{"id":250,"date":"2011-03-14T07:00:49","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T14:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=250"},"modified":"2011-03-12T20:05:17","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T04:05:17","slug":"mark-reads-the-book-thief-ch-3-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/03\/mark-reads-the-book-thief-ch-3-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads ‘The Book Thief’: Ch. 3-4"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the third and fourth chapters of The Book Thief<\/em>, we learn about Death\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s two other sightings of the book thief and discover the actual context for this book. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Book Thief<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I think that of all the books I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done under the Mark Reads banner, this is the first time where I feel pretty darn positive about the experience right off the bat. This book is bizarre. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not sure if I really like<\/em> it, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ultimately intriguing to me. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if I have ever read a book like this, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6well, shit, I certainly have never read a book where the narrator was Death, first of all. But the way that Markus Zusak writes his prose is flowery, poetic, and could possibly be really irritating. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not irritated myself; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a refreshing change from the style of the last three books I read. I do acknowledge, though, that this could potentially be really annoying to some of you reading this. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ok.<\/p>\n

CH. 3: THE ECLIPSE<\/strong><\/p>\n

What these next two chapters establish is a better sense for where this book is headed, though, even saying that, I know that I am perpetually unprepared and I should tread lightly. Death is enthralled with the book thief, this girl who arrests his attention whenever she appears. Here, we learn about the second and third times that Death encounters her.<\/p>\n

