The Book Tower

The other evening, my daughter picked up the copy of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak that I’d left on the kitchen table. I’ve found myself leaving it everywhere, it’s one of those books you can’t help carrying around with you. After examining the cover she asked me two questions. “What’s this book about?” and “who is the skeleton on the cover?”

Well, The Book Thief is about a little girl in Nazi Germany called Liesel. She is seperated from her mother and is fostered by a family who hide a young Jewish man in their basement, but more of him later. Liesel has a habit of stealing books, and stories – stolen, invented, overheard and untold – are at the centre of this novel. It’s about rash decisions, discovery, loss and the power and limitation of words…

Oh, and the skeleton represents Death, who narrates the whole story. So how do you really explain the horrors of Nazi Germany, a book that’s centred around them and – to boot – one that’s narrated by Death to a young child? The Second World War and the Holocaust are subjects that I try to revisit periodically with my daughter. I find it strange that many of her age group have never even heard of Adolf Hitler. What do you tell them ? How far do you go? But I’m going off topic. What was more difficult for me was explaining why I wanted to read a book – a story – about it all. And what makes what Death has to say so interesting?

I found The Book Thief difficult to get into. Partly because I wasn’t sure of the age group it’s aimed at. I suspect it is for quite a young audience, although this ceased to matter as I became accustomed to the style of the writing. The prose is written very simply but this becomes an asset to the unfolding story, especially as the length is nearly 600 pages. The other reason I was uncomfortable as first was the presence of the Death character, which in some reviews has been criticised. This all-knowing and ironic voice is irritating at first, but again it reveals itself as necessary to the power of the book as it gets going.

Zusak’s embodiment of Death does indeed know exactly what is going to happen; who is going to die and in what circumstances, how stories unfold, the winners and the losers. If you can imagine the events of The Book Thief being catalogued on a set of cards, it’s the great skill of how the cards that are dealt to you that makes the book work. Little teasers are laid in front of the reader in periodic bullet lists, which, although infuriating at first, you do get used to.

The power of words is brought home in several of the book’s scenes, but most effectively it’s with the Jewish fugitive Max Vandenburg’s relationship with Mein Kampf. When he is first introduced to us, ironic circumstances mean that a copy of the book helps to provide his key to escape. Later, in Liesel’s basement, he symbolically paints out Hitler’s words to write his own story on the fresh, clean pages.

Words provide comfort and torment to all in The Book Thief. At times, Max is little more than a ghostly figure in his basement retreat and can only utter a pitiful “sorry” or “thank you”. Similarly, when conscripted into the German army, Liesel’s foster father can barely compose a letter home. But words ease others through their tragedy; Liesel reads her stolen words to others as they shelter in an air raid, she also discovers and reads Max’s hidden notebook when he has gone.

Disappointingly, I was allowed to overcongratulate myself on my discovery of The Book Thief‘s themes before Zusak began to over-egg the pudding. In the closing chapters, he really makes sure that the reader knows that this is a book about words and what they can and cannot do, unfortunately spoiling some of the book’s subtlety. But there are other subtle sketches throughout, such as Liesel’s relationship with her foster father and her fondness for him, and with the mayor’s wife, whose library provides rich pickings for a book thief.

I’d wouldn’t quite rate The Book Thief up there alongside my other favourite recent anti-war novels Birdsong and Atonement, but I might tempt by daughter to pick it up properly in four or five years time. I hope she reads it.

Continue reading The Book Thief [6]

In a couple of his recent posts, Simon over at Inside Books has started me thinking about the books I studied whilst at school. Were they good choices? Did I benefit from them?

O Level Texts

From memory, these are the texts forced onto me aged 14-16:

• Travesties by Tom Stoppard
• The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
• Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift
• The poetry of Edward Thomas
• The Nun’s Priest’s Tale by Chaucer
• The Taming of the Shrew by Shakespeare

Stoppard is always a syllabus favourite, from this level right up until graduate. It’s his cleverness that excites the exam question setter. Tricks with words and plot, time and memory, Travesites – in its archness – tied in neatly with Wilde as a man with a failing memory (who once acted in a production of Earnest ) finds his reality slipping in and out of Wilde’s drama. Clever stuff. More than two decades on, Tom Stoppard still continues to irritate me.

