The readings for my Young Adult novel class seem to just keep getting better and better. Although this particular text spanned over 550 pages, I was thrilled for probably the last 450.
We have all read the Holocaust texts: Night, Diary of Anne Frank, etc., but never one like this. The text takes the perspective of a very interesting narrator: Death. And Death sort of has a pretty cool perspective. Although he acknowledges that Hitler has forced him to work more than ordinary, he still does his job, which is to carry souls to heaven. Death picks sides though. It is subtle, but Death certainly realizes that what Hitler is doing is atrocious. Strangely, he is probably not even the most interesting character in the book. I would give that award to Liesel Meminger, the little girl that Death narrates and sees three times.
Liesel is a sweet little girl. And a lot of unsweet things happen to her. Her mother is taken away, her brother passes away, and she is sent to be fostered by a family from just outside Munich. I enjoyed the setting because I've lived in Germany previously and could understand what the scenery looked like and picture it fairly easily myself. However, when the prisoners of Dachau are marched through this small town called Molching, that is something fair unimaginable. Thankfully, Liesel's foster Papa isn't as close-minded as some of his German peers. He doesn't see the difference between a Jew and a Gentile. This is probably the most refreshing aspect of the book. I actually enjoyed most of the characters. In fact, they almost all had something to like about.
Rudy Steiner, Liesel's love interest in the text, is a boy who chases his dreams, literally. We are told about halfway into the book that Rudy is going to die young. What we don't know is when (in the book) or how. This, instead of Zusak foreshadowing, creates for a more gripping tale because although his death is expected, we have no idea when we will see him die, or if we will at all. Rudy is just an innocent boy aspiring to be Jesse Owens. I know as a young man myself that I certainly had many athletes I aspired to be (although I never painted my face the color of their skin). It is crushing when we discover that Liesel will never have kissed Rudy, at least not while he's breathing, and we understand that regrets are something we are all to live with. There are so many scenes when I want her to kiss him, so so much, but she doesn't. And by the time that she's willing, she waits for Rudy to ask, but he doesn't. Oh the irony.
And then there's Max. The Word-Shaker. The Standover Man. These are books within this book. And they are some of the sweetest things one could ever concoct given that Max had a kerosine lamp, some buckets of paint, and a copy of Mein Kampf. Mein means "my" in German, and Kampf means "struggle." This text, authored by Hitler, was about his struggle as a prisoner. Max decides to paint over this portrait of a struggle to show Liesel his platonic affection for her and essentially to thank her for helping him get through his sickness and his time in the basement. Perhaps the best part of the text, for me at least, was the final few pages where we discover that Max has entered Mr Steiner's shop looking for Liesel and when she appears and they embrace. It is so poignant, so powerful. It is ironic, even, that one of the few survivors in this text was the lone Jew that we meet.
While I lived in Germany I met many people near my age. I didn't want to be that typical American and bring up beer and Hitler with them right away. But after getting to know them and opening up to them a little here and there I finally had the urge to ask them about their families and what happened in World War II. My grandfathers fought in the war, but on the Pacific front, so all of my knowledge of the European front comes from films or texts. Although what I was told was a secondhand account, I have no reason to disbelieve when many of my friends told me that their grandfathers fought in the war as well. Yes, they were Nazis. However, much like Liesel's Papa, they were not all bad people. Some joined because it was 'kill or be killed.' And perhaps they were anti-semitic. I certainly never asked my grandparents what they thought about the Civil Rights era in America in the 1960's. I kind of wish I had the courage. I suppose I don't want to know the answer if it isn't something I agree with. Anyway, my friends' grandparents primarily joined because it was compulsory. Had they not joined, their families would be put in jeopardy, and my friends may not be here today as a result. What I'm trying to say is that not every German, much like Liesel's Papa, was a bad person. Not every Nazi had the will to kill. Not every Nazi threw Jews in a chamber or an oven. Liesel's Papa was an accurate portrayal of a man we do not often get to see in literature or film on World War II from the German side.
I think that this book is highly teachable, although it is long, and has tough issues to deal with. It certainly should be on the shelves of any language arts teacher with an independent reading library. Even excerpts from the book could be taken. The perspective from Death in the book, however, is one to be lauded and picked apart because it is so vastly different from what many adolescents read about World War II. I'd highly recommend this book to anyone, regardless of their interest in history or not.
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