 |
| "He made three separate formations that led to the same tower of dominoes in the middle. Together, they would watch everything that was so carefully planned collapse, and they would all smile at the beauty of destruction." |
This one... is probably going to take me a long time. To think about what I want to write about this book, as if I can think of anything that truly describes it and its many facets.
I can't even organize this the way I usually organize my reviews, because this is not a review. This is an explanation of the story of the book thief, what it means, and what it can teach us about humanity, friendship, love, hatred, beauty and evil. And words. How they can destroy us, how they can save us.
"***AN OBSERVATION***
A pair of train guards.
A pair of grave diggers.
When it came down to it, one of them called the shots.
The other did what he was told.
The question is, what if the other is a lot more than one?"
Liesel Meminger, sent to live with Rosa and Hans Hubermann, her foster family (because her mother was most likely suspected of being a communist), is an illiterate girl who is determined to read. She steals books and Hans, her Papa, teaches her how to read them. She steals them from various locations until she meets Ilsa Hermann, the mayor's wife, who saw her steal her second book and then invites her into the library, where Liesel mostly just looks at the books because she can't really read yet. She then cancels Rosa's ironing service, so Liesel gets so angry she yells at her and calls her names and tells her she'll never come over again. Of course, she does. With her best friend Rudy, she goes back to the mayor's house and steals books repeatedly, not realizing that the mayor's wife is fully aware of her thievery and feels so badly about causing Rosa's unemployment that she actually wants Liesel to steal the books.
Let's talk for a moment about Ilsa Hermann's patience with Liesel Meminger. That second book Liesel stole, the one Ilsa witnessed, was a book that was meant to be burned because it was contraband-- it promoted values that weren't those of Hitler and Nazism. Instead of turning Liesel in, Ilsa saw the book thief's desire to read and invited her into her own library. Then Liesel shouts at her and calls her horrible things and tells her she's pathetic for continuing to mourn over her dead son, and Ilsa still allows her to steal books from that library. Then, later, Liesel gets so mad over the power of words (which we'll get to later) that she goes to the library and destroys a book, and then writes a note saying she won't come over and take the books anymore, and what does Ilsa do? She shows up at the Hubermann residence with a blank book of lined paper, and tells Liesel that if she's not going to read anymore, she should write, because she writes well.
Back to the story. Well, no. Let's backtrack a little and talk about Rudy Steiner. Liesel first moved to Himmel Street when she was nine years old, and she and Rudy became best friends, but the kind who are not openly nice to each other. They swear at each other and insult each other, but the only reason they're comfortable doing this is because they actually love each other. Rudy asks Liesel to kiss him time and time again and she refuses. They steal things together, food and books mostly, and they understand each other, and they protect each other. Keep in mind that they are only 9-14 years old here. At the first of their excursions to the mayor's house, Rudy tells Liesel to take off her shoes because it will be quieter, so she leaves them on the porch. They hear someone coming, so they run away from the house, and Rudy forgets her shoes there. She yells and swears at him, and he puts up with it and just goes back to get them. Once, when a bully throws one of Liesel's books into the river, Rudy follows it and wades in to get it back. But the narrator has previously told us that Rudy does not offer his friendship for free (this is mostly a joke).
“How about a kiss, Saumensch?"
He stood waist-deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking. In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the book thief's kiss. He must have longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.”
Later in the story, Rudy is filled with anger that his father has been sent off to the war, so he makes plans to go to one of the upper-class villages near them and steal whatever he can get his hands on. Liesel obviously accompanies him (without actually being invited), and when they get there they end up just sitting in the middle of the road and not stealing anything. Rudy says, "I guess I'm better at leaving things behind than stealing them." This would be nice foreshadowing if the narrator, Death (did I forget to mention that?), hadn't already told us that Rudy was going to die. Even later still, when parades of Jews through Molching, where the Hubermanns and Liesel and Rudy and everyone live, become more common, Rudy breaks up pieces of stale bread to give to the Jews, at the risk of being whipped by the soldiers who accompany them. Rudy goes from a boy who steals food for himself to a boy who gives food to people he's supposed to hate. We were given permission to love Rudy the first time he did something for Liesel without asking for a kiss, and yes, I love him. He reminds me of someone. The subtle anger, the charisma, the selflessness... the bread...
