'the book thief' by markus zusak

this book is like crack.

my sister gave me markus zusak's, the book thief a couple of weeks ago. since then there has been a night where i was up until four in the morning reading, the inevitable "i should go grocery shopping, but i could read one chapter more" scenario, followed by the undesirable druggie habit of looking at the stash and trying to make it last as long as possible.

the actual plot of the book didn't seem intriguing, even the title of the book put me off somewhat. the broad plot is an orphan girl in nazi germany living with foster parents that hide a jew. she steals books as her act of escapism, bonds with her foster parents and learns that jews aren't bad people.

but there is so much more. this is a book about words and less about stories. it's how words can change a life. the power hitler had over words in how he conveyed an entire nation of people. and how stolen words and given words have the ability to shape and make a life.

it is told from the perspective of death, producing a piece of enjoyable meta-fiction as most of the book is his recounting of the autobiography of the main character, liesel meminger. a character that author zusak claims took him three years to fully develop. death is a conceited character, one who has no qualms with beginning the book with how the story will end. because to the character death, beginnings and endings don't matter, it is how the time is spent living that make the human experience interesting. death fleshes out the life and surrounding cast of lives, covering a five year period of the nazi rise to power and the bombing of munich.

to read that statement back, it sounds like this is a blatant rip off of a kurt vonnegut book. but while vonnegut is constantly pushing the story, zusak allows the characters to develop, tantalizing the reader with each drippy sentence to read the next chapter.

perhaps this review is put best into practical terms by my friend audra, who stated this is the sort of book you don't lend out, you tell people about and expect them to go buy it.