by Markus Zusak
Publisher’s summary:
Trying to make sense of the horrors of World War II, Death relates the story of Liesel - - a young German girl whose book-stealing and story-telling talents help sustain her family and the Jewish man they are hiding, as well as their neighbors.
This will be the fourth book I’ve read that is centered on (Pat Conroy’s Beach Music, Elie Wiesel’s Night) or touches upon (Nicole Krauss’s The History of Love) the Holocaust and so far it’s proving to be a very good read. [Which reminds me that I’ve long been wanting to get a copy of William Styron’s Sophie’s Choice and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.]
I probably should wait until I finish the book to make a decent review but it’s not all the time that I find a book that is so compelling, I cannot put it down. [But because it’s quite a thick volume and I don’t have much time, I don’t really have a choice.] Some people describe this as belonging to the genre of experimental fiction because it doesn’t follow the normal form of linear storytelling. Death, as the narrator, goes back and forth from telling the story of the book thief to making his own commentaries about certain events, people, or the general state of things [or his “job”].
The New York Times review of the book describes it as “Harry Potter and the Holocaust” because it belongs somewhere in the realm between adult fiction and young-adult fiction (although I don’t think magic will in any way be involved in this tale).
The manner of storytelling is, ironically (because it’s practically about what is probably the most horrendous act of man against his kind), very light and is of an amused tone. But I’m expecting this to be a tear-jerker; I don’t think there’s any way around it no matter how chatty and amused the Grim Reaper sounds. I haven’t got to any depressing part yet but I already love Liesel and her foster father enough to wish for them be as far away from the Fuhrer as possible. Well such good fate was not afforded to millions then and I’m expecting Liesel will suffer, one way or another, as she perfects the craft of book stealing. You read that right. She is, in fact, a book thief and I am anxious to know her story. I wish my apartment compound has gazebos outside; I imagine it will be fun to read books while in one of those.
It is highly probable that in a couple of months, I’ll be relocating to another apartment just because I found one that is so much more comfortable, of bigger space, and in a better neighborhood. It’s a little farther from work than I could have hoped but I really like the place. I’m already making an inventory of the things that I’m going to have to leave behind (i.e., thrash and other unnecessary things I kept just because I was too lazy to sort the important stuff from the “garbage” stuff). Still, there are plenty to pack and I’m already searching for a removals company that offers services for home transfers - a minitruck with maybe with a helper or two to help move out and transfer the bigger appliances and other furniture (not that we have so much, but there are stuff my sister and I just can’t carry on our own).
Things I’m excited about: from a studio-type apartment, I’m going to have a separate room in the new place (well, I’ll still share it with my sister, but still it’s going to make a huge difference) . The bathroom is so much bigger and so is the built-in closet. There’s a common space for tenants (called the “rooftop”) where I imagine I can hang out during Sunday afternoons to read books. I can finally get a cable TV because the area is serviceable with the cable/Internet combo. This is going to be my fifth apartment since I started to work and I’ve never been this excited about REMOVALS.
Things I’m not so excited about: the hassle of having to actually move out and then move in to another place. It will also surely cost me a significant amount, so there’s that. Like I said, it’s far from work, relative to the distance I’m used to (but nearer the badminton court, hehe). Well, it will only take one day anyway, so I’m willing to get through those. I was actually looking at my pile of books and those are actually the first things that I’m planning to pack. Which made me wonder, if I have to move to another country, how am I going to be able to bring them with me? I don’t think I can afford a service that caters to international removals, just like Doree Bonner International in the U.K. But that’s going way over my head. I’m just going to move somewhere less than a couple of kilometers from where I am now, anyway.
This gave me my thought for the day, and it’s not a pretty subject. Well, relatively not.
Now I’m not trying to pretend to be erudite about art and art history because I hardly am. But I appreciate works of art. I know how I respond to them, even if that’s all I know. Looking at pictures of Monet’s paintings calms me, while van Gogh’s works stir something more raw, more primeval - at least to me, they touch upon that line that separates man’s rational nature to the feral; they show the shape of a mind that’s suffused with so much beauty and so much of those that distort beauty. [I will never forget how my college Humanities professor told the story of how van Gogh cut off his left ear lobe and gave it to the woman he loves as a present; it turned out, however, that that story is false.]
Psychedelic Art fascinates me although I’m not much of a fan. Bright hues and abstract figures bring the element of surreality, a dreamlike fantasy that serves as a form or a source of inspiration to some. You can see those in UV Backdrops and even in those Psy-Trance Clubwear you can buy online. Somehow those art works remind me of van Gogh, specifically Starry Night.
Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer’s day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.
Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze, Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent’s eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist’s loving hand.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.
Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can’t forget.
Like the strangers that you’ve met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.
Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they’re not listening still.
Perhaps they never will…
[Vincent, Don McLean]
So what’s on your desktop? Wallpaper, I mean? A picture of yourself, perhaps? Or a loved one? You with a loved one? Your pet? A nice view? Anything that has to do with your hobbies? Or maybe whatever the heck your OS has as default? Mine is the last one. Yeah, it’s lame and no fun at all.
So I decided to look for cool wallpapers and stuff but instead my surfing took me this web animation software that helps create Free Flash Animations for websites. I was intrigued, in the very least, because I’ve always wondered how people create those Flash Banners and Flash Slideshow that you see on personal websites or blogs, and even on business and advertisement corners. So it’s through help of a software after all. I thought you have to know programming codes and stuff to be able to make those. And another plus thing is that they have demo versions so you can download them for free to test for yourself first.
My sister has tons of pictures from work. She seems to have this fun job where they always go some place for team buildings and stuff and I occasionally see her create these slide shows of photos or videos as mementos. I think a lot of people do that and then upload them to personal sites like the social networks. Ah for those times when people go to your home and look at photo albums. But, really, it’s a great thing that there are available tools to create such things so anyone, even without so much technical know-how, can create such presentations and at the same time have fun with them.
Anyway, going back to my lame wallpaper. I think I’m keeping my Windows XP hill-and-sky view for now. I do like it anyhow.
It’s a little bit funny and a little bit annoying that *sometimes*, people make comment like “Go buy that! You’ll pay with credit card anyway” like it doesn’t mean that you’ll have to eventually pay for it *anyway*. When that people are your parents asking you for “favors,” well… Disclaimer: This is not a personal grievance story.
Over lunch yesterday, this the topic of discussion. We’re reminiscing those times when life was a lot simpler - no cellular phones, we’re not using credit cards, laptops and other gadgets are things to be admired but not really set out to buy because they are too expensive. But then the time came when all these things are being offerred in deferred payments, with zero interest, for as long as 12 months. And then that became just too tempting. And then it became a concern and a struggle to erase bad credit. When credit piles up, the interest rates just become too much of a headache and then you resort to applying for more bank loans just to cover the credit card balances. They also have that balance transfer thing as a form of legal credit repair. I wonder if we have a credit repair company here that offers consolidated loans. But if you’re still free of this problematic scenario, then I suggest to avoid being entangled with it as much as possible. I always here of the advice “Live within your means. Keep your eye simple.” That really is a sound one.
