Thank you guys for your sweet comments on my last post. It’s always kind of a weird day for me, but with family and distractions, the day went just fine.
Today I’m bringing you a short book review. Don’t worry, I’m not switching gears too much…death plays a pretty big role in the novel.
I heard about it on goodreads, where it had rave reviews.
This book focuses on a girl, Liesel, during the time of WWII. On her way to live with foster parents, her brother dies on the train. She is depressed, young and doesn’t want to live with two strangers. But after thieving her first book, she clings to words, stories, and with the help of the pages, eventually becomes completely enamored with her new parents.
After some relatively happy days before the war, the family decides to take in a Jewish man who lives in their basement, and Liesel starts to look at him as her big brother.
I’ve always been a pretty big Holocaust freak. I read Anne Frank’s diary at the age of 9, if that gives you any indication.
But recently, I haven’t read much concerning that era. Not to sound rash, but it can get a bit old after a while, and after a few courses in college, I felt I couldn’t learn much more about the Holocaust that I would really, truly enjoy anymore.
But this book was different. It proved me wrong.
Why?
Well, it’s told from the perspective of death.
At first I thought it was God narrating, but nope, quite the opposite. Death follows around Liesel in between picking up souls from the battleground. But the author’s characterization of death as almost a benevolent creature is what really hooks you in.
The book itself is different, too.
There are drawings, sketches from Max’s notebook, and death interjects here and there in the middle of a chapter with some pithy sayings. The book, and the writing are just different.
The book left me thinking about what a novel can do, what words can do.
And it also left me crying like a baby.
So stop what you’re doing and pick this one up from a B&N. Or your local bookstore.
Or, just download it on your Kindle if no bookstores exist where you live anymore.
I promise you, you won’t regret it.
