The Book Thief

 


Review of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak


Overview from www.goodreads.com: It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will become busier still.

Liesel Meminger is a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist–books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak, author of I Am the Messenger, has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

My Review:

I think it would be something of an understatement to say that The Book Thief is a book like no other. Yes, it covers the Holocaust to some extent and life in Nazi Germany but that life is portrayed from the point of view of the underbelly of that society.

We begin with a small girl who essentially becomes an orphan and loses her only sibling on the way to live at a new home. This is where our narrator starts to insert himself in the story. He sees the book thief when he comes for her brother and is captivated by her but not, I think, in a romantic way. As we soon discover our narrator is Death himself, aka The Grim Reaper.

As the years pass, he follows Liesel’s (the book thief) life in between soul collection and later is able to fill in the gaps of her story by reading some of the things she has written.

But when we begin, Liesel is mostly illiterate. She comes to the Hubermanns by car from the train station. Her first car ride ever and she stubbornly refuses to get out. Finally Hans Hubermann, her new foster father coxes her out. This would signal the life-long attachment that would later grow between them while getting close to the wife, Rosa, would be a bit more challenging.

Life would be hard but they would grow to love one another. Liesel would learn to read so that she could read her first stolen book. A tome called “The Gravedigger’s Handbook” that she had taken during her brother’s funeral for a memento; all that she had left of him.

As time goes on the story gets more complicated as we add more characters. There is a small blond boy who wants to be Jesse Owens. The mayor’s wife who provides the book thief with more books to steal. Then there is the man who arrives in the middle of the night putting all their lives at risk.

As the tide begins to turn for Nazi Germany, life at the Hubermann house gets even more and more difficult. Before the changes the book thief’s new family was more likely to die of malnutrition than bombs dropping. Now the man who was living in the basement will have to leave and fend for himself while Liesel and her family wonder how many air raids they can survive. When Death finds her, what will he say to Liesel and her to him? Can she even hope to survive?

The movie based on this book is now on video and I am anxious to finally see it now that I have finished the book. I wonder if they have changed any major plot points. I hope not. Perhaps I will post a review of it later, though I might have to reveal some spoilers in my comparison. In the meantime, I hope you will buy or check this book out at the library. Happy reading.

Contains: language, violence, and book burning

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde

       


Review of The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson




Overview from www.bn.com: "This Master Hyde, if he were studied,' thought he, 'must have secrets of his own; black secrets, by the look of him; secrets compared to which poor Jekyll's worst would be like sunshine.'" —The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

When Edward Hyde tramples an innocent girl, two bystanders catch the fellow and force him to pay reparations to the girl's family. A respected lawyer, Utterson, hears this story and begins to unravel the seemingly manic behavior of his best friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and his connection with Hyde. Utterson probes into both Jekyll and his unlikely protégé, increasingly unnerved at each new revelation. In a forerunner of psychological dramas to come, Robert Louis Stevenson uses Hyde to show that we are both repulsed and attracted to the darker side of life, particularly when we can experience it in anonymity.

My Review:

It is strange to think that though I knew the story of Jekyll and Hyde, or thought I knew it anyway, I had never read the book by Robert Louis Stevenson. In fact, until I saw this as a Free Friday book by Barnes & Noble, I couldn’t even have told you who had written it though I suspected it was Stevenson. So maybe I did know, somewhere in the back of my mind.

I have always had questions about this story. For example, what ingredients did Dr. Jekyll use to turn himself into Mr. Hyde? Why did he want turn himself into Hyde in the first place? How did he create the alternate name and personality? And finally what kind of man goes to this extreme in the first place?

These were the questions that I had in mind and though I wanted to enjoy the ride like I usually do with novels, I also kept the questions at the back of mind my mind throughout. But would the author answer them to my satisfaction? The answer turned out to be both yes and no.

I understood that the doctor created Hyde to indulge in his darker side and smaller but dark nature that lurked inside of him, hence Mr. Hyde’s small stature. What I didn’t get was why a respected doctor like Jekyll, known for his good nature, felt the end to indulge the dark side at all. Perhaps the answer is that he is not as good as his friends supposed him to be or that in the Victorian Era indulging any dark impulses could get a person into a heap of trouble. But for me that just wasn’t a good enough reason. We are supposed to try to weed this stuff out, not encourage it, if it was done under a different name. It made me like Jekyll less.

As to the ingredients in the potion, some of them were listed though in the end it turns out to be not what we expect or even what Jekyll expects. As they become harder and harder to find, Jekyll risks being stuck in Hyde’s body and facing death at the gallows for one of Hyde’s foul deeds when can’t make his potion anymore.

The alternate name and personality were easy to create owing to the resources at Dr. Jekyll’s disposal.

