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| There's nothing like a good book. |
Category: Last
December, I saw the movie version of this book. I thought it was pretty good,
so I decided to read the book—because, as a general rule, the book is always
better than the movie.
My thoughts: The
book is definitely better than the movie! This was a really good book. In fact,
the ending of The Book Thief almost made me cry (the only thing that prevented
me from actually crying was the fact that I was in public when I finished
reading it). The Book Thief is the story of Liesel Meminger, and is narrated by
Death. And during the time period during which the book is set, World War II
Germany, Death was very busy. The book begins with the journey of Liesel, her
mother, and her brother by train. Her mother is forced by circumstances of the
time to send her children to be cared for by another family. On the way to meet
the family, the Hubermans, Liesel’s brother dies. When they bury him, Liesel
commits her first act of book theft—The Gravedigger’s Handbook. There’s a
problem, though—Liesel can’t read.
Liesel comes to
live with the Hubermans—kind accordion player Hans and stern Rose—in Molching,
Germany. With the help of Hans Huberman, Liesel learns to read and comes to
love words. But things are changing in Germany. There are book burnings, and
Liesel and her friend Rudy Steiner are forced to join the Hilter Youth and its
female equivalent (the former for Rudy, the latter for Liesel). Then the
Hubermans decide to hide a Jew, fist fighter Max Vandenburg, whose father
fought in World War I with Hans, in their basement. This understandably brings
some tense moments in the novel. A word, however, about Rudy: he was known in
Molching for the “Jesse Owens incident,” in which he darkened his skin with
charcoal and pretended to race like the track star, whom he idolized. There are
several lovable figures in The Book Thief, but I liked Rudy the best.
The Book Thief
demonstrates that not every German citizen followed the Adolf Hitler/Joseph
Goebbels propaganda machine blindly. But we, the reader, see what happens when
a German citizen tries to help Jews—Hans Huberman is whipped for giving food to
an elderly Jewish gentleman who is being marched with other Jews to Dachau
concentration camp. I like The Book Thief because it stresses the importance of
books, words, and reading. When Liesel first comes to live with the Hubermans,
she cannot read. Hans patiently teaches her to read, and a whole new world is
opened up to her. This is contrasted with the fact that words are used to
manipulate almost an entire country to hate Jews and other non-Aryans. During
stays in air-raid shelters, Liesel reads to her neighbors. This has a calming
effect on everyone. Reading and words tend to bring the community together in
this book. That happens in real life too—and it’s a beautiful thing.
Great passage:
They’re strange, those wars.
Full of blood
and violence—but also full of stories that are equally difficult to fathom.
“It’s true,” people will mutter. “I don’t care if you don’t believe me. It was
that fox who saved my life,” or, “They died on either side of me and I was left
standing there, the only one without a bullet between my eyes. Why me? Why me
and not them?”
Hans Huberman’s
story was a little like that. When I found it within the book thief’s words, I
realized that we passed each other once in a while during that period, though
neither of us scheduled a meeting. Personally, I had a lot of work to do. As
for Hans, I think he was doing his best to avoid me.
Up next: Code
Name Verity
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