Call it the hangover caused by the 'Room' or the fact that I spent more time on Netflix rather than my Kindle, but I must say that this one took me a long time. My saying this should not reflect on the novel, it was more to do with me than the novel.
The Book Thief is an unusual novel. For starters atleast I haven't heard anybody give voice to 'Death' before. You might imagine that 'Death' talking would be sad, morose and outright cold. But hey, not this 'Death'. This Death has a certain swagger to it. It is just like one of us, not really in love with its job, over-worked and desperately in need for a vacation which it cannot get because there isn't any back-up!
The setup of the novel is Nazi Germany and the timeframe is the Holocaust and the Second World War No doubt Death felt so over-worked! Death narrates the story of one Liesel Meminger. This orphaned girl who travels to Molching to the home of her foster parents – the Hubermanns. The more I think about it the more I am tempted to compare this with the diary of Anne Frank. Even this is a tale of a girl who finds herself faced with adversity and takes help of words to tell her tale.
The life on Himmel Street is painted with such real colors that you start identifying with the characters. There are episodes after episodes which make a mark on you and convey so much symbolically. Death seems to have a heart but has to do the heartless.
If you ever want to pick a Holocaust novel, I would strongly suggest this one. It is not all that gory or graphic but it sure leaves you wondering as to does Death also have feelings!
The last line of the novel is the most telling. It is where Death says : Humans haunt me!!!
Next read: American Gods : Neil Gaiman
1 comment:
that last line got me thinking too! :)
also I am not sure about judging the book by its writing or plot. But the fact that it is about 'books' makes me want to tell everyone to read it!
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