However I had a hard time understanding why Dr. Jekyll felt the need to do this in the first place as I said earlier, even after I read his explanation at the end. It just rang hollow. This also limited my sympathy for the man. Unlike the experiments of Dr. Frankenstein, Jekyll’s experiment seemed to have no intrinsic value whatsoever.

So while I still find the story interesting, the main character was not likable for me, either as Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde.
Contains: some violence

Paper Fish

 



Review of Paper Fish by Tina De Rosa


Overview from www.goodreads.com: Set in Chicago during the 1940s and 1950s, this novel of Italian American life is populated by hardworking immigrants whose heroism lies in their quiet, sometimes tragic humanity. At the center of the novel is young Carmolina, who is torn between the bonds of the past and the pull of the future—a need for home and a yearning for independence. Carmolina’s own story is interwoven with the stories of her family: the memories and legends of her Grandmother Doria; the courtship tales of her father, a gentle policeman, and her mother, a lonely waitress; and the painful story of Doriana, her beautiful but silent sister. "Understated, lyrical and intensely imagistic, De Rosa’s tale of Italian ghetto life stands out from other immigrant narratives by virtue of its artistry."—Kirkus Reviews

My Review:

Paper Fish is another book that I have wanted to read for a long time. In this case, a very long time. We're talking years. I was so excited when my friend and coworker presented me with this book as a gift, not knowing that I have been trying to find it for years.


I have to admit though then when I started reading; it was something of a letdown. It just wasn't what I was expecting. I couldn't tell you exactly what it was but I know that I was hoping for something less literary (as in literary fiction) and more like Adriana Trigiani's novels, something that was entertaining as well as educational. This was not it.


However, I kept at it. I had read rave reviews of this thing after all and after years of waiting I was determined to finish the thing. After all, it was only one hundred odd pages or so. It shouldn't be difficult, right?


And it wasn't. It did get better. True, it still wasn't what I'd hoped to get but really there were some great lines and the characters were intriguing. As promised on the back cover, this book does not give you stereotypical caricatures of Italian immigrants. These are real people and real people are flawed yet strangely beautiful, in this novel anyway.


 Our story centers mostly on Carmolina, a young third generation, half-Italian, half-Lithuanian girl who grows up in an Italian neighborhood in Chicago during the 40's and 50's. However this story jumps around—a lot—and not just from character to character but we keep jumping back and forth in time. It got to the point that I wasn’t sure where or when we were much of the time and that was the primary reason for my frustration.


The other was that I had trouble figuring out Carmolina’s motivations. What was this story about? I am still not sure I know but I enjoyed it more when I paid more attention to the other characters such as Grandma Doria, Carmolina’s parents, and Doriana, her sister than I did when I focused exclusively on her.


 I am not entirely sure if I should recommend it so I am going to recommend it only for those who like literary fiction and those that are looking for some Italian American characters that are true to life and yet retain elements of fantasy in their stories. I am just not sure that anyone else will have the patience to keep reading and that’s a shame.


 Contains: some language, sexuality, disturbing images

The Aviator's Wife

 


Review of The Aviator's Wife  by Melanie Benjamin


Overview from www.goodreads.com: For much of her life, Anne Morrow, the shy daughter of the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, has stood in the shadows of those around her, including her millionaire father and vibrant older sister, who often steals the spotlight. Then Anne, a college senior with hidden literary aspirations, travels to Mexico City to spend Christmas with her family. There she meets Colonel Charles Lindbergh, fresh off his celebrated 1927 solo flight across the Atlantic. Enthralled by Charles’s assurance and fame, Anne is certain the celebrated aviator has scarcely noticed her. But she is wrong.

Charles sees in Anne a kindred spirit, a fellow adventurer, and her world will be changed forever. The two marry in a headline-making wedding. Hounded by adoring crowds and hunted by an insatiable press, Charles shields himself and his new bride from prying eyes, leaving Anne to feel her life falling back into the shadows. In the years that follow, despite her own major achievements—she becomes the first licensed female glider pilot in the United States—Anne is viewed merely as the aviator’s wife. The fairy-tale life she once longed for will bring heartbreak and hardships, ultimately pushing her to reconcile her need for love and her desire for independence, and to embrace, at last, life’s infinite possibilities for change and happiness.

My Review:

I wasn’t sure what to make of this one at first. I mean, I knew about Charles Lindbergh, “Lucky Lindy,” and his flight to Paris in his little Spirit of Saint Louis. But what did I really know about his wife? Almost nothing. I only really remembered that her name was Anne Morrow Lindbergh which is somewhat interesting in and of itself since her maiden name was included as part of her full name. That must have been unusual for that time.


Still what did she really do? This book seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to get an answer to that question and it succeeded. Yes, I know it is fiction but the great thing about Historical Fiction is that it usually doesn’t deviate from the facts too much—that is, person, place, or thing—but instead explores, fictionally, the why and the how. And we get a lot of that in this book.