What Rudy doesn't know is that Liesel and the Hubermanns hid a Jew in their basement for months. Max Vandenberg. The son of one of Hans's friends from World War I (who was the reason Hans wasn't on the mission that ended up killing him), Max shows up at their door one day because Hans promised him help if ever he needed it. So they shelter him in their basement until they can't any longer. Liesel reads to him and he writes her two picture books and they become friends through their mutual love of stories, even though he is 24 and she is 12. He has dreams in the basement of fighting Hitler and winning, until Hitler stops the fight and starts talking to the audience about what an abomination this Jew is, and using words to persuade the audience, who then basically stampedes the ring and attacks Max. Even in his dreams he doesn't win the fight, because Hitler uses the power of words to win, while he and all of the other Jews have been silenced.
"***A DUDEN DICTIONARY DEFINITION***
Schweigen-- Silence: the absence of sound or noise.
Related words: quiet, calmness, peace.
How perfect. Peace."
The reason they couldn't keep Max in their basement anymore? The kindness of Hans Hubermann. The man who made Liesel feel at home on Himmel Street, despite missing her mother and having nightmares about her brother (whom she saw die on the trip to their new home). The man who took in a Jew knowing the risks to himself. During the first parade of Jews through Molching, Hans Hubermann gave an obviously dying Jew a piece of bread. A soldier saw, and both received lashings. Not until he got home did he realize that now the police would probably come for him, and they would find the Jew in his basement and kill them both. So Max had to leave. Hans's punishment was half in waiting for his punishment, and half that he was sent to participate in the war-- recovering damaged buildings and moving dead bodies.
A little background on Rosa Hubermann: she's not an openly loving person (she's known for her yelling and swearing), but she has a bigger heart than anyone would know. While her husband is gone, she sits with his accordion at night, not realizing that Liesel watches. When an air raid is coming and her despised neighbor is refusing to go to the bomb shelter, she tries to convince her to leave. Earlier in the story, when Max had been sick and comatose for weeks, Rosa went to Liesel's school and pretended to be yelling at her in order to inform her that Max was finally awake.
Months after Hans Hubermann returns home due to a broken leg, Himmel Street is bombed. Everyone dies except Liesel, who was in her basement, because that was where she learned to read with her Papa, that's where she went to read to Max, and it's where she learned the importance of words. What was she doing in the basement while everyone else was sleeping? Writing. In the book that Ilsa Hermann gave her, she was writing the story of The Book Thief. Words may have been what ended up killing everyone else on Himmel Street, but they were what saved Liesel Meminger's life that night.
When she discovers what has happened, she sees Rudy first. The lemon-colored hair that she had described to Max and he put in his second picture book for her. She holds him and tells him she loves him and finally kisses him. She wanted to do it before, but she could never bring herself to it. She sees Rosa and then Hans, who she can't look in the eyes because his eyes are supposed to be silver, not dead. Death realizes that he is who she loved the most, but honestly I knew it all along.
She ends up living for a short time with the mayor and Ilsa Hermann, but then Rudy's father (who was also sent to the war as punishment for not allowing them to take Rudy to a military training school) learns that she has survived and takes her in. Max Vandenberg shows up asking for her one day, and all it says is that "they hugged and cried and fell to the floor." Then we learn that Liesel lived a long life with a husband (we don't know who. Max, possibly? But that would be weird. I can't help but feel sad and angry and ripped off that it couldn't be Rudy) and children and grandchildren. Because a long life is the only way to recover from such things.
"In her final visions, she saw her three children, her grandchildren, her husband, and the long list of lives that merged with hers. Among them, lit like lanterns, were Hans and Rosa Hubermann, her brother, and the boy whose hair remained the color of lemons forever."
"I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-- that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant.
None of those things, however, came out of my mouth.
All I was able to do was turn to Liesel Meminger and tell her the only truth I know. I said it to the book thief and I say it now to you.
***A LAST NOTE FROM YOUR NARRATOR***
I am haunted by humans."
