“The Book Thief” – Markus Zusak
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Nicole sent me this book for my birthday last year.
From the first page, I understood why she loves it so—it’s written as if by a
poet, with a language and symmetry that defies the rules of regular prose. The
story is told so beautifully that the sadness in it makes one almost wistful.
For there is sadness here, as well as loss and fear and war. There is also love
and joy and courage and peace. And death. Heck., Death tells the story, and
that creates another facet to this gem. It turns out that the Reaper isn’t such
a bad guy. He’s just doing his job, sometimes with resignation, sometimes with
wonder, never with joy. He tries to be impartial, but occasionally he
encounters a remarkable human and can’t resist following that human’s path.
It’s marvelous.
A few weeks after my birthday, Nic zapped me at work:
“Look what we have to look forward to!” Attached to her email was a pic of a
movie poster for The Book Thief. My response was, “I’d better get reading.”
That I would see the movie was apparently a no-brainer, though I missed it at
the theatre. I also, after reading the novel, expected it to do something at
the Oscars, but it was only nominated in a minor category and lost to its
competition.
Ter and I watched it on-demand the other night. I like
watching movies with her when I’ve read the book and she hasn’t—since I am
cursed to notice where the film strays from the page, she is my gauge for
continuity, and she loved this movie. So did I. We both enjoy a good spy
or sci-fi flick, but the writer in me and the humanist in Ter truly appreciates a well-told story. This film was so good that I want to read the book again.
That it stayed with me after the first reading says something about the power
in the story, in the characters, and in their relationships with each other and
with the world. It’s a brave book about brave people and I am ever so grateful
that Nic opened my eyes to it. Best of all, the movie did it justice.
The one thing we have to learn about each other is how
alike we are. Stories like The Book Thief serve as good reminders.
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