The Book Thief

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, 2005

Read this in July-Aug 2016.

I thought this was a wonderful book and generally agree with the many positive reviews on Good Reads and other book sites.  It took me a while to be comfortable with the narrative device which seemed to me to be forced early on but eventually appreciated the unique perspective and attempt at experimental fiction. The story was riveting and made it difficult to put the book down.

However, I was reading this book during the two presidential conventions and I could not keep those current events out of my mind.  The descriptions of Jewish people trudging through the streets of the character's neighborhood on their way to Dachau reminded me of the millions of immigrants to be forced through our streets as they make their way to the deportation camps in Trump’s America. The book’s characters lived in a state of fear that reminded me of Trump’s “Law and Order” acceptance speech and his executive orders that would change America. A final observation triggered by this book would be the knowledge that Hitler came to power winning an election not by a majority vote but because the opposition was divided.