{"id":252,"date":"2011-03-15T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T14:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=252"},"modified":"2011-03-12T22:23:02","modified_gmt":"2011-03-13T06:23:02","slug":"mark-reads-the-book-thief-chapter-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2011\/03\/mark-reads-the-book-thief-chapter-5\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Book Thief&#8217;: Chapter 5"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the fifth chapter of <em>The Book Thief<\/em>, we learn how Death came to meet young Liesel Meminger. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <em>The Book Thief.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><!--more-->PART ONE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>the grave digger\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s handbook<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong> <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>CH. 5: ARRIVAL ON HIMMEL STREET<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I can somewhat get a feel for what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see from a portion of this book. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that Zusak doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a lot to surprise me with, but the book is starting to come together in small ways. We now have absolute confirmation that this book is taking place during Hitler\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reign in Germany, and, guessing from the list of intended topics for Death to go over on the page introducing \u00c2\u00a0Part One, chapters five through fourteen comprise this first section. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a guess, but I could be wrong.<\/p>\n<p>This chapter seems to be as long as all of the prologue put together and it was nice to get into the swing of things. Zusak\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style still includes portions of prose strung together to form the larger narrative of the story and, unlike I predicted at the end of chapter four, Death is still the narrator. Death will be telling us what this book is and I get less of a feeling that the book is entirely written by the book thief. But we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see.<\/p>\n<p>Death flashes back to the first time he meets the book thief. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when Death took her brother as he died on a trip to Munich to go live in a foster how. Death still interrupts segments with those bolded sections that seem to act as asides to the reader, clueing them into things they were not or might not be privy to. The book thief\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brother, only six years old, died suddenly after a bout of intense coughing. Then, as Death puts it, just \u00e2\u20ac\u0153nothing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>With one eye open, one still in a dream, the book thief\u00e2\u20ac\u201dalso know as Liesel Meminger\u00e2\u20ac\u201dcould see without question that her younger brother, Werner, was now sideways and dead.<\/p>\n<p>His blue eyes stared at the floor.<\/p>\n<p>Seeing nothing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t take Zusak long to get to the tragedy of all this, and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine there will be little of this to come. Liesel is just nine years old when her brother dies and her mother takes her to Munich in hopes to give her a more steady life in a foster home than what she can give her. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s insinuated that this is an act inspired by the hopeless poverty that they live in, but as of yet, nothing is confirmed. Still, this, too, is an act of tragedy, having to give up your son and daughter to strangers to give them a better life. Oh, and then your son dies on the way there.<\/p>\n<p><em>Fuck<\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Next, her mother.<\/p>\n<p>She woke her up with the same distraught shake.<\/p>\n<p>If you can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t imagine it, think clumsy silence. Think bits and pieces of floating despair. And drowning in a train.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Ok, again, will not defend this to anyone because I completely get not liking this: I like Zusak\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s style. It <em>is<\/em> brief and choppy, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very frank. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll choose this sort of poeticism to use, but make it very matter-of-fact. There is a neat rhythm to the way these words unfold, one to the next, that I appreciate.<\/p>\n<p>On the way to Munich, as snow fell heavily to the ground, Liesel and her mother have to watch Werner be buried. The Munich train was stopped because of the weather, so Liesel doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know what city she is in when they take a side trip with a priest and two gravediggers to lay little Werner to rest.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t quite understand Death\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intrigue with Liesel, but he spends two days away from her after he first sees her (and she apparently sees him) before, against his better judgment, he returns to watch Wener get buried.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>From miles away, as I approached, I could already see the small group of humans standing frigidly among the wasteland of snow. The cemetery welcomed me like a friend, and soon, I was with them. I bowed my head.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Death has seen millions upon billions of souls leave Earth. Why does he attend <em>this<\/em> ceremony? What is so special about Liesel Meminger?<\/p>\n<p>I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know yet, but I do get to see the moment that Liesel earns her nickname:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Standing to Liesel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s left, the grave diggers were rubbing their hands together and whining about the snow and the current digging conditions. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153So hard getting through all the ice,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and so forth. One of them couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have been more than fourteen. An apprentice. When he walked away, after a few dozen paces, a black book fell innocuously from his coat pocket without his knowledge.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Liesel doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t notice it at first, understandably so, because she becomes entirely consumed by grief. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re just five chapters in and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m already sad.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Still in disbelief, she started to dig. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be dead. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be dead. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t\u00e2\u20ac\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Within seconds, snow was carved into her skin.<\/p>\n<p>Frozen blood was cracked acrossher hands.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere in all the snow, she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. Each half was glowing, and beating under all that white. She realized her mother had come back for her only when she felt the boniness of a hand on her shoulder. She was being dragged away. A warm scream filled her throat.