Anne is not at all what I thought she would be. A shy and awkward girl we first meet her as the second daughter of the recently appointed U.S. ambassador to Mexico. The family all hopes that his success in board room will translate into success in the political arena.

Soon Lucky Lindy enters the picture and seems like an ideal match for Anne’s older sister Elizabeth. But Charles is shy and soon reveals that all he wants is to get away from the press that has been stalking him and continue doing what he loves.

Charles takes her on her first flight and she falls in love instantly, both with him and flying itself. Sure the cockpit is loud and noisy and crazy. Charles is hard to figure out. Yet she feels inexplicably drawn to both.

But then Anne is sent back to the family home to take care of her brother who is not quite right in the head and it seems like a relationship with Charles is out the question. She does manage to fly again at least, in the passenger seat.

Finally the unthinkable happens and Charles shows up at her door with a marriage proposal. Though she hardly knows him, she accepts right away but this is just the beginning of her life adventure and loneliness.

At Charles’ insistence she becomes one of the first female pilots ever. Together they travel the world, leaving their baby behind. I expect that the guilt that Anne feels about leaving her child behind is something that any mother can relate to as she goes off to work leaving her child at daycare except Anne is gone for months. And when her baby is later kidnapped, the guilt nearly kills her. But Anne is angry that Charles seems unaffected by it.

The ups and downs of her life tell a compelling tale that hides beneath her own overlooked accomplishments in favor of her husband’s. Her inner struggle with supporting her husband not only politically but emotionally and being a good mother for her children make for an interesting inside look into what Anne might have been thinking all those years. I think you will agree.

The Gondola Maker

 
Review of The Gondola Maker by Laura Morelli:


Overview from www.goodreads.com: In 16th-century Venice, the heir to a family boatyard rejects his destiny but is drawn to restore an old gondola with the dream of taking a girl for a ride.

Venice, 1581
Luca Vianello is the heir to the city’s most esteemed gondola-making family. But when an accidental tragedy strikes the boatyard, Luca believes his true calling lies elsewhere. Readers will appreciate the authentic details of gondola craftsmanship along with a captivating tale of artisanal tradition and family bonds set in one of the world’s most magnificent settings: Renaissance Venice.

My Review:

Okay, finally I am back. I hope no one missed me too much. I had hoped to be back last weekend but I was still too tired from my recent adventures.

This week I am excited to be finally reviewing The Gondola Maker by Laura Morelli. I had already read an advanced released copy that she had sent out when she asked for help from her readers for some last minute editing and was anxious to see if anything had changed. Now that I have read it, I am not sure if I am remembering everything correctly since a lot has happened in the few months that have passed since I read it.

Our main character is one Luca Vianello, apprentice gondola maker in his father’s Venetian workshop. The story unfolds as Luca’s first person account so we see it only through his eyes. Fortunately he is an engaging story teller.

There is a bit of foreshadowing with the burning of the gondola that Luca has come to watch at the beginning. It got my attention because it stood in stark contrast to my previous impressions of the Venetian Republic as place of freedom for those who might be free in other Italian domains.

But the gondola-burning hints that perhaps Venice is not as free as I thought. A place where even a boat must pay the price of the crimes committed by its owner cannot be that free. The incident also sets the tone of the story very well.

Luca has a decent life, a chance at being someone of note in his future profession. That all changes one day with the death of his mother when he accidentally sets fire to their workshop. It is an accident, but who will believe him?

Fearing he will be accused of arson or worse, he leaves home and vows to find a way to make it on his own. Yet he cannot bear to leave Venice.

He does well on his own, eventually earning a position of respect as the gondolier for a respected Venetian painter. That is where he first encounters her, the woman who will throw his life out of balance, the unattainable Giuliana Zanchi.

Soon Luca finds himself working for the young girl also and slowly learning her story. Her life too, has been turned upside down. He understands her but can he trust her?

The story is not a conventional one but I didn’t lose interest. The main character is well-drawn and not clichéd in any way. I can’t recall many stories that I have ever read about skilled Venetian craftsmen who have fallen out with their families. And the ending was something of a surprise. It also seems to leave room for a potential sequel. Well, I can hope, anyway.

And although they are details about the art of gondola making, they don’t overwhelm the story. Unlike the author, I am not an art historian, but I don’t get bored.

It is also clear that the author knows Venice very well. I don’t understand how she manages to pull that off but she does and that makes all the more realistic. I just visited there recently and I would be hard pressed to tell you where anything was. It just seemed like a maze of gondolas, tourists, pretty bridges, and water. A beautiful maze but a maze nonetheless.