I really enjoyed Shakepeare because you can discuss him endlessly but he’s not obviously trying to be clever. It’s achievable to argue from both sides of an argument because his plays are so rich.

A Level Texts

Aged 16-17, although bearing in mind I made my own choice to stay on at school:

• Hamlet and Measure for Measure by Shakespeare
• The Spire by William Golding
• Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
• The White Devil by John Webster
• The Millers Tale by Chaucer
• Professional Foul by Tom Stoppard
• Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy

More Stoppard. Why not Pinter, Orton or even Arnold Wesker?

Shakespeare and Beckett had the most effect on me here. Shakespeare for the same reasons as above. Beckett was just strange, none of us had ever encountered anything like this before. I’ve realised since that – oddly – the closest thing to it we did know was Shakespeare. Scenes from The Tempest are very pre-Beckett Beckett, although we didn’t know that at the time. Anyway, we were excited by Waiting for Godot. The humour, depth and, as I’ve said, strangeness of the play.

Golding – again a favourite of question setters. The Spire provided perfect examples of symbolism that you could discuss until you’re blue in the face. Unfortunately it’s a boring novel.

Chaucer? Well, you just get used to him. When I returned to my books as a mature student years later he was there waiting for me. As were Shakespeare, Hardy and Beckett. And – dammit – Stoppard.

Comment

Very slowly, I’m getting ready for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It’s taking me a while to get enthusiastic, but I’m sure I’ll be jumping around in my wizard’s hat in time for July 21st.

I saw something in the paper this weekend about William Hill’s odds for the book’s grand finale. It’s no secret that Harry meets his maker in Rowling’s final instalment of the series. I can’t find the paper now; I’ve either put it with the recycling or my wife has it by the bed upstairs. I daren’t wake her by rustling around up there. But I’m interested, do many people really bother betting on a Harry Potter book? After much frantic searching I’ve found what I believe to be the odds on who kills Harry:

• 2/1 Lord Voldemort
• 5/2 Professor Snape
• 6/1 Draco Malfroy
• 6/1 Ron Weasley
• 6/1 Harry Potter

And the less likely:

• 12/1 Neville Longbottom
• 14/1 Lucius Malfroy
• 14/1 Hermione Granger
• 20/1 Proffessor Slughorn
• 25/1 Hagrid
• 25/1 Cornelius Fudge
• 33/1 Arthur Weasley
• 33/1 Dawlish
• 40/1 Professor McGonagall
• 50/1 Lupin
• 50/1 Mr Filch
• 50/1 Dobby
• 100/1 Ginny Weasley
• 100/1 Tonks
• 100/1 Fred/George Weasly
• 100/1 Uncle Vernon
• Other On Request

The desperate:

If Harry Potter survives all bets will be void and stake money will be returned -You cannot lose!
Other Potty Potter Punts Hills Have Accepted:

• Ron and Hermione To Marry with Harry As Best Man-8/1
• Ron and Hermione to have a child 16/1 ….called Harry 25/1
• Ron to cause the demise of Draco Malfroy in a duel-20/1
• Harry Potter to catch the snitch in a Quidditch world cup-33/1

Has the world gone crazy? Why not just make up the most far fetched scenario you can think of? There’s no mention of Dumbledore or Sirius Black coming back from the dead although, as my two favourite characters from the series, I’d love to see them again.

Interesting that William Hill will return your money if Harry survives, which – in a way – is a sort of tribute to Rowling. The fact that he will die, and it’s such a certainty that William Hill are betting on it, isn’t what’s exciting or interesting. It’s how.

To be perfectly honest, I am a big fan. I always find one or two fantastic sequences in a Harry Potter book. At least. In the last instalment, I remember Harry and Dumbledore’s journeys back into the early days of Voldemort particularly effective. And that other journey across the lake…

Talking about it though, I’m getting excited again. Where’s my cape and wand..?

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