This won't mean much to those of you who haven't read as far as I have (just over half of the book) but Max's imagined boxing match is one of the most powerful things I've read in a long time. You'll see.
I'm going to re-start the nominations for Book 3, starting with Atlas Shrugged and People of the Book.
Pam
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Hey Paula: I quit reading after 10 pgs. How about you? Pam
Books being read / discussed
- Pam says "Link to good review about Bolano below"
- www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/03/26/070326crat_atlarge_zalewski
- novels of Roberto Bolano--Larry
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Junot Diaz)--Ed
New book nominations
- East is East (T.C. Boyle)
- The Battle for God (Karen Armstrong)
- Divisadero (Michael Ondaatje)
Nominations for Book 3
- Atlas Shrugged -- Ayn Rand
- Honorary Consul -- Graham Greene
- People of the Book -- Geraldine Brooks
- The Double Bind -- Chris Bohjalian
Luncheon of the Boating Party by Susan Vreeland
Hey Paula: I quit reading after 10 pgs. How about you? Pam
Nominations for Book 2
- 1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Zvi)
unusual words in "Little, Big"
- orgulous
- minatory
- arras
- muzzy
- discarnate
- celandine
- machicolated
- malapert
- condign
- atomies
- marmoreal
- infundibular
- ewer
Reading this now...
- Audition by Barbara Walters (PMJ --what can I say? I'm a celebrity junkie)
- American Made: A History of the WPA (lrf)
- Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (fox)
- Sister Bernadette's Barking Dog (PMJ and Pam)
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakami (Zvi: Thanks, Fox)
- The Underground City by H.L. Humes (lrf)
- Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone by Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Pam)
- The Panama Hat Trial by Tom Miller (lrf)
- Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie (ZV)
- Pastoralia by George Saunders (Pam)
Nominations for Book 1
- 7. The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian (Paula/Pam)
- 6. Song Yet Sung by James McBride (Camy)
- 5. Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen (Camy)
- 4. The Republic of Suffering by Drew Gilpin Faust (Camy)
- 3. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem (Zvi)
- 2. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (Zvi)
- 1. Little, Big by John Crowley (LF)
3 comments:
I couldn't agree more. Also the entire chapter about 1942 -- horrifying, yes; but also very moving as seen from Death's perspective:
"It was a year for the ages, like 79, like 1346, to name just a few. Forget the scythe, Goddamn it, I needed a broom or a mop. And I needed a vacation."
And later:
"They keep triggering inside me. They harass my memory. I see them tall in their heaps, all mounted on top of each other. There is air like plastic, a horizon like setting glue. There are skies manufactured by people, punctured and leaking, and there are soft, coal-colored clouds, beating like black hearts.
And then.
There is death.
Making his way through all of it.
On the surface: unflappable, unwavering.
Below: unnerved, untied, and undone."
The relationship between Liesel and Max is extraordinary, especially the snow incident and Max's subsequent illness.
I am on page 349 and understand even less why this is billed as a "young adult" book. Anyone?
Gotta try to get some sleep -- it's 3:28am (hope I've been coherent). I have yet another sinus infection and bronchitis and no voice. Poor me.
Paula
Paula,
I'm just slightly ahead of you. And I stayed up until close to 3 AM also so this book has me in its grip, which as I said before is why I read fiction: I LOVE to be in a book's grip. This book has the obvious downside of being true, basically, and horrifying. But we're not learning anything new I guess, we're just getting a perspective that's new. I had to re-read several times one particular passage by "Death" in which he/she/it mentions having a moment of serenity. It humanized Death just a little too much. Then I thought: well, Death is just following orders from some Human and is neutral in all of this. Right? Maybe?
About the "young adult" categorization: I suspect that kids can handle more sophistication and complexity than we give them credit for. And I don't think they need to "get" it all. What they do get is powerful stuff, especially if you're a kid who doesn't have much knowledge about Germany in the 30s/40s. We grew up with that knowledge in the forefronts of our brains. Isn't it amazing to think that when we were starting elementary school the Holocaust was not yet a decade in the past. It wasn't history; it was more like last year's news....
Hope to finish today. Probably won't.
Pam
Pam,
I think you're right that young adults can handle more than we give them credit for. I remember reading several of the Holocaust books way before I was a young adult. My mother asked me to wait until I was in sixth grade to read Exodus, Mila 18, and Babiyar (which had the biggest impact on me at that time). I guess what's surprising to me is that The Book Thief is not being marketed to the adult market also.
I kind of like thinking that Death is not evil but is just taking care of what "he" needs to do. In this portrayal, I note, Death is not "taking" the life, just collecting the souls after they have left the body -- not how we are used to thinking of Death personified.
I will probably finish it in the next day or two and then maybe we can discuss it in more detail. I am so happy we're reading it.
Paula
P.S. I am so history-challenged that I had to look up what awful events took place in 79 and 1346!
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