For anyone reading this blog who is not in EDAP 540, read this book.
The Book Thief was easily the best novel I've read in several years. It's a positively gut-wrenching story of a young German girl during WWII, and it was probably the first thing I've read since college that truly impressed me with the sheer artistry of the writing. Zusak writes with a special kind of awareness, playing with and confusing the senses just enough to make you have to stop and think over his vivid descriptions without making them too obscure to be understood and felt. He could have written about a perfectly idyllic summer in the relatively uneventful life of a completely average child and still created a compelling narrative so rich in detail as to be nearly heart-breaking.
Instead, he wrote about a few sorrow and triumph-filled years in a poor, war-torn community, following a young girl who seems to attract grief as surely as honey attracts flies. The voice through which he tells this story is that of Death, whom he makes surprisingly believable as an overworked and sympathetic character who himself--against his better judgment--becomes fascinated and falls in love with the story's heroine.
As I mentioned in our class discussion about the book, one of the things I really liked was the new perspective it offers on Germany during World War II. This is not a Holocaust book, despite having a Jew-in-hiding as a primary character. It's a life-during-wartime story and a reminder that not every German in the 1930s and '40s was a Nazi, and that there were consequences for those who were not. It was, without question, an evil time and--in that time--an evil place (or at least a place filled with evil), but for many that evil was just something to be lived through on the hope of a better future. And many, including some of the most lovable characters in The Book Thief, would not live through it, would not see that hope confirmed.
One last thing: For me, the book's protagonist, Liesel Meminger, is a beautifully crafted symbol of childrens' ability to remain children through the hardest and darkest of times, as well as their paradoxical ability to become adults when they must. She is the human spirit, which is both most vulnerable and most resilient in childhood, and for those of us who work with children, she is a reminder of what kids can be, and what they will be--both of which we should bear in mind and do our best never to stifle.
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I am glad I wasn't the only one disappointed. Mainly I agree with you- I felt such a strong connection to the story, and to Liesel herself, that I was truly looking forward to talking about the book. After we did the fishbowl exercise, in which my reading was enriched by talking to others, I was hoping for something equally benefecial and generative. But as you said, I think the discussion was teacher dominated, and the forum was too big for everyone to participate as much as they would like. Although I may never get the book club I imagined for the BOOK THIEF, at least I learned something about what NOT to do in a classroom when it comes to certain materials.
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