Finishing this book will be the death of you (The Book Thief - Markus Zusak)

Member Name: bruffyboy

Product:	The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Date:	24/04/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great first half

Disadvantages: too long

This novel tells the story of the Jewish persecution in Nazi WW2 through the experience of Liesel Meminger, a young girl sent to live with another family during the war. The story is narrated by Death, and contains a number of post-modern techniques, such as interspersing the novel with a picture book, and other drawings.

This is a long old book, and I found myself gripped to it for the first half. The novel (as in new and different) aspects of it are grabbing at first; the narrator (Death) talks directly to you the reader, and explains his experiences in an interesting way. The narrative focuses on description of colour to explain emotions, which is well executed and different.

There are pictures, picture books, and all sorts of little oddities throughout, which make it unpredictable and exciting to read, but these soon wear off as you get used to the text.

The plot itself is a good one, combining personal experience and annecdote with the wider picture of WW2. The characters (particularly Death) are interesting, likeable and deep, but I felt the whole thing was just too long.

The story would have been perfect for 300 pages, but after this point I felt there was little else to add, and I was only half-way through the thing!

If you liked it, I would recommend seeing the film 'Meet Joe Black', which gives a fascinating account of Death's experiences on Earth, in a similar way to this one.

All in all, this is a good book for those interested in a new take on the Jewish experience, and also for those who like to read something a bit different to the norm, but the over-long narrative gets too self-important and loses the momentum it had developed so well.

Summary: worth a read