Book review- The Book Thief

Just finished reading The Book Thief in anticipation of the movie. It was quite different to anything I have ever read before. It was written by the character, 'Death', and follows a young girl's experiences throughout the Second World War. Thanks to my husband's interest in all things WWII, I have developed quite a fascination for the human stories that date back from that point in history. Not a morbid fascination, but a fascination with the strength of character that some people had, and an appreciation for how difficult and confusing it would have been for people caught up in the propaganda.

This book presented a few different perspectives of how the German citizenry in small villages may have felt during the war. Although it is a fictional story, I like to think that the cross section of humanity that it represented is an accurate portrayal of opinions during the war. It is easy to look back on those times and think how could people have gone along with that propaganda, but this book serves as a reminder to me that even though people may have been against the government, it was easier and safer to just maintain a low profile. People could have instigated little rebellions in their own homes to alleviate their consciences and help to maintain their own sense of humanity in a world that saw some people as sub human...

 Anybody see a link with today's world? It is easy to silently condemn citizens of Nazi Germany as cowards or worse, but we too live in a world where some people are seen as sub human. Do we stand up against these atrocities? Do we demand rights for, as an obvious example, the unborn? The elderly? The sick? The disabled? Do we fight against proposed laws that would see our most vulnerable citizens subject to discrimination or pressure to seek euthanasia? Do we encourage those who are fighting for the rights of others or do we slander them? Are we really much better than those citizens in Nazi Germany who just went along for a ride? How do we want to be remembered?

Anyways, enough with the hard hitting questions, and back to the book... Upon reflection, I quite liked the book. As I have already mentioned, it was written quite differently to other books I have read, but once I got used to the author's style, it was a good read. One criticism I have is that, even though throughout the book events are described in painstaking detail, the ending was very abrupt. I don't like abrupt endings! It's a thing I have. I like endings to give me such a sense of closure that I'm not left wondering about anything, at all. Apart from that, I would recommend this book as an interesting read- not light hearted, the subject matter is too heavy for that, but not heavy and depressing either- because if you were Death and narrating a story, individual deaths would be more of a matter of business than emotion- and that is the way it was portrayed in the book.