The Book Thief

First, to get this out of the way, this is a serious book with a serious ending. So serious I decided I was going to read Three Men in a Boat next to make up for the seriousness. It took me a little bit to get into this book. I had to read a little, ignore it for a couple weeks, then get it out for vacation before I got into it. Once I did, I was immersed. Markus Zusak tells the story from the point of view of Death. I know it sounds scary, but think of the Meet Joe Black version of Death. He's not a man with a scathe or a pitchfork.

The title character is Liesel Meminger, a girl living in WWII Germany placed into foster care because of her mother's poverty. She is called the book thief because although she couldn't read, she compulsively stole a book while on the way to her foster parents the Hubermans. She is treated well by her new family and gains a best friend in the form of Rudy Steiner.

The rest of the story, I don't want to reveal, but I will say that the ending is sad, but realistic. Historical novels don't usually impress me all that much, but this one did.

One thing of interest: because of this book, I know the insulting term of calling someone a pig in German in both the male and female forms. I don't know whether that's a good thing or a bad thing....

Another thing I kept thinking was that if the author intended to show that there were many innocent German people, he succeeded. But, what people need to know is this: that there are innocent people being oppressed in China, North Korea, and any of those other Communist or Socialist countries. When the liberal media and brainwashed citizens called for no war in Vietnam, they sentenced those people to lives of misery and death. The reason many WWII-oppressed European countries are free today is that we went in and sacrificed our lives to free them. Why? Because our country was built from a desire for freedom. But, freedom can only be maintained with armed citizens. (some of y'all can guess where I'm going) Hitler's way of enslaving the people was FIRST BY GUN CONTROL! Unarmed citizens have no way of stopping a tyrannical government.

Well....now I realize I turned a book review into a political rant, and I shall now step down off of my soapbox. Thank you for listening.

To close: don't read this book if you're looking for fluff. But if you're looking for a good story with great characters but a realistically sad ending, this is your book.