THE BOOK THIEF

I bought The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak because of the gushing reviews. In fact right on the cover the New York Times calls this book “life changing.” Wow.

I understood that it was a “Young Adult” book that had taken off in adult readers so that seemed interesting in itself. The story takes place in a city that is the seat of Nazi Germany and showcases the plight of Jews, the suffocation of those who did not blindly fall into lock step with Hitler, and of course the heinous individuals who hypnotically followed him.
This book is 560 pages long, so you can imagine my chagrin when I realized very quickly that it was going to be a laborious read. It was one of those books that seems as if the pages are soaked in molasses, turning very slowly.

It just goes to show that everyone has different tastes in reading. I loved the initial narration by “Death” a fresh voice in literature for sure. Death is sardonic, dark, witty, and even self-effacing. But after a few pages, with the introduction of the characters that I didn’t find very dimensional or original, and a plot in which very little happened, it bogged down.

Nancy’s Fiction Book Ratings
•    Gripped from first page, an absolute must read
•    Took over 50 pages to get into but then it was a very good read
•    Was moderately entertaining but didn’t really care about the main character
•    Read it cover to cover but didn’t resonate with the author’s voice
•    Left on my nightstand forever but never reached for it like I don’t want to reach for the Manolo Blahnik boots that hurt. There are two categories: a.) the author is too brilliant for me, and b.) boring/bad writing

Nancy’s Book rating for The Book Thief: Read it cover to cover but didn’t resonate with the author’s voice.