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Jul 23, 2020PimaLib_ChristineR rated this title 3 out of 5 stars
Unlike most readers, I came to The Book Thief because I read Bridge of Clay, a book that I love and highly recommend. Many reviews were not glowing and the general sentiment seemed to be "this isn't as good as The Book Thief." Wow! I thought, better than this? I have to read it. And now I will spin those reviews and say The Book Thief is no Bridge of Clay. Zusak is an exemplary writer. His writing takes me back to the early realists and naturalists, a style like Crane or Dryser. But rather than just presenting a "slice of life" Zusak is grappling with big themes here: the meaning (or lack) of life, the randomness of death and what it means for those left behind. Death, the narrator of The Book Thief, tells the reader he needs a vacation from "the leftover humans. The survivors. They’re the ones I can’t stand to look at... the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzles of realization, despair, and surprise." But his exemplary writing is lacking one thing here, a feel for the personal. There is a reason I compared Zusak to Crane and not Steinbeck. And that difference is what makes an author popular for his time and the other becomes a classic, popular well beyond his own lifespan. Perhaps the personification of Death was meant to bridge that lack, but if so, it didn’t work. And so, while I appreciate the technicality of the writing and the subject matter, for me, The Book Thief lacked the heart of Bridge of Clay.