Things I can say about Markus Zusak’s best-seller: I admire it. I thought it was brilliantly written. I thought Death as a narrator was an intriguing premise. I thought it was interesting that the story was set in Nazi Germany, but was about ordinary Germans just surviving. And yes, I cried at the end.
Things I can’t say about The Book Thief: that I like it. (Oh, and that I can spell thief the first time, without a spell-checker. Just can’t do it.)
This bothered me. I read the book — all 550 pages — and two-thirds of the way through I was still unsure what I thought of it. I didn’t hate it; I had no desire to stop reading. I did want to “find out” — though I already knew — what happened to Liesel and Rudy and Max and Hans. I don’t consider it time wasted, or time lost. So I didn’t hate it, or even really dislike it. About 100 or so pages before the end I finally decided that this book would have to be a toss: I was going to admire a book, to recognize it’s literary worth, and yet not like it.
I think my fundamental problem with this story is that it’s not really a cuddly or accessible one. Not that stories set in Nazi Germany can ever be cuddly. And a story about a pre-adolescent girl during this time isn’t necessarily accessible or enjoyable. It is an interesting, and possibly important story — but like “Schindler’s List” or “The Pianist” or Elie Wiesel’s books — it’s not one you want to cuddle up with, to read and reread. The final moral is something along the lines of: words can do good as well as harm, some people are good even in a bad situation, and some people survive. That’s life. In the end, I feel like this is an English class book; one to be respected and studied and analyzed and possibly imitated.
Just not really liked, at least by me. I’m okay with that.
The Book Nut 
“I think my fundamental problem with this story is that it’s not really a cuddly or accessible one. Not that stories set in Nazi Germany can ever be cuddly.”I love the way you phrase things. 🙂 While, it seems I might have liked this one more than you did. I’ll be honest and say it took more than once for me to go that route. The audio book helps tremendously in this case. Death sounds good–really, really, really good.But as you said, there’s no law that says you have to like a book just because it has literary quality! 🙂 There are plenty of ‘literary’ reads that I’m only ho-hum about, some that I know I hate outright. (Jude the Obscure if I were to start dropping names.)
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Ok, I’ll read this later because I’m half way through.
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I’m a lurker on your blog (but I check almost daily!)and I thought I would finally chime in with my two cents worth. I related to your review of the Book Thief. I felt the very same way about the book! I neither hated it or loved it, more ambivalent, if I can use that turn of phrase. I really liked the idea of Death as a narrator and the slant that it took. I don’t know if it was the fact that it wasn’t a “cuddly” read, as I am not always fond of “cuddly” but I felt that the author never aroused a sense of caring for his characters. I do typically enjoy books about the Holocaust though so maybe I just wasn’t really in the mood or the right space. (Interestingly enough, my son, who loaned me the book basically admitted that he felt the same way.) I still believe that the author is adept and skillful, I guess it just wasn’t the right book for me. Thanks for keeping the great reviews going. It’s fun to watch your growth and progress in reading!
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Ah — we don’t always see eye-to-eye Becky? Say it ain’t so! 😉 Still, it took an audio book for me to like Tale of Despereaux, so maybe I won’t give up on this one just yet.Gaye — I love it when people de-lurk! YAY! I probably should define cuddly. “Cuddly”, as in a book you want to curl up with in a nice big blanket and read forever. I found myself having to take breaks (I even read a whole other book while reading this one!) and needing to de-Nazi-fy quite frequently. Hence, a book I don’t find cuddly. I like your point about the author not arousing a sense of caring about his characters. You can have a depressing, hard book, and still have sympathy for some of the characters. Though, I suppose, that begs the question: why did I cry at the end, if I didn’t really *care* about the characters? (Why did I cry if I knew, from the start, that they were all going to die anyway? I wondered that while I was crying….)
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I never can spell thief either.And yes, it’s to be respected and studied and everything else you said. But I still didn’t love it. I’m glad someone else didn’t love it too because I almost felt like a heretic saying that.
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I’ve read several reviews of this book and am interested in reading it. I appreciate your honest words on it. Nice to know why people don’t like a book and that it is still a good book despite that! (I read plenty of well-written, good books that I just plain don’t like)
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In my mind, I know how to spell thief, my fingers on the typewriter always beg to differ. 🙂I always find it hard to write about the really depressing books. You summed up your feelings so well. Although different from my own – I just read it a few weeks ago and loved it – I definitely see where you are coming from.
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This was one of my year’s favourites when I read it. I wasn’t sure death as a narrator would work but it did. I don’t need novels to be cuddly and nothing in fiction depresses me so I enjoyed it a lot. I’m still looking to own a copy so I can read it again. It was a library book and nothing’s come up at the book swaps so people must be keeping this one. I may have to break down and actually pay for one soon.lol I’m itching to read it again. It is nice to see an honest review, so thanks for reviewing it.
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