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bookzombieI finished The Book Thief by Markus Zusak the other day.
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I'm not entirely sure what I made of this one. It is set during the second world war in a small German community. The story starts with our 11 year old heroine (yes, I have once again failed to retain the main character's name!) being fostered by a middle-aged family. Through the book you are introduced to, and get to know, the significant members of the community.
The main thread of the story is that the girl's foster father hides a Jewish fugitive who befriends the girl and it looks at the consequences for the family.
Oh yes, and the book is narrated by Death.
What to like? The book does a good job of showing normal life for a small urban community during the war. Our heroine is nicely complex. I liked the character development that means that you start off thinking that her foster mother is a monster, when by the end she is a human being.
But the narrative voice doesn't really work; it ends up coming across as rather smug. At frequent points the narrator tells you things that are going to happen, but not for the sake of foreshadowing, but because Death finds the revelation of the story uninteresting (and by that one assumes the author does to). But most of all having Death as the narrator really doesn't add anything. For all the difference it makes it could be any form of omniscient narrator, even plain old third person.
In short, the author is really Not As Clever As He Thinks He Is.
I'm not entirely sure what I made of this one. It is set during the second world war in a small German community. The story starts with our 11 year old heroine (yes, I have once again failed to retain the main character's name!) being fostered by a middle-aged family. Through the book you are introduced to, and get to know, the significant members of the community.
The main thread of the story is that the girl's foster father hides a Jewish fugitive who befriends the girl and it looks at the consequences for the family.
Oh yes, and the book is narrated by Death.
What to like? The book does a good job of showing normal life for a small urban community during the war. Our heroine is nicely complex. I liked the character development that means that you start off thinking that her foster mother is a monster, when by the end she is a human being.
But the narrative voice doesn't really work; it ends up coming across as rather smug. At frequent points the narrator tells you things that are going to happen, but not for the sake of foreshadowing, but because Death finds the revelation of the story uninteresting (and by that one assumes the author does to). But most of all having Death as the narrator really doesn't add anything. For all the difference it makes it could be any form of omniscient narrator, even plain old third person.
In short, the author is really Not As Clever As He Thinks He Is.