The only downside to this story for me was the lack of back story that was in the pre-edited copy of the book (at least I think I remember something about it) about the costume maker that Luca visits and how she built the business on her own after her husband left her. I liked that part and now it is gone but I guess it was because it was back story that didn’t relate to the main story. Still I was sad to see it go.

I think though that overall this was a great piece of Historical Fiction that really opened my eyes to a world I hadn’t considered before. I hope that my readers will enjoy it as well.

Contains: mild profanity (but no F bombs thank God) and illusions to prostitution

Captive Queen

Review of Captive Queen by Alison Weir


Overview from www.bn.com: Nearing her thirtieth birthday, Eleanor of Aquitaine has spent the past dozen frustrating years as wife to the pious King Louis VII of France. But when Henry of Anjou, the young and dynamic future king of England, arrives at the French court, he and the seductive Eleanor experience a mutual passion powerful enough to ignite the world. Indeed, after the annulment of Eleanor’s marriage to Louis and her remarriage to Henry, the union of this royal couple creates a vast empire that stretches from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees—and marks the beginning of the celebrated Plantagenet dynasty. But Henry and Eleanor’s marriage, charged with physical heat, begins a fiery downward spiral marred by power struggles and bitter betrayals. Amid the rivalries and infidelities, the couple’s rebellious sons grow impatient for power, and the scene is set for a vicious and tragic conflict that will threaten to engulf them all.

My Review:

Wow, another long book. I sure hope the next book isn’t this long. I have however, once again, returned to fiction. This one about Eleanor of Aquitaine. It is called Captive Queen, written by Alison Weir who I believe is a famous historian over there on the other side of the pond. The novel covers a large period of Eleanor’s life though not all of it.


First I have to admit that I was tempted to stop reading this one after the first few chapters. If it had not been for Weir’s reputation, I most certainly would have. These chapters are quite bawdy and contain many f bombs, too many in my opinion. I have to say though that I am glad I didn’t give up on it because the tale is an interesting one and those elements do give the reader an idea of the sorts of persons both Eleanor and Henry were.


Upon finishing the book, I have to admit what amazed me most was just how long Eleanor lived. She was in her eighties on her death which must have been very unusual for the time period. And yet she seemed to have lived a very full life even if it was not entirely good. She made the best of her situation most of the time and didn’t seem to hesitate when it came to admitting her own faults.


In the novel, we start with the annulment of her first marriage to one of the Louis, king of France. It seems Eleanor is unhappy with this arrangement since her husband rarely visits her bed and would make a better monk than priest.


As she embarks on her next marriage to Henry, all seems well at first. They have a huge empire that stretches all the way to England when Henry inherits the crown from King Steven. But differences of opinion later separate them as Eleonor takes her sons’ part in the disagreement which will eventually land her in prison.


The story is probably worth checking out, particularly if you are interested in the lives of either Eleonor or Henry but keep in mind that is not entirely a happy one. Let me know what you think.


Side note: I will be going on vacation for a while so there will not be any new posts to this blog for a few weeks. Thank you for your understanding.

Unbroken

Review of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand


Overview from www.goodreads.com: On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began one of the most extraordinary odysseys of the Second World War.


The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a drift into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, resolve, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

My Review:

Much like Louis (or Louie) Zamperini, the world around him was always on the move. As a young child of Italian immigrants, Louie was always in trouble. He liked to steal things and cause a general havoc wherever he went. He seemed destined for a mental hospital or worse but then his brother Pete had a great idea. Louie would become a runner. Pete trained him until he became one the best there were and for a while it seemed as though his troubles might be over but they were only just beginning.

Unbroken tells us the story of the first part, which I just summarized as well as what happened next. We have all heard the troubled kid makes good story before and usually when that kid turns himself around, the story ends.

But of course life goes on and so must Louie. He continues running at school, winning meet after meet. Then just when all seems lost he gets himself a spot on the 1936 Olympics, the same one where Jesse Owens won four gold medals.

After that one moment in the sun, war breaks out and Louie’s dreams are cut short when he goes off to the Pacific to fight. To say that he endured terrible things there would be a gross understatement. He survived a plane crash, being lost at sea on a raft for forty-seven days, and then the terrible horrors of a Japanese prison camp.

The same courage and stubbornness that got him in trouble with the law when he was young, that kept him going when he was floating out on a raft in the Pacific, gave him the courage to survive and defy the brutality of his Japanese soldiers. He just wouldn’t let go, give in or give up.

His incredible true story kept me on the edge of my seat. It also kept me wondering: How much more can this guy take?  When my father and I were discussing this book he told me that he too was thinking, “enough already.” What more can he go through?

This book has been made into a movie directed by Angelina Jolie though I have no idea when it will be released. I only hope that she does it justice. In the meantime, I recommend this book wholeheartedly. I guarantee it will make your problems seem small in comparison and encourage you to go forward. It did for me anyway.