not for me, anyway.
Wow… very interesting. I’ve actually heard nothing but rave reviews about this book. Still, it’s been sitting on my shelf for years, for some reason. Now, I actually do want to read it, to see which side of this debate I would end up on.
Sarah (of Sarah Reads too Much) posted a more recent review of this book, and it would seem the very elements that bothered me were the ones that moved her a great deal (and most others, it would seem).
I would be interested in reading your thoughts on it…
Horrah, a rare breed of person who doesn’t like The Book Thief. I felt exactly the same – I just didn’t get it and I didn’t see why people got so crazy about it. I’ve read other YA books set during the war, ones much better written, more realistic and without all the pretension. Check out Christa Laird’s Shadow of the Wall (more for children) and its YA sequel Beyond the Wall. Harrowing and so well written and also sadly out of print.
So what, Liesel liked reading books big deal, I like reading books too. I felt we were supposed to connect with the Jewish character (can’t remember his name) simply because he was Jewish.
Like you I kept reading to the end because I just felt that I was missing out on something. I didn’t like all the metaphors and similes but at the same time I did think that it was well written – it’s just that I didn’t think I connected with that kind of writing style. The one time Death spoke out of metaphor and simile he said something like “but I won’t bore you with metaphors” I haven’t got the book on me so I can’t directly quote.
I do want to read another Zusak – I’m thinking maybe it was just this book and I prefer my historical fiction to be a lot more hard lined and brutal, then fluffing it up like this.
— that’s so true! There was no other connection I could make with that Jew.
I’ll admit that there were a few nicely turned phrases and metaphors. But, for me, they were lost in the sea of the rest. And you’re right…I recall Death saying something along those lines since I was busy rolling my eyes then!
Personally, I’m done with Zusak. :-/
Btw, thank you for the books recommended.
I usually steer clear of anything to do with the holocaust, though. The only reason I’d picked this one up was for the whole ‘book thief’ concept in the middle of all that horror.
it’s nice to hear that someone else didn’t like it, either. i thought i was the only one!
I know how you must’ve felt. I kept wondering if I was the only missing something!
I hated it until about half way through and then I fell in love. The parts I didn’t like were the parts where I realized later that I was reading as a mature and well-read adult. Hand this to a fifth grader though, and it would be phenomenal, completely different than anything they have read before, and would get them thinking critically. (Let them identify which metaphors are drivel and which are wonderful, have them tell you whether they found Death believable or not.) My initial “review” was short and concise because I didn’t find much need to get too detailed: http://anakalianwhims.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/the-book-thief-by-zusak/. But I did enjoy it and am happy I read it.
I don’t know…if you can’t enjoy the writing as an adult why must one expect it of a child? It’s not like the language was simplistic and wholesome enough for a child to understand. I really can’t see it as something phenomenal for a teenager/young adult. I’d probably use it in a creative writing class as a “how-not-to” manual. :-/
I see your point. It is, however, a young adult book, typically housed in the 5th-8th grade reading level sections. In our area it’s used in school as a middle grade summer reading requirement between 7th and 8th, for on level students.
What are your favorite young adult historical fiction pieces? In your hypothetical creative writing class what books which you use as “How To” examples. (I’m fascinated by peoples’ choices and opinions on things – books especially – and how they differ.)
Well…I’ve never given the questions in your second paragraph any thought before. And I’m not sure even now what I would commend…I guess that’s mostly because my head is filled with the classics now. I can’t think of anything contemporary for young adults that would be good for a creative class, I’m afraid.
If you think of any, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I will be homeschooling my kiddo, she’s almost 2 now, but I like to be prepared. If you ever do a class like the one you mentioned, I’d love for you to share your thoughts/curriculm plans on your blog. I’d read them with intense interest!
Wow…I loved the book.
Elizabeth
Silver’s Reviews
http://silversolara.blogspot.com
If you think of any, I’d love to hear your thoughts. I will be homeschooling my kiddo, she’s almost 2 now, but I like to be prepared. If you ever do a class like the one you mentioned, I’d love for you to share your thoughts/curriculm plans on your blog. I’d read them with intense interest!
I was just browsing through some blogs when I came across a couple posts at Brona’s Books that might interest you. — Holocaust Lit for young readers and teens.
Thanks! I pinned the blog on pinterest to keep for future reference.
(Sorry… I seem to have hit the wrong reply button.)
This is one that I keep picking up in the bookshop because it appears on so many recommended reading lists. But something holds me back every time, even when it’s being sold cheaply in a charity store. Having read your review I think I’m even less likely to read it now.
And I really wouldn’t encourage you to go ahead and try it either. There are some books that sometimes don’t work for me that I’m positive might work for someone else because I recognise some quality in them….but The Book Thief isn’t one of them. :-/
Decision made – thank you for helping me get off the fence on this one.
