Despite the 550 pages, there's no way I could complain about having to sit down and read this in a 24-hour period on a Friday and Saturday. I was hooked from the first page as Death sets up the narrative. Page 3 (really page 1) is one of my favorites of anything I've ever read. Add 4 and 5, and we get a kind of Gregory House as Death, which I'm thrilled about. And since the opening chapter was set up perfectly to both outline the novel and make the reader (or, at least, me) want to continue to read? All the better. I couldn't be much happier with the way the novel began or ended.
Maybe more importantly, I think this is a book that could replace one of the "classics." I would have no problems seeing this replace the Diary of Anne Frank. Or, if not replace, either use in addition to or simply excerpt the Diary. Here's why:
- The Book Thief is more engaging as literature (perhaps not more emotionally engaging)
- It has more literary elements to explore and discuss
- Though not factual, it's based on factual happenings
- It has the same general subject matter as the Diary
- We get to see more than one side of the horrors of WWII
I think the last bullet is particularly important. We get to see the bombing, the hiding Jews, the fearful Germans who oppose the Nazis, the economic impacts of the war, the Hitler Youth, the parades of Jews, etc. Though we get realism from the Diary, the perspective is very limited. In this novel, we get nearly everything. And we get the novelty of Death's perspective! Not only that, but we also get a fractured narrative structure--sometimes Death seems to take a backseat as narrator to a more third-person omniscient view; I almost forgot Death was there sometimes--that is nonlinear. And metafiction. Death tells us at one point, after telling us that Rudy dies, that he doesn't care about the mystery; in turn, the author doesn't care about the mystery of the ending, he cares about the design of arriving at the ending. And better still, it's not a happy ending. Because honestly, how easy is it to have a happy ending in a novel about WWII?
Aside from my gushing review, I think that there is plenty to work with and to study here, with the potential to be nearly as emotionally engaging as the Diary. Zusak even wrote a book that appeals to the traditional gender classifications of both boys and girls: action, adventure, intrigue, and sports! for the boy stereotype, and family, companionship, and love for the girl stereotype. There are so many things you can do with this novel, from exploring gender to society to the economy to class to religion to Nazism as religion, etc. I guess I didn't end the gushing review last paragraph. This book is great. Great for the students and for the teacher. More thoughts later.
It's good to see you gush Nate. Gush away, I say!
ReplyDeleteCouldn't have agreed more!!! I absolutely loved reading The Book Thief. It was great to see such a different perspective.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. In general, I believe that students might enjoy The Book Thief as much as Anne Frank. One of the biggest things that I liked about The Book Thief is that it starts right away into talking about Holocaust/WWII where Anne Frank takes awhile to read before you start dealing with the "meat" of the book. I also agree that it is easier to teach literacy concepts with The Book Thief.
ReplyDeleteI agree on all points, really. I, too, think _The Book Thief_ warrants just as much attention as Anne Frank may, if not more, but I wouldn't want to leave it out of the classroom, either. And _Night_ by Elie Wiesel really struck a chord with me also. So what I'm really saying is, I wish we could keep them all for use in our classroom. Maybe if we keep a rotation from year to year would be appropriate, and atleast make honorable mentions of the books not included for those interested.
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite books as a teen, tenth grade to be exact, and I would have loved to read it in a classroom. I agree that there are a lot of good reasons to use this book, but maybe along side with a classic like Anne Frank because it has a fictional and a non-fictional aspect for comparing. But other than that I really liked your observations :)
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome that you enjoyed the book so much!! I will admit I was wary about such a long read in such a short amount of time along with the rest of my school work, but I was also pleasantly surprised! I agree that it would be a good book to bring into the classroom because it has the historical context but it's also such a dynamic read and has a lot of great elements to discuss. I also loved the way Death was characterized, and I think that would be a really interesting thing to discuss in the classroom setting. Great review!!!
ReplyDeleteI truly loved this book as well. I still have concerns about introducing the book TOO early. One main issue I have is foul language (e.g. Liesel's mother). I can't quote all the words here. I would say it's because I wouldn't dare! The real reason is that someone accidentally "stole" my book (not joking -- it went missing after last class).
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