I finally finished The Book Theif

I wish I had actually read this book. I instead listened to it on CD in my car for over a month... as my commutes are no longer than 12 minutes each. Yeah, so it took a long time to "read" the book and the narrator had such a creepy voice, I didn't enjoy the book as much as I think I could have. At the end, he thanked me for listening to the performance. He indeed gave me a performance. With his creepy German accent he would alter his voice for each of the characters in the book. Can you imagine Leisel having a high pitched old man voice? Yeah, it ain't pretty. I'd rather hear a more innocent voice made up in my head as I scanned actual pages of the book.

So anyway, you'll understand why I didn't love the book as much as the rest of you, but I did like it.

I need to buy this book just to reread the beautiful descriptive phrases and words this author uses. Such poetry, really. I was so touched by how Death himself would eloquently describe we humans.

I wasn't convinced that Leisel knew herself so well as a child that she understood every action she would make, though. I think Death was a witness and a major interpreter of what we humans are thinking, more specifically what Leisel was thinking. I hope you understand what I mean. I don't have a book to show examples of times that Leisel would do or say certain things, as a child, and we'd be given an explanation of why she did or said it that way. As if a child knows them self as well as an a middle-age adult. Or maybe I am undermining children... maybe Leisel did understand why she did the things she did. Who am I to judge a fictional character. What do you think?

My favorite character of the book was Hans. He was so warm and unconditionally there for Leisel. I loved how he kept Leisel's secrets, how he was more than a father to her, but the closest confidant. I am sorry to report that Rosa never grew on me. Maybe it was because of the cardboard description of her, maybe it was the creepy German guy impersonating her saying zowchel a million times, I just didn't connect with her lack of affection. Yes, she took care of her family, yes, she hid a Jew, but she still was so hard. I wish I liked her better after a month long getting-to-know-you in my car.

I learned much from this book. I agree with Amanda that it was an education on the people of that time and place, not just facts about the Holocaust. We know what happened from our history classes, but we didn't get a feel for the lives of those innocent Germans that didn't agree with what was happening. This book gave us that!

I can only imagine something so horrific occurring in our modern day, in our country (it was, in fact, their modern day and in their country). It's given me perspective on my own convictions and how far I would go to stand for the right. I hope that I would do what the Hubbermanns' did for Max. I would hope that if my religion was questioned and they came for all the Latter-Day Saints, that I would suffer and even die standing up for it.