This time, I had come for a man of perhaps twenty-four years of age. It was a beautiful thing in some ways. The plane was still coughing. Smoke was leaking from both its lungs.<\/p>\n
When it crashed, three deep gashes were made in the earth. Its wings were sawn-off arms. No more flapping. Not for this metallic little bird.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m anticipating so far: We know this is in Germany and I imagine we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re near (or in) the time period of World War II. I think it will be interesting to see how Death is going to work in a world war like this. But I am, of course, wondering how the book thief ties into the greater story.<\/p>\n
\n
* * * SOME OTHER SMALL FACTS * * *<\/strong><\/p>\n
Sometimes I arrive too early. <\/strong><\/p>\n
I rush, and some people cling longer to life than expected.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not until the end of chapter four that I am beginning to get a sense for why Death does this, but I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t recall a book where the narrator is this self-aware that they are describing the book. Does this count as breaking the fourth wall? Wait, do they even have those walls in literature? I HAVE MANY QUESTIONS.<\/p>\n
Anyway, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s during this collection of the soul of the boy who is twenty-four that Death sees the book thief a second time. She arrives at the crashed plane just after a young boy with a toolbox. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not given a context to why she was there. What we are giving is A LOT OF SAD ALREADY.<\/p>\n
From the toolbox, the boy took out, of all things, a teddy bear.<\/p>\n
He reached in through the torn windshield and placed it on the pilot\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chest. The smiling bear sat huddled among the crowded wreckage of the man and the blood. A few minutes later, I took my chance. The time was right.<\/p>\n
I walked in, loosened his soul, and carried it gently away.<\/p>\n
All that was left was the body, the dwindling smell of smoke, and the smiling teddy bear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, Zusak is all about unspoken imagery being used to DEPRESS THE FUCK OUT OF ME. Now I know why a few of you told me that maybe I might want to go after a different book after finishing Mockingjay<\/em>. I am really not prepared either.<\/p>\n
Zusak is slowly building this world with these brief passages. We only get bits and pieces at a time. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a strange way of introducing us to this book, but, again, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s different. Is this whole book going to be like this? Is there a reason the syntax has a staccato rhythm to it?<\/p>\n
Death moves away from the crowd that gathers around the downed plane, the pilot now dead, and as he continues on, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re treated to another metaphor dealing with darkness and color, giving me the sense that color means everything to Death:<\/p>\n
As with many of the others, when I began my journey away, there seemed a quick shadow again, a final moment of eclipse\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe recognition of another soul gone.<\/p>\n
You see, to me, for just a moment, despite all of the colors that touch and grapple with what I see in this world, I will often catch an eclipse when a human dies.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen millions of them.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen more eclipses than I care to remember.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Does Death mean there is an eclipse of color or an actual eclipse? I imagine he means a moment when the darkness sneaks in and he can no long read a person\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s color. Creepy.<\/p>\n
(Also, I hate that Stephenie Meyer ruined the word \u00e2\u20ac\u0153eclipse\u00e2\u20ac\u009d for me. Damn you.)<\/p>\n
CH. 4: THE FLAG<\/strong><\/p>\n
The last time I saw her was red. The sky was like soup, boiling and stirring. In some places, it was burned. There was black crumbs, and pepper, streaked across the redness.<\/p>\n
Earlier, kids had been playing hopscotch there, on the street that looked like oil-stained pages. When I arrived, I could still hear the echoes. The feet tapping the road. The children-voices laughing, and the smiles like salt, but decaying fast.<\/p>\n
Then, bombs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I love the mental images that Zusak paints for me already. But I suppose my question from earlier is going to be answered. What is Death like during war? The bombs fall on this village and Death arrives to collect the souls. Death describes them as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153glued down\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the blood red rubble, and I wonder if he means that the actions of humans here tied all of these children together. How do souls work in this world?<\/p>\n
Clearly, I see it.<\/p>\n
I was just about to leave when I found her kneeling there.<\/p>\n
A mountain range of rubble was written, designed, erected around her. She was clutching at a book.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This is now the third time Death has seen the book thief, only this time is the first time we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen an actual book attached to her being. Does she steal one book, this<\/em> book? Many books? And what is the significance of the specific<\/em> book she is holding? Death focuses on the book thief once again:<\/p>\n
Apart from everything else, the book thief wanted desperately to go back to the basement, to write, or to read through her story one last time. In hindsight, I see it so obviously on her face. She was dying for it\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe safety of it, the home of it\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut she could not move. Also, the basement didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even exist anymore. It was part of the mangled landscape.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So the book she is holding is one that she<\/em> wrote herself. What happened to her to inspired her to write a book? Can I possibly ask more questions than this in one single review?<\/p>\n
Death doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t interact with the book thief and, in fact, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a line where he says, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But that is not allowed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Some law or set of rules prevents him from speaking to her in any fashion. Because of this, he has to sit idly by as he watches her drop the book she is holding as it gets swept up in a frenzy by a cleaning crew. On board the garbage truck that holds her book, Death sweeps in to take it himself. He does not return it to her.<\/p>\n
I climbed aboard and took it in my hand, not realizing that I would keep it and view it several thousand times over the years.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Oh, Death. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to keep the contents of that book a secret from us, are you?<\/p>\n
Before we even learn any more about this book, Death recalls the colors most associated with the book thief. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the red, white, and black Nazi symbol, one that specifically has caused so much terror, pain, and loss for so many people. Of course, I want to know why he associates the Nazi insignia with the book thief. What did she do?<\/p>\n
Yes, often, I am reminded of her, and in one of my vast array of pockets, I have kept her story to retell. It is one of the small legion I carry, each one extraordinary in its own right. Each one an attempt\u00e2\u20ac\u201dan immense leap of an attempt\u00e2\u20ac\u201dto prove to me that you, and your human existence, are worth it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Well, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a glowing recommendation. Death has pockets, by the way? Anyway, now I sort of want to know what other stories Death has kept all this time.<\/p>\n
Here it is. One of a handful.<\/p>\n
The Book Thief<\/em>.<\/p>\n
If you feel like it, come with me. I will tell you a story.<\/p>\n
I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll show you something.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Wait. What? Holy shit. Ok so the prologue is Death, but does the book now switch to the perspective of the book thief? WHAT IS GOING ON.<\/p>\n
Oh, The Book Thief<\/em>. How intrigued you have made me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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