I don't often write reviews about the books I read because my "writing time" is filled with blogging, poetry, or short story writing, and I prefer to share my thoughts in person (my family can attest to that!). But there was something about this book that gave my hand that irresistible "itch" to write.
So I did.
This is a beautiful book...
Not only do the characters and setting exude a "realness," but the sentences and words themselves breath with life.
"She ran the back of her hand along the first shelf, listening to the shuffle of her fingernails gliding across the spinal cord of each book. It sounded like an instrument, or the notes of running feet. She used both hands. She raced them. One shelf against the other. And she laughed. Her voice sprawled out, high in her throat, and when she eventually stopped and stood in the middle of the room, she spent many minutes looking from the shelves to her finger and back again.
How many books had she touched?
How many had she felt?" (pg 135)
Its rather paradoxical then, that such beauty and depth can also be home to such foulness.
Swear words.
There were dozens of them - thus only the four stars.
But isn't that one of the themes this book reveals concerning humanity? The question: how can the same thing be "so ugly and so glorious?" (pg 150)
I have read many books dealing with these devastating times, but none have moved me, or narrowed the gap between history and reality for me, like this one. I was overcome with sorrow for the Liesel's, Max's, Han's, and Rudy's of the Second World War, and will not deny that I shed a few tears after the story was concluded and I had time to sift through my swirling thoughts and impressions. And yet, I've received much hope from this fictional account of suffering and death. For buried within the dark, lonely basements, boxing matches with the Fuehrer, bombings, and book burnings, are the accordionist's with gentle, silver eyes, "bread givers," thirteen presents for a dying friend, library havens, and snowmen -
"CHRISTMAS GREETINGS FROM MAX VANDENBURG: Often I wish this would all be over, Liesel, but then somehow you do something like walk down the basement steps with a snowman in your hands." (pg 313)The Book Thief has left me with a lot to ponder and discuss (it is hard to put my thoughts into words), but there is one sentiment that rises again and again in my reflections: radiant hope and beauty come from ashes, and not simply because of the endurance of the human spirit, but because of the God who created that spirit, and gives purpose to life.
Have you read The Book Thief (or even just watched the movie)? What are your thoughts and impressions? Please share below!
