It is a story about a young girl who is taken in by a
foster family. It takes place in Germany
during the Nazi occupation and “Heil Hitler”.
Liesel, the main character, earns
this nickname” The Book Thief” clearly from her heartfelt and sometimes
desperate need to steal books for various reasons you discover throughout this
incredible and memory making book. It
clearly shows what it may have been like to be a child or a German citizen,
particularly when you choose not to become a member of the Nazi party by choice
or chance. Family members make their
choices but the whole family suffers the consequences of any one choice.
The first book stolen is at the gravesite of her younger
brother which is shortly before she sees her mother for the last time. She doesn’t even know how to read or what the
book is about, just that she had to have it.
It turns out to be a book about how to dig a proper grave and is
ultimately used as a tool by her foster-father to teach her to read. Each book stolen is tied to a specific period
of time in her life such as stealing from the library of the mayor’s wife for
firing her foster- mother or just for when she and her best friend Rudy just
needed to win at something since life was more than difficult with food
shortages, little work, living in the poorest city on one of the poorest
streets in their town. She is a thief
but an extremely particular book thief when making a selection of the perfect
read at any point in time.
Her love of words and reading also brought comfort to
others like during an air raid in a bomb shelter where she started reading
aloud from one of her beloved books. She
reads to the Jewish man hidden in the basement of the home where she is staying
while he is extremely ill. His name is
Max and is the son of the man who saved her foster-fathers life in a previous war
time situation.
She experienced great hardship as a young girl in Germany
and physical pain as well when she was beaten by a soldier using a whip for her
talking to a young Jewish man among the hundreds being paraded through town on
the way to Dachau. The young man was
Max, the one that lived in their basement for over two years who became a dear
friend. They shared books and he wrote
one for her birthday called “The Standover Man”.
At a particular point in time, she realizes the power in
words and of words and decides that she hates words. But a “word shaker” cannot escape them for
long. It is suggested that she stop
reading and start writing. She
does.
She loses everyone she loves and who loves her, except
for one that I will not name here, in one night while she alone was
spared. How was she spared? She was
writing a book of her own in the basement that was supposedly not secure enough
to be a bomb shelter and was pulled from the rubble. Her story does not end here even though the
book that she wrote which chronicles her life through the various books that
she owns is lost to her forever until returned to her in her old age by the
narrator of this book who is “haunted by humans”.
Of note
It took me awhile to figure out who the narrator actually
was which proves to really be the perfect “source” of the information imparted
as needed. I have such affection for
certain characters on Himmel Street plus one other, all of whom may have loved
Liesel even more than me:
·
Lemon haired Rudy whose athletic abilities won
him three medals and the unwanted attention of those building a super race of
“his kind”, whose idol was the Olympian Jesse Owens, and the one thing he
wanted most was a kiss from Liesel but when he finally received it he was not
aware,
·
Hans, the silver eyed, caring, protective, anti-Nazi, accordion playing
papa,
·
Rosa, the outwardly stern, name calling, terrible cooking mama who really
did have a well disguised caring heart for people,
·
Max, the Jewish fist fighter with hair like
feathers who had a dream of boxing
Hitler but that dream also included the war of words from Hitler that invited
those not in the ring to join him in the destruction of all Jews beginning with
this one, a survivor thanks in part to Liesel along with her foster parents,
and
·
Ilsa, the mayor’s wife who had a personal
library of perhaps a thousand books, who
had lost her only child, who received a verbal bashing and “the”
letter from her book thief Liesel which fueled the spark that brought
her back to the living.
Please read this endearing book that is being made into a
movie for all the right reasons.
My favorite passages
include but are in no way limited to the following:
·
…the words were on their way, and when they
arrived, Liesel would hold them in her hands like the clouds, and she would
wring them out like the rain.
·
Three languages interwove. The Russians, the bullets
and the Germans.
·
The words.
Why did they have to exist? …Without the words, the Fuhrer was nothing.
·
I was so angry and afraid and I wanted to kill
the words. …I love this place and hate it, because it is full of words.
·
The accordion breathes. There are lines on his
cheeks….I just like the way they move and change. Sometimes I think my papa is
an accordion. When he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.
·
I have hated the words and I have loved them and
I hope I have made them right.
·
For some reason, dying men always ask questions
they know the answer to. Perhaps it’s so
they can die being right.
