Why I Want To Read The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is a story I have been wanting to read for a while. The problem for me was always that it was too long and I couldn’t keep reading it. I thought this unit would be the perfect instance for me to force myself to read all the way through. There are a few other reasons I chose to read this particular story and I like that it is told from such an interesting point of view. The time period is of interest to me as well; it seemed like the right time to read a Holocaust book. So, like I began, one reason I chose to read The Book Thief was so that I could force myself to finally get to the end. I’ve started the story at least five times, but never gotten past the first 70 pages, which isn’t really that far into the book.
In this way it’s hard to distinguish exactly what person, first, second, or third, the story is being told through. Death addresses the reader using you, he uses the pronouns “I” and “me”, but he usually only tells the thoughts and perspectives of Leisel like in a third person novel. I actually really like this style because you get a mix of everything. Telling this four-year tale from Death’s point of view was very unique, and added to the novel in ways I’ve never seen before. Being Death, he can flashback to points in time relevant to the story where he’s carried off important characters or seen them narrowly escape him. He also flashes forward multiple times to compare that period to the story’s era or to talk about a character that yet again escapes his grasp. When Death talks about taking souls you’re in his shoes, but you can also see and feel the souls being taken. If Leisel was the narrator instead, the author would not have been able to jump around like he did. Readers can see Max Vandenburg fight his way to Molching as a Jew and his struggles when hiding in his friend Walter’s storage areas. We can see Leisel on her train when her brother dies, and her journey when she reaches Molching with the