Date: 26 January 2014
Location: Joyce
Nearly a full house was in attendance at Joyce’s on a chilly January afternoon to discuss The Book Thief. Most of us actually read and enjoyed the book, although not everyone appreciated its language and style.
The book tells the story of a young illiterate girl, Liesel, sent to live with foster parents, Hans and Rosa, in a small German town at the start of WW II. It is sort of a “coming of age” novel describing how Hans helps her learn to read from books that she has “stolen”. Liesel also shares many adventures with Rudy, the boy next door, who is always asking her for a kiss.
Life is difficult for all the families in their poor neighborhood, but things get especially tough for Liesel’s family when Max asks to be hidden from the Nazis. Max is the son of a WW I Jewish soldier who had saved Hans’s life. In spite of the difficulties and dangers, Hans and Rosa take Max in and hide him in their cellar. During his time in hiding, Max and Liesel develop a close and warm friendship. Eventually, however, the danger grows too great, and Max leaves the cellar, attempting to escape from Germany. Unfortunately, he is captured and sent to the Nazi labor camp at Dachau.
All of these are sympathetic characters, and of course there are others throughout the novel who are far less likable. However, the most interesting and unusual character in the book is the narrator – Death himself. It is hard to imagine how a book set in Nazi Germany during WW II and told by the Grim Reaper could have any appeal, but it is a surprisingly engaging work. Much of this is due to the “personality” of Death, who explains that he does not carry a scythe and that, to see what he looks like, you need only look in the mirror. While often complaining of being over-worked and having his hands full, Death continues efficiently doing his job — taking up the souls of the millions of people he meets. As the war progresses, he declares, “The bombs were coming–and so was I” and “It kills me sometimes, the way people die”. Near the end of the book Death proclaims that “in all the years of Hitler’s reign, no person was able to serve the Fuhrer as loyally as me.”
Throughout the book, Death had warned us that he would be visiting most of the characters in the story. Thus the horrific deaths of practically all of them—from errant Allied bombs—was not really a surprise. But Death’s description of the victims and the destruction was difficult to take, and the scene when Liesel finally gives Rudy his long sought-after kiss was heart-breaking.
The book raised lots of issues and we talked about many of them: the conflict of good and evil, what it means to help others, the power of words, the author’s style, etc. One interesting question was: does this book offer us any hope? Certainly there was little joy to be found in the ending. But Liesel’s and Max’s survival suggests that at least a sliver of hope still remains in this chaotic world.
Following our discussions, we finished off the meeting with a terrific meal: a scrumptious Brunswick stew with all sorts of salads, fruits and especially yummy desserts. It just doesn’t get any better than that.
— Bob