Thursday, February 19, 2015

On Reading THE BOOK THIEF

Power outages are a pain...and due to a bit of ice during the night, we had a countywide outage. 
awakened at about 4 a.m. and noticed that the fan was not running.  Getting up to check the 
clock, I immediately crawled back in my warm bed before it became a cold bed.  I didn't have long
to wait.  At 6:30 I got up and still no power.  Fetching the torch (flashlight) I went looking for my
Kindle.  I am half way through The Book Thief, and this was the perfect opportunity to get deep
into the other half.  I haven't seen the movie, which I understand is very good, but I often refuse 
to see the movie before reading the book.  Hollywood never does the book proud.  I remember  
once after reading Dean Koontz's The Watchers for the third time going to see the movie.  The
only thing vaguely familiar was the beautiful Golden Retriever.  What a waste of money.
So as I am reading The Book Thief, I noticed something.  My face was in turmoil.  It couldn't smile,
it wouldn't hold even a hint of a smile.  I stopped to think back on other favorite books and going
down the list in my mind realized that most books have humor in them, even if the books are not
intended to be funny.  It makes a nice break in the book from the terror or the haunting or
whatever the nature of the book might be.  Humor is definitely not the nature of The Book Thief. 
The nature of this book is not really fear either.  The nature of this book is Doldrums...because that
is where you are from page one onward.  The Holocaust is the main thrust of the book, but even
in The Diary of Anne Frank you smile on occasion and are even able to laugh out loud.  But not
here.  I hope I am not putting you off reading this spell binding  book because that is exactly what
it is, spell binding.  I find my self putting off the last few pages hating to come to the end of it
Because I know I will  never want to read it again,

8 comments:

Gill - That British Woman said...

we read this book for our book club meeting in October of last year I reviewed it here: http://thatbritishwomansbookreviewblog.blogspot.ca/2014/10/the-book-thief-by-markus-zusak-it-is.html

I was not impressed; depressing was the word I used. It got mixed reviews from the club, but most of the people were positive about it. I found death narrating it to be a different concept.

I do have the movie but haven't watched it yet, as honestly, not sure if I would like it or not.

Unknown said...

been there so often a quirky but amazing movie not good language but a great film St. vincent

Unknown said...

Sandy kessler is the unknown

Donna said...

Well, I wondered! Thanks for the review Sandy...I won't bother.
Hope you have a gas stove at least!
All electric homes are Not a good thing!
hughugs

Yael said...

I missed out on this book (and the movie) and ordered it from Amazon just now - thank you for the tip! :-)

Vee said...

Glad I missed that one then. =D

Hope that you are staying warm down there!

Sally said...

Actually, I hadn't heard of this book, but girl! I need some humor. I know what you mean though about hating for it to end. I've even put one away for a day or two waiting to finish. I hope you're warm and toasty now, and that you're continuing to do well, Sandi. xoxo

Maggie May said...

I remember reading it and yes....... it was dour!
Hope your electricity is back on by now.
Maggie x