Depois do Escorpião - Samantha Moraes

What make a man let go of his wife, family, children and life he has been living for many years to run to another woman's arms - this woman being a famous prostitute - from one day to another? I guess that is something no one will ever be able to answer - especially when these two women are non other than Bruna Surfistinha and Samantha Moraes.
I must be honest now. I have read all of Bruna Surfistinha's books (three in total). Her first one I even read twice. When the movie came out in the theater I ran with my sister and friends to watch it. I always was curious about the subject (men/woman/sex/relationships/betrayal) - but then again, who isn't? Continuing with my honesty... I admire Bruna Surfistinha. As a person? yes and no. Yes because she was able to wake up and admit she was wrong and start all over again. No because I believe she was cruel with what she did with her parents and she makes the idea of being a prostitute as something very glorious, a bright and wonderful career with many benefits and our society (especially our country) doesn't need anymore women who are selling their bodies, self-esteem and health for money - especially when you think of it and realize that one in a million will be able to have as much success and become as rich and famous as Bruna did; but more than a million will believe that by becoming a prostitute they will no longer have to worry about financial stability, a different and exciting life and even "finding the love of their life."
But even then I must say that Bruna is a genial writer - witty, honest down to the last detail, funny, captivating and a writer that involves her reader and makes them partake of her story - and for that I must give her credit (even though there are a whole many other things that I would discredit from her!)
And then I read the story of the woman who was married to the man that threw it all up in the air and went to live with Bruna (and they have been married now for 6 years already). It's a very strong story and it shows you how much betrayal can hurt someone and the lengths that a person will go and the pain and hurt someone has to deal with when they are being betrayed for someone else. After reading this story I just felt even more convinced that cheating on the person you are with isn't worth it and how much suffering it can bring not only to the person that is being cheated on but everyone that is involved as well (like family, relatives and especially children).
Samantha tells her beautiful story of recuperation and of how she was able to get by this horrid experience in her life (because not only was she cheated on, but it was with a prostitute and it spread out on the media in all of Brazil as well). It's also really nice because it has a happy ending - she meets the love of her life when she goes to the television station to tell her side of the story and refute Bruna Surfistinha - and so that gives you hope that no matter what it is never too late to love and we have to choice to make ourselves either bitter or better. And in her case it was better.
Altogether as much as I did enjoy reading this book I still felt that she could have told more of her story; like for example: the first time she stayed together with her ex-husband, her six years married to him, his personality, etc. I think her ghost writer could have done her job a bit more thorough because there are a lot of gaps and many parts of the story leave the reader with questions and doubts which aren't even quenched at the end of the story.
Another conclusion that I came to was that in the end is that neither is Bruna or Samantha right or wrong. Both of them were wrong - and right as well. I am sure that Samantha was a great wife but she must have done somethings which triggered her husband to go out looking for a hooker (of if she didn't do anything then her judgment in marrying him in first place was totally wrong...but then again, it happens!). Bruna never went after the guy, he was the one that went after - and stuck like glue - on to her. But Bruna also could have chosen to put a stop, notice she was going to ruin a family big time and end it all there. But maybe even if she did do this it wouldn't save this couples marriage but maybe onlly prolong something which wasn't meant to be (sorry, if another man is looking around for a hooker then I must say it definitely isn't something to be!). But Bruna also was a young, emotionally needy girl that was ready to jump at anyone who would show her even the slightest bit of love - and even her being a hooker...well, everyone is human and everyone should have a second chance, including in love. Now the one who I totally blame and think is the complete jerk is non other than the husband. If he felt that he needed another woman in his marriage (especially this other woman being a   prostitute) to add up to his ego or God knows what! then just that doesn't say much for his character. Secondly, if he really loved Bruna and wanted to stay with her he then should have been more honest with his ex-wife and not give her false hopes, deceive her, lie towards her and still not even fulfill his duty in caring for his own two daughters. That is just wrong and lack of priorities and true morals and values. He was wrong in all aspects - both with Bruna and with Samantha - and there goes again another case of how women suffer and fight against each other instead of seeing who their true enemy is: the man himself!


