The Book Thief

There's nothing more I can say about The Book Thief other than it was phenomenal. Sure, it's 550 pages and it took me longer to read than a "normal" 550 page book, but holy cats did I like it.

The main character is Liesel. She is nine in the beginning of the story when she is on a train with her younger brother and her mother. They are on their way to the children's new foster home. The mother is not allowed to keep them anymore. On the train, the brother coughs continually and ends up dying before they reach their destination. The train conductor throws the mother, daughter, and dead boy from the train, and they are left to fend for themselves in the middle of nowhere.

At the boy's funeral, Liesel discovers a book in the snow called The Grave Digger's Handbook. She takes it.

When she reaches the foster parents' house and her mother leaves, Liesel is thrust into the life of the Hubermann family--Rosa and Hans who have two grown children. Their son, we find out later, is an avid Hitler supporter. Hans, a silver-eyed smoker who makes his living as a painter, is young Liesel's new confidant. Though she says very little to him, "Papa" becomes the most important person to her. Using The Grave Digger's Handbook, he teaches her to read each night after Liesel's chronic nightmare of her brother's death. With the absence of paper and pencil, they use the basement walls and dark paint from Hans' supply to form letters and eventually words for Liesel to learn.

The book evolves into the tale of the people of Himmel Street in Molching, Germany, during WWII. The Hubermann family, aside from the son, are not Hitler fans. They go so far as to hide a twenty-five year old Jew in their basement in return for a favor the man's father did for Hans in the past. Liesel and Max become fast friends, both relaying their chronic nightmare to the other. Liesel also befriends the mayor's wife, whose clothing includes a bathrobe and slippers with swastikas on each. Ilsa Hermann is crucial in increasing Liesel's book supply.

My favorite relationship in the book, other than the Liesel/Max and Liesel/Hans relationships, has to be Liesel's interactions with Rudy. He is her next door neighbor and from the beginning he is always after earning a kiss from her, which she only gives on his last day. They are the perfect picture of childhood friends.

It's through her relationships with the people around her that Liesel is able to stand the fact that she is orphaned and has watched her brother die and is in the midst of the worst war Germany was ever involved in. The love she gets from her foster father, the companionship she has with Max, and the innocent intimacy she has with Rudy are all priceless in this story.

Kayleigh has been a really good puppy. Aside from a few days of potty patrol, our lives have been relatively easy. Sure, she only sleeps 5 hours at a time, and she demands to be played with whenever she's awake, but overall, she's an easy puppy. She knows how to sit and she walks on a leash. And most importantly, she loves Riley. 

A fairly typical scene at our place these days.  

My favorite picture of Kayleigh so far. I used it for the "adoption notice" I sent to family and friends. 

I really like this one with Riley's nose next to the puppy. It feels so maternal to me. 

She looks a lot like Riley here, except for her nose. 

Lady in the Water

So I've been thinking about this movie since Woman and I saw it a week and a half ago.

At first, the opening with its chalk drawings was intriguing as a mythology of narfs. But as it wrapped up and changed to the live-action movie, I felt the mythology wasn't as deep as it should be. It was definitely a kids' story.

The movie, however, was not a kids' story. It had only a few frightening moments; that wasn't the reason it wasn't a kids' story. The reason was that the rest of the film was all adult-themed. The theme(s) intrigued me. I feel like M. Night Shyamalan and I may be one in our quest for a meaningful life and the pursuit of sharing our art with the masses. I liked how Cleveland had such a vivid past and was such a product of that one event in his life that he couldn't let himself become the man he was still destined to become. That theme rings true for me. I've known so many people who don't follow their passions/dreams/goals because of fear or because they feel life event are holding them back, when really it's themselves that block their path to fulfillment.

One of the things the critics have complained about is Shyamalan's giant role in the film as the author whose theories will change the course of the world some day. I totally agree with the critics here. I think casting himself as this character is shameless and narcissistic. Bad enough he's one of the main characters, but then to make himself pivotal to the future of the world...that's going too far.

Another thing the critics dislike is the way Shyamalan handles the movie critic character in the film. He gets eaten by the skrunt as he's narrating what should happen in a horror film versus a family suspense film. It's funny. I think the critics don't have a sense of humor about themselves because they've been so wrong about Shyamalan in the past.

Anyway, over all the movie was fun to see. It made me laugh quite a bit and I really liked Paul Giamatti in the lead role. But despite those things, I think the story was far too simple to carry a full length film. I felt like they added some trumped up conflicts to make the movie last long enough.

The best part of the film was the Korean student who helped Cleveland figure out the story of the narfs and skrunts. She was hilarious when she had to interact with her mother. Her character alone was worth the price of a matinee admission.