The Book Thief

I don't often stick movie thoughts on this blog because ... well, let's face it ... I don't see a lot of movies, and most of the movies I see are fluff. Good fluff, but fluff nonetheless. They aren't worth much time writing anything about. But I have to write about this one today. I have to.

Yesterday I finally got the chance to see The Book Thief. It has been out for a few weeks, but it isn't the type of movie that gets wide release or lots of advertising. In fact, we had to drive all the way to St. Louis to see it at this great movie theater that shows lots of independent and lesser known movies. I love the Plaza Frontenac theater! Why can't there be more theaters like this in our area? People will come. If you build it ... people will come.

I was a latecomer to The Book Thief fandom. It has been around for awhile. It is a popular book club and high school lit reading choice. But it was about Germany and Nazis and people dying and sad stuff ... and generally I shy away from sad books. I like happy books. This one seemed like something I would have trouble enjoying. But I read it last month and fell in love immediately. Yes, it is a sad story. But it is so much more. It made me feel so much and need to know so much that I thought about it constantly after the final page closed. When I found out that this movie was being released in November I knew I had to see it, even if I had to drive to St. Louis to find a theater cool enough to play it. Yesterday Herman and I drove Laney to the airport so that she could return back to college for her last two weeks of classes (tears), and we had the chance to see this movie before heading back home.

The theater was packed. I am used to that for blockbusters in their first week of release, but you don't generally see that in lesser known movies. It was neat to see this. In the crowd there were A LOT of older people. A lot. I got the impression that these were tons of ladies from book groups and their spouses. There were also quite a few college students on dates. That's a heavy date movie, but it's pretty impressive to choose this movie as your date movie, I think. Then there was Herman and me. I don't know what group we fit into. I guess the college kids probably would have lumped us into the "old person" category. Sweet! 

As for the movie ... it was WONDERFUL! It didn't quite match up to the book, but it was still a pretty good adaptation. I don't think that any movie can equal the personal experience a reader gets when they read a book. I formed my own impressions of how certain scenes would play out, and the movie didn't quite look as I imagined things, but it was close enough that I was thoroughly enraptured by the experience. There were several parts of the book that were missing from the movie. Some of the back story to explain why Hans and Rosa would take in Max and the military experiences of Hans were missing. The neat experiences involving the actual book thieving were changed or altered in some ways. I especially missed Frau Holtzapfel and her side story. And one of my favorite parts of the book ... the sweet little story that Max writes for Liesl ... was totally changed for the movie. I didn't like that. It didn't end up quite as sweet. I also thought that the movie tried to make things a little less sad. The ending was changed a bit. I didn't think that they needed to do that. We're big kids. We can handle the raw sadness of those last scenes. We can. 

Overall I think that the movie had a hard time capturing some of the wonder I felt as I read. The book was full of these tiny little experiences involving this small group of people from this German neighborhood. They were just small moments. But those moments strung together created a story that powerfully captured the spirit of a people who were trapped by their own fears in some ways and yet able to live above those fears. In the midst of so much tragedy there was joy and happiness. I loved that about the book. The movie shows this to a certain extent, but it doesn't quite reach the level of the book. 

But ...

At the end of the movie all we could do was sit there. The entire theater sat frozen as the credits rolled. It is the first time that I have ever been in a movie theater and had the whole group erupt in applause. Magical. This was a powerful movie. Sure, it didn't quite live up to the book, but that was a pretty high goal. What we watched was beautiful and powerful. It made us think. I loved that. Herman had not read the book, so he didn't have all the expectations that I had. He loved the movie a lot. The acting was top notch. The actors playing Liesl and Rudy were just kids, and their performances were pretty good ... not Oscar worthy, but pretty good. My favorite actor in the movie was Geoffrey Rush. By far. But his character, Hans, was my favorite in the book as well. I thought he played this character perfectly ... exactly as I imagined him. 

As we walked out of the theater Herman and I felt a bit shell shocked. I turned to him and said, "We need to go find something happy to do now." We were feeling a bit melancholy after such a heavy film. We found the perfect antidote to our heavy hearts ... chocolate. We headed to Whole Foods and grabbed a giant turtle brownie to wipe everything away. Chocolate ... it heals all wounds. Truly.

So go see this movie if you have the opportunity. It is worth your time. Even better, check out the book if you haven't read it yet. It has definitely been one of my favorites of the year. But bring along some chocolate. You're gonna need it.

PS ... Just for kicks I included my goodreads review of the book because I loved it so much. Enjoy!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have hated the words and
I have loved them,
and I hope I have made them right.

So ... The Book Thief. What more can I say about this book that has not already been said? There are thousands and thousands of reviews of this book on goodreads and amazon. Book clubs discuss it. High school and college students dissect its inner meaning. What more do I have to add?

Not much.

All I can do is just share a tiny portion of the overpowering thoughts that are running through my head right now.

I avoided this book for a long time. A long, long time. I knew it was going to deal with Germany during World War II. I knew people were going to suffer. I knew people were going to die. I don't like those kinds of books. Not at all. I need total and complete happiness at the end of the books I read. If I want the sadness of reality I just turn on the news. But, having said that, this book just wouldn't leave me alone. It kept calling out to me, demanding to be read ... so finally, I listened. And it has been an absolutely powerful experience. Earth moving, gravity stopping, overwhelming. Perfect. I loved it. There will always be a spot in my heart for this book.

The Book Thief is a story of contrasts:

Love in the midst of cursings.
Courage in the midst of cowardice.
Happiness in the midst of sorrow.
Strength in the midst of weakness.
Humor in the midst of tragedy.
Life in the midst of death.

Through it all is the experience of a foster child in World War II Germany, a girl with a gift for words and a growing understanding of the complexity of the world in which she lives. The cast of this story is absolutely wonderful. Ilsa, Max, Rosa, Rudy (LOVE HIM!), Hans (SUPER LOVE HIM!), and even Frau Holtzapfel. So wonderful! They provide a richness to this story of ordinary people forced into extraordinary circumstances. No amount of description I offer in this review will do any of them justice. The book just needs to be read in order to understand just how marvelous they are.

Interestingly enough, as I first read this novel I didn't feel a huge drive to read it all the time. I could pick it up and put it down without thinking much about it. It was a collection of seemingly simple moments in the lives of these characters. Yes, the moments were interesting, but nothing really pulled me into the story completely. But, this book ended up being for me much as a cherished relationship. At first you pass on the street, exchanging pleasantries. Soon there are conversations. Life happens, and before you know it, you realize that this person means the world to you. It wasn't one event that created this powerful friendship. It was a collection of events. That is how I experienced this book. Before I knew what hit me I realized how much I cared about these characters ... how much I did not want for them to leave ... ever.

That is all I can say, realizing that my meager words cannot do this book justice. I think I have to agree with the narrator of this book, Death (seems like a weird choice, but it works), when he says, "I am haunted by humans." Few words, so much meaning. I will be thinking about the events of this story for a long, long time. Five huge stars!