Another book that's been on my to-read list for awhile, but that I was in no hurry to read--until my wife told me the movie was coming out and that we would be going to see it. Books that I know will be dark and depressing take me a long time to work myself up to beginning, and there's not much that's darker or more depressing than a book about WWII and the Holocaust told from the point of view of Death.
But greater than that inertia is my fear that a movie will spoil a book for me, so reluctantly I pushed The Book Thief to the top of my list. I'm glad I did. This story is beautiful, and the language used to tell it is constantly fresh, imaginative, evocative, and surprisingly apt. I found myself wondering multiple times, why don't we say that phrase that way? or, why don't we use this word for that? It's a lovingly crafted book, which helps underscore the love and humanity of the characters. Even Death, on occasion, has a heart.
This is turning out to be a very good year for books so far. I only hope I can find a few more titles as original and moving as this one turned out to be.
The Book Thief, but Markus Zusak.
9.25/10
No comments:
Post a Comment