I’m reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak and am feeling completely dwarfed by the mastery of the writing. Zusak has set the whole story up by announcing from the start that the protagonist – with whom we are yet to get to know and feel connected to – will nearly die, or be near death, three times. We see the first episode straight away, where her borther dies. I forget the second instance, but the third is yet to come; all we have is a snapshot of her surrounded by rubble, screaming (?) and covered in blood (?) if memory serves. We guess that this is probably her own death. But how she gets there is the compelling question that drives the narrative. That and the hidden Jew in the basement, which is always a good suspense teaser. (Hmmm, I wonder if it is too late to insert a Jew hiding in the basement of my story…?)
The cleverness of Markus Zusak’s suspense and mystery building is further layered by the fact that the story is told by Death. Don’t worry, this is not a spoiler, you find it out on the first page of the book. We get to know Death, we get to like Death, and we learn not to blame Death for, well, people dying. ‘He’ is a likeable character beause he has sincerety and value in what he does, and it is just a job – and yet one that he values highly. The narrator’s role is not overdone, nor does it get in the way of the story. In fact, you often forget that you are reading this story through Death’s eyes, and you don’t ever wonder what gender he (for lack of a gender specific) might be, or what he looks like, yadda yadda yadda.
At the beginning, yes, you do have to work a bit to suspend the disbelief; you are after all, limited to what Death can see (as with any narrative POV), and this raises some questions. Death is present wherever there is.. death. Right. But if “he” is just one “person,” (the guy telling us this story) then it’s a bit like Santa Claus – how can he be delivering children’s presents all over the world at exactly the same time? And why does Death focus in on this little girl’s story when he’s constantly got so many other places to be? And how can he even see her story when she’s not dying all the time?
But the disbelief is successfully suspended because the compelling mystery that propels the story is so strong. And the writing is incredible. Zusak is a master craftsman of words. He chews them up and spits them out. He makes them do acrobatics and dance moves they’ve never done before. They turn pirouettes and paint the sky and laugh and shriek and murder and dive into the sea. It’s an enviable imagination with language that puts me off my own simple expressions (and at the same time opens up a universe of new possibilities).
I wonder of my own story:
a) do I have a compelling enough question (Why did Mother leave?)?
b) am I tantalising the audience enough; revealing jigsaw puzzle pieces at the right time, keeper the reader interested in the quest?
c) am I telling it through the right voice? It feels clunky that I’ve given up one POV and shifted to the Mother without the transisiton. I have inserted dates instead of ‘chapter one… chapter two…’ and I wonder if that will allow me to splice the two strands together for effect?
Or.. I wonder if there is a better way to jump to Mother’s POV. In the same way that ‘Death’ can see all, therefore ‘Death’ takes us on the journey, peppered with moments when he reflects on his ‘job.’ What is the linking voice or narrative that holds my story together?
Perhaps I’ll just keep writing. Keep reading. The answers might just come as I tick along. That is all I can really do.
