Mark Zusak is the Messenger

Some books fall into the category of books that I can’t put down. This category is shared by everyday Suspense stories a la Gresham and serious novels that are or will eventually find their way into 20th and 21nd century masterpiece courses at your local College. A much more prestigious club is that of novels that can have a life changing affect on you. Here you might find Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Ender’s game and Slaughterhouse Five, others would list Lord of the Rings, The Little Prince and Siddhartha . A third category is of books that  are written about you. These books are not only page-turners and life-changers, they hit you hard in the stomach just when you are looking the other way and your whole body seems to react to an earthquake.   Such a novel is “I am the Messenger” by Mark Zusak. The book opens with the hero, Ed Kennedy, and his best friend, face down on the floor of a bank during a hold-up. This is not yet another suspense novel however, the plot  evolves around four aces that are sent to the hero that force him to perform tasks that help him re-evaluate his life, and Zusak takes us, his readers, on this powerful roller-coaster where we get a chance to take a long look in the mirror. To say more about the plot would be to spoil it and I won’t even hint as to who is sending the messages, or maybe I already have.

Zusak followed this powerful novel with The Book Thief, narrated by no less than Death himself. Where his previous book was for the most optimistic, here the author deals with life and death, and mostly death on Hemmel Street, a small poor German street in world War 2 Germany. This masterpiece, for it is definitely that, might at first seem to be an Anne Frank clone. However the viewpoint here is from the non Jewish side of the street and the attempt by everyday citizens to remain humane. the Book Thief in question is a young girl named Liesel. TThe name Liesel  is a mixture of the names Elizabeth and Liesl and means “God’s promise”. By the end of this heartbreaking novel you can see that she earns the name. Many novels have been written about the blood shed in World War II and the holocaust but this one for sure will be taught in classrooms around the world. As in his previous novel, Zusak has filled his book with immortal characters who have in common an intense inner driving and passion that isn’t always outwardly obvious. Liesel’s accordion playing foster father Hans is a German who dares not to comply,  Rosa, his wife, calls everyone an asshole but means it in a nice way.Rudy,  Liesel’s  pal, partner in crime  and would be boyfriend has blue eyes and lemon colored hair but is far from being the Aryan that his country expects him to be. Max, the Jewish fist-fighter,  shares his thoughts and nightmares with Liesel, while Ilsa, the mayor’s wife, shares her desolate library. And then there is Death himself, perhaps the most unusual, unexpected  storyteller in recent fiction.

Australian author Mark Zusak is a man with a message, actually messages. Whether sent by incognito or by death himself, the message gets to its destination clearly. These two novels make compelling compassionate reading.  I highly recommend them.

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