I agree with you completely. It was an irritating, aggravating read. I kept thinking that the Holocaust story itself could have been a good one if it was told by a different person or in a different way. I had to read it because my 2 book clubs both picked it to read last December (what are the chances?) but out of both groups, I was the only one that didn’t like it. I was generous and gave it 3 stars on my GR but I’m off to lower it…it has definitely lowered in my opinion in the year since I read it.
You’re right. The story premise had so much potential that was left untapped. It was a ‘cardboard’ read (to borrow from the writer’s own collection of similes) for me.
you did better than I did, it ended up on my DNF pile
Am not surprised! Had I not been too hopeful about it, it would’ve gone the same way your copy did.
I agree – I finished it, but seriously struggled to get through it.
I just wanted to add my voice to the chorus, and thank you for posting such an honest review. I hadn’t actually noticed any of the hype about the novel when it came out – I just happened to buy it recently in a second hand shop so that I would have spent enough in total to pay by card – and thought I might as well get my £1.50′s worth and read it straight away.
The beginning left me flummoxed and irritated, and desperately hoping that the story proper would get going soon enough (I should possibly stress here that I’m no stranger to 20th- and 21st-century “literary” fiction; other books I’ve read in the past week include Ian McEwan’s ‘Black Dogs’, Stefan Zweig’s ‘The Post Office Girl’ [in the brilliant new translation by Joel Rotenberg], and C.J. Sansom’s ‘Dominion’ – all of which I would most wholeheartedly recommend). For the first 400 pages or so, I simply wanted to rush through the book as quickly as possible, so that I could get on to something better and more worthwhile. (I was a little more caught up in the last third of the work, and was even manipulated into feeling slightly tearful at the end, but it wasn’t really worth the slog…)
In particular, I hated the heavy-handed selfconsciousness of the inset comments, which to me simply signalled:
—
**A FACT ABOUT THE AUTHOR**
He is insistent that readers should remember at all times that his work is a literary construct – they are forbidden to immerse themselves in the narrative for its own sake…
—
Again, the use of language seemed to me to cultivate the opposite of a truly literary style – which should simply carry you along, revelling in the beauty and intoxication of the language as you go – rather, it constantly seemed to cosh you over the head with its own conceited cleverness. Because [as Zusak might put it]…
Listen carefully.
Hear the secret crawling from its wordly nook.
The secret of great writing:
Disjointed sentences.
Topped with ridiculous hapaxlegomena such as ‘caughtoutedness’, which don’t so much seem clever as irritating, or even marginally literate (at one point near the beginning, before I realised the author was Australian, I wondered whether the book had been poorly translated – certainly, some of the German translations are annoyingly unidiomatic). I won’t say any more about the clumsy imagery and bizarre use of simile and metaphor, because I agree completely with your comments above.
—
Finally, for a work which seems to have become something of a cult must-read, and which even seems to be being used extensively in schools (if the proliferation of websites offering ‘Sparknotes’ and summaries on it is any guide), there is surely a historical problem with some of the scenes at the book’s end which doesn’t yet seem to have been picked up on: The author talks repeatedly about Jews being marched back and forth to the camp at Dachau. However, there were only relatively few Jewish prisoners there during this period (mostly those who would already have been in some blacklisted category). Predominantly, during the war Dachau was inhabited by political prisoners (e.g. Communists, Social Democrats), common criminals, and Christian religious prisoners. (I know, artistic licence and all that, but still… one reviewer criticised Zusak for setting the story in a fictional town, since it conveniently absolves him from doing any research, and I wonder if a little academic exploration might have strengthened the novel here, and helped it transcend caricature and cliche…)
–
It’s not that the book doesn’t have any merit at all, and I was somewhat gripped towards the end. But I definitely don’t think it deserves the hysterical acclaim which it’s received – even at the hands of quite respected critics. In my view, ‘ars est celare artem’ – the author’s art should lie in concealing the artfulness of his writing, rather than constantly doing the metaphorical equivalent of jumping up and down in front of the reader shouting ‘Hey, hey, look how clever I am!’ like a hyperactive two-year-old. I believe the book could have been much stronger if Zusak had trusted more in the strength of his original ideas, and used simple yet powerful prose, rather than leaning so heavily on “Literary” gimmicks and ungainly metaphors.
[Apologies for such a long comment! I just finished the book and wanted to get the ideas off my chest...]
I think your comment review says it so much better than my post! I’m afraid I found nothing in it, not even the end, that touched me any way. I think all the while I was prepared for all their deaths. Heck, the author constantly threw it in our faces so that one could not forget that these characters were going to die. The only suspense was as to ‘when’. But even then I was left cold at the end since I’d been warned countless times about it.