The Alchemist: First Thoughts

I started reading The Alchemist last night (I wasn't feeling writing my Book Thief paper yet, so I just started another book) and so far I like it. It's interesting, and I know I like it, but other than that I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. 

I read for about an hour and finished Part One of the book, and I'm definitely intrigued to know what finally happens to Santiago. 

All the religious references/allusions are interesting to me, too. For example, the old man's name is literally "Melchezidek." And he tells a story about Abraham. There is also lots of talk about God, and Melchezidek having to take a little pride in himself. I'm interested to see how this plays into the rest of the book. 

Another side note, when The Alchemist was first published in Brazil, it did NOT do well. In fact, that's probably an understatement. I think the author wrote that it sold 1 copy in 6 months, and then the exact same person bought the second copy later. Then finally it got some interest from an American, and later some good buzz from publisher's in the U.S.

Why did it not do well in Brazil? Was it just the timing, or something about the book that the people there just weren't feeling. I'm curious.

Maybe as I keep reading it will start to make more sense. One can hope, at least. 

Another thing that struck me about the book so far was how full of good one lined quotes it is! If you're interested, here are some of the best ones (in my own personal opinion.)

       

  

I'm excited to keep reading. I can't imagine it will take me that long to read, considering it's not super long and I've already made it through Part One.

British Contemporary Literature

On a Completely unrelated note, I just found this website with some really good suggestions for British Contemporary novels to read. So I'm going to take note of them here, and when I have time I'll come back and read them! 

1. Almost English, by Charlotte Mendelson

2. Swimming Home, by Deborah Levy

3. Being Dead, by Jim Crace

4. Darkmans, by Nicola Barker

5. The Child in Time, by Ian McEwan

6. The End of Mr. Y, by Scarlett Thomas

7. The Patrick Melrose Novels, by Edward St. Aubyn

8. The Unconsoled, by Kazoo Ishiguro

9. There but for the, by Ali Smith

10. The Northern Clemency, by Philip Hensher

11. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, by Maggie O'Farrell

12. The Biographer's Tale, by A.S. Byatt

13. The Panopticon, by Jenni Fagan

14. An Experiment in Love, by Hilary Mantel

15. White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi

16. The Quickening Maze, by Adam Foulds

17. After the First, A Still small voice, by Evie Wyld

18. The Teleportation Accident, by Ned Beauman

19. Small Island, Andrea Levy

(Thank you Flavorwire for those suggestions.)

I would like to be able to read at least one of these books this semester. Depending on how much time I spend on everything else, I might. I'm kind of leaning towards Small Island by Andrea Levy, because it is also an international bestseller. We'll see. 

The Book Thief: Concept of Time

I've been thinking about my paper on The Book Thief, and I remembered another thought I had while reading the book: time. 

The order in which events take place throughout the book isn't quite linear, but it also isn't completely sporadic. And I guess, with a narrator such as Death, in which it knows everything that has happened and will happen, it would be weird to NOT have that in the book. But it was still interesting to me.

For example, with what happens to Rudy. We got a ton of hints before anything ever actually happened to him, thanks to the narrator.

Also, with Papa and Mama's son. Before anything happened to him, we knew it would, because Death gave it away.

There was also a ton of foreshadowing (is that the right word? I'm not sure.) for Max. We knew he would come into the character's lives before they did.

Looking at it now, I could connect all those ideas to perspective. I could include that with the 'perspective' discussion that I'm going to do in the paper. There's just so much I could write about with this book! It's hard to narrow it down. But the paper I'm going to write only needs to be 5-7 pages, so I'll try and keep it to 7 pages maximum.

The Book Thief: Random Thoughts

Well, in accordance with the main purpose of this blog here, I'm going to write about some literature. Today being, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I'm going to write a legit paper about it in the near future, but today I'm mainly going to be brainstorming and just writing random thoughts I have down.  (Hopefully these will help me write that paper...we'll see.)

Here are the current thoughts/impressions I have about this book:

1.   WHY have I not read this before? It's been around for long enough, I just never got around to it. I  feel like everyday I realize how much amazing literature there is out there to read, and never in all my years could I possibly get to all of it. I'm glad I finally got to the Book Thief. Whoever says contemporary literature, or young adult literature isn't worth reading, has obviously never read that book. (I'm not quite sure if people actually say that, but I'm sure there are some who do.)

2.   What makes this book so good? What makes it so easy to get lost in? Because there's no arguing that is one thing this book does, it gets you lost. 

3.    It's told from death's perspective, which is a new thing. I don't think I've ever read another book told from death's perspective. Talk about de-familiarization. What's worse is that 'Death' is actually likable in the book. Thats new. 

4.    The characterization of basically ALL the characters in the book is amazing. You've got Papa, who is loving, kind, and pretty much the best Father figure Liesel could ever imagine. (Random side note...what happened to Liesel's birth father again?) Then of course, you have Rosa, or Mama. She's loving in her own way, in spite of all the yelling and swearing. Liesel herself is way too lovable. The audience doesn't really have any choice but to sympathize with and love her. And then there's the Mayor's wife. She's a hard one to understand. But as the book goes on, she becomes more lovable too. And of course Rudy. No one can forget Rudy. Is it just me, or is one of the saddest parts of the book simply the fact that Rudy never got that kiss from Liesel? At least not while he was alive. That breaks my heart. I could go on, but those are the main ones I can think of now. 

5. I think it is such an honest book. It's not afraid to break hearts and make us cry (which I did, not going to lie). I mean - SPOILER ALERT - everyone dies but Liesel and Max. If I could have chosen an ending, it would not be that. By far. Liesel and Rudy would have grown up together, and gotten married. Max would forever be a part of the family. Papa and Mama would have known they did a great thing by helping out Max, and they'd go on bickering for the rest of their lives. Everyone in the town would have grown old. But no, that's not how the book ended. And that's not how the actual even would have ended in real life. I respect that about this book. It doesn't super coat anything. 

On a side note: this is for all of you out there who love the Book Thief, and those who haven't read it yet...you should. 

I think that's what I'll end up writing about. Something to do with the characterization of all the characters, including death. Which then, I could also go into perspective. That seems like a good idea. 

I'm going to keep brainstorming though.