The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
I must admit, I am perhaps more than just a little biased when reading fictional stories of the World War 2 era as written from the point of view of the German people, regardless of how well researched the subject may be. As a German myself I cannot look past every little detail that is supposed to describe the German culture by an author of a different nationality. Such was the case with this story as well. There are a few descriptions, details, customs or “typical German” character traits that I thought were less true and less flattering than maybe intended to be.
Having said that and aside from these personal peeves I always hold, I have to say that the structure of the narration was unflattering and disappointing. As a reader I cannot appreciate an author’s choice to give away the ending of the story half way through it. The reader as well as the writer deserve the gratification of being taken along the journey of the story from beginning until the end without having the anticipation taken out of it prematurely, only to have to suffer through another 250 pages of elaborate descriptions of something, to which the outcome has already been revealed.
This brings me to my next point, the narration itself or rather the writing contains too many metaphors, similes and overly described details that sometimes take up a few pages at a time. By the time the author has finished writing about the state of the sky I have forgotten the actual point of the section/chapter. It is unfortunate for a reader to be able to identify quite clearly that the author’s main intention of his writing style is aimed to win poetic admiration.
With that in mind, one can easily see why the characters, main and secondary, went lost in the over-descriptive writing. The main character does not possess any depth or dimension, because the author could not see past the details of the setting.
The plot or overall point of the story can be identified after considerable meditation and even then all I can comment on is the fact that this story could have been at least 100 pages shorter and even more powerful.
Thinking about this book and even just looking at its cover results in nothing more than a shrug of my shoulders. It contains a few good parts here and there and the general despair and sadness of war away from the front line tugs at the heart strings. But I cannot wholeheartedly recommend this book, although I would suggest it if this genre was specifically requested.