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Nine years old. <em>Nine years old<\/em>. Good god. As Liesel and her mother leave, Liesel notices a book with silver writing on the cover. And she steals it. The book thief. What is the book? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inside of it? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m beginning to think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible for the book to be <em>about<\/em> Liesel, since someone else owned it. Unless\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6was the book Death picked up a different one from this one?<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A final, soaking farewell was let go of, and they turned and left the cemetery, looking back several times.<\/p>\n<p>As for me, I remained a few moments longer.<\/p>\n<p>I waved.<\/p>\n<p>No one waved back.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t, but I laughed. This is a bit too silly for me. Why is Death waving at <em>anyone<\/em>, for that matter? Suddenly, I had an image of Death crying into his scarf on his walk home and listening to Jawbreaker. Oh god, I should never write a book, it will be ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, though, Zusak writes a sentence (which I will bold in the next quote) that literally made me stop for a couple minutes because it hit me so hard.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>When the train pulled into the <em>Banhof<\/em> in Munich, the passengers slid out as if from a torn package. There were people of every stature, but among them, the poor were the most easily recognized. The impoverished always try to keep moving, as if relocating might help. <strong>They ignore the reality that a new version of the same old problem will be waiting at the end of the trip\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe relative you cringe to kiss.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As someone who grew up extremely poor, <em>HOLY GOD THAT IS SO RIGHT<\/em>. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eerie how fitting that is. I love it when once sentence can knock you down like that. I LOVE BOOKS, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n<p>The remaining two members of the Meminger family continue on their journey to the foster home, the sorrow of their reality weighing them down. And Zusak continues to make this chapter one of the most depressing things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever read:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There was the chaos of goodbye.<\/p>\n<p>It was a goodbye that was wet, with the girl\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head buried into the wooly, worn shallows of her mother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s coat. There had been some more dragging.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Liesel lost her brother and is now losing her mother, too. Gutting. Holy shit, this is intense. Liesel, consumed by the sadness of it all, is taken in a car to her foster parents, the Humbermans, who live in a city called Molching. On a street with the name of Himmel. Which translates to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Heaven.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d IT HURTS, <em>EVERYTHING HURTS<\/em>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>There was the constant rise and fall of her stomach, and the futile hopes that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d lose their way or change their minds. Among it all, her thoughts couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help turning torward her mother, back at the <em>Bahnhof<\/em>, waiting to leave again. Shivering. Bundled up in that useless coat. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be eating her nails, waiting for the train. The platform would be long and uncomfortable\u00e2\u20ac\u201da slice of cold cement. Would she keep an eye out for the approximate burial site of her son on the return trip? Or would sleep be too heavy?<\/p>\n<p>The car moved on, with Liesel dreading the last, lethal turn.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a finality in the way this is written, and it makes <em>me<\/em> feel futile. I have a feeling Liesel will never see her mother again. This is it. Perhaps it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the hopelessness that comes with knowing that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no going back. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to live in foster care, with new parents who might say they love their \u00e2\u20ac\u0153daughter,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d but everyone will know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the same. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the same. It can certainly <em>grow<\/em> into that. I mean, I lived with my biological mother, then foster care, then my adoptive parents. I love my adoptive parents, and no one else. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re who I <em>grew<\/em> to love.<\/p>\n<p>With trepidation and terror, Liesel arrives on Himmel Street to meet her new parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann. And Liesel just flat out refuses to get out of the call. Perhaps she believed that if she didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t move, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have to take her back. Contact her mother and send her back on the train to home. But Hans Hubermann finally coaxes her out of the car. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what he says to her to get her out, but it happens. And she leaves her entire familiar world behind to live with the Hubermanns. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know enough about them to know whether I should be anxious or excited by them. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have to wait to see how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll turn out.<\/p>\n<p>The more important thing now, though, is the fact that the narration turns back to that small black book that Liesel stole. And then we learn <em>what<\/em> that specific book is:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>* * * THE GRAVE DIGGER\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S HANDBOOK * * *<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>A Twelve-Step Guide to <\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Grave-Digging Success<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Published by the Bayern Cemetery Association<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The book thief had struck for the first time\u00e2\u20ac\u201dthe beginning of an illustrious career.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Oh christ, her brother was just buried. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6.<\/p>\n<p>Ok, nevermind, BAD THOUGHT. There is an interesting phrase used here: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153for the first time.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Does this mean the book Death got after the third time he saw Liesel was at the end of a long line of books? That could mean it is her <em>own<\/em> book as well.<\/p>\n<p>I like this a lot so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the fifth chapter of The Book Thief, we learn how Death came to meet young Liesel Meminger. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read The Book Thief.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[23,46,45,44],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-book-thief","tag-mark-reads","tag-mark-reads-the-book-thief","tag-markus-zusak","tag-the-book-thief-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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