Here is a somewhat interesting interview I am pasting from the author of this book, Samantha Moraes, five years after publishing the above book. Enjoy!

Divulgação

Pelo menos uma das admiradoras do reality show A Fazenda analisa com olhos para lá de críticos os movimentos e atitudes da peoa e ex-garota de programa Raquel Pacheco, codinome Bruna Surfistinha, no programa da Record.

Ela é a ex-comissária de bordo paulistana Samantha Moraes, 35 anos.

Em 2005, dois fios de cabelo longos e loiros em camadas oxigenadas, praticamente idênticos, foram encontrados em sequência por Samantha no carro de seu então marido, João Correa de Moraes.

Atormentada, a bonita Samantha encostou o camarada na parede e arregalou o par de olhos verdes:

- Fui clara e direta. Perguntei: ‘Você está tendo um caso?’. Ele não disse uma única palavra. Só olhou para mim com cara de espanto. E saiu de casa.

Dias depois, Samantha, na época com 29 anos e duas filhas de Moraes, a mais velha com seis e a mais nova com três anos, tomou um susto ao ver o rapaz num programa de tevê como o "amorzão" todo "derretidão" de Raquel Pacheco/Bruna Surfistinha.

Na época, Surfistinha começava a usufruir do sucesso do livro O Doce Veneno do Escorpião, em que ela conta detalhes de sua intensa aeróbica na horizontal com seus vários ex-companheiros de malhação.

Antes de chorar, “cuspir no chão” e desligar a televisão, Samantha ainda teve tempo de perceber os fios longos e aloirados de Raquel Pacheco/Bruna Surfistinha.

Eram os do carro, claro.

A ex-comissária de bordo recorda o seu sofrimento:

- Eu me senti muito humilhada. Reduzida a pó, a nada. Todos vinham me perguntar. É claro que o fato de ela ser prostituta me incomodou, mas, honestamente, não foi o pior. Terrível mesmo foi a fraqueza de postura de João ao encaminhar esse processo. Sair de casa daquela forma, deixando a mulher que o amava e batalhava ao lado dele ele trabalhando duro como comissária, as duas filhas pequenas, tudo isso sem uma conversa decente, um apoio, uma base final. Isso não foi e nem é coisa de honrados.

Samantha, que já era magra, perdeu seis quilos.

Teve pneumonia, passou por apertos financeiros, mas deu o troco em grande estilo.

Para dar a volta por cima, ela utilizou duas das armas de Surfistinha: a escrita e a publicação de um livro.

Em 2006, contou os detalhes do deserto que atravessou no livro Depois do Escorpião(Editora Seoman, 120 págs., preço médio de R$ 27), que até agora vendeu 21 mil exemplares (na foto que abre o post, ela e a capa do livro).

No último capítulo, ela dá conselhos para enfrentar a traição, como “livre-se das lembranças doloridas”, “mantenha um diário”, “saia da toca” e “mude a aparência”.

Os bons resultados do livro geraram convites para entrevistas e debates e contratos para palestras motivacionais, que ela faz até hoje.

Em um desses compromissos, ainda em 2006, ela conheceu o diretor de tevê Marcelo Nascimento, como quem vive até hoje.

Esteve muito próxima de vender os direitos de seu livro para a produção de um filme, mas desistiu na última hora por desconfiar que o diretor caminharia “numa trilha meio chanchada” que não a interessava.

Nesta entrevista ao R7, Samantha avalia a participação de Raquel Pacheco/Bruna Surfistinha na Fazenda.

Como verão os amados amigos, ela não faz a mais remota questão de ser diplomática em sua análise:

- O que você tem achado de Raquel Pacheco em A Fazenda?

- Dissimulada. Com aquele ar frio, aparentemente impenetrável e falso que sempre a marcou – ou pelo menos a marca desde que eu tomei conhecimento de sua existência. Não me surpreende: ela sempre foi assim. Parece adorar a piedade das pessoas. Conspira o tempo todo para isso. Aquele comportamento chatinho de quem quer sempre ser vítima, sabe? Se for realmente isso, acho o fim da feira. Coisa de gente fraca.

- Dia desses a Raquel disse ter medo de voltar para casa e não encontrar o João. Estava com medo de ele ir embora por causa dos supostos “micos” que ela teria pagado lá dentro...

- Eu quase não acreditei quando ouvi isso. Charminho puro. Ela, ele o mundo sabe que um homem teria motivos muito mais relevantes para deixá-la do que esses supostos micos...

- Muita gente ficou ao seu lado quando seu ex-marido apareceu ao lado de Raquel e, depois, levou de você um troco na mesma moeda, com a publicação do livro. Mas houve também quem lhe acusou de ser preconceituosa, por espernear apenas porque Surfistinha era uma garota de programa. E esses últimos não foram poucos. Como analisa isso?

- Olhe, disse várias vezes e vou repetir agora: o fato de ela ter sido ou ser, sei lá, prostituta causou um choque mas não foi o que mais me incomodou. Mesmo porque é preciso lembrar: se um dia eles se conheceram é porque o meu ex-marido saiu de casa ou do trabalho, de sua realidade, e foi procurá-la na realidade dela, no quarto dela, e não o contrário. Eu só fui a público porque, depois que o João decidiu ficar com ela, os dois passaram a fazer comentários maldosos e humilhantes a meu respeito nos veículos de comunicação sempre que tinham oportunidade. Diziam coisas como “a Samantha não soube dar assistência e aí a fila andou, o trem passou e ela perdeu”. Ou “quem é fraca na cama e na atitude não pode reclamar quando perde”. E outras coisas do tipo. Posso estar utilizando aqui uma ou outra palavra não usada por eles, mas, no geral, o conteúdo era esse.

- E aí você não aguentou a humilhação...

- Exatamente. Pô, o cara já tinha ido embora, abandonado a casa de suas filhas sem falar sequer uma palavra comigo, a cidadã já dormia com o sujeito que eu amava... Então chega, perdi, me machucaram o suficiente. Custava ficar calados sobre o assunto e seguir a vida deles sem essas baixarias públicas? Mas não. Aí eu fui para o contra-ataque. Você não iria?

- Nessas circunstâncias, certamente, de alguma forma. Mas você diz que há cinco anos vive bem e feliz com seu novo marido. E do outro lado lá está ela, tocando a vida ao lado do seu ex. Você não acha que está na hora de deixar tudo isso de lado e virar a página?

- Mas, na rotina da vida atual, eu a ignoro. Não quero o mal dela nem de ninguém. Que eles sejam felizes. Estou dando minha opinião sincera agora porque você me procurou para conversar sobre o assunto. Tenho duas filhas lindas, hoje com 11 e oito anos, e um companheiro amável, excelente. Vivemos bem. Confesso que não gosto de imaginar minhas filhas ao lado dela. No passado, quis que a Justiça me concedesse essa condição. Já imaginou minhas pequenas lendo aqueles relatos das aventuras sexuais dessa cidadã? Ou vendo aqueles filmes pornôs, DVD, pornotube e afins? Definitivamente, isso não pode e nem nunca poderá dar em coisa boa.

- Muitas pessoas disseram que você é mais bonita do que Raquel. Jô Soares foi um deles. Em seu programa, ele disse que respeitava Surfistinha mas não entendia a troca de João. Como se sente nessas ocasiões?

- Orgulhosa. Agradeço e fico muito feliz. Pois é: teve o doce veneno do escorpião, não é? Agora temos a doce vingança depois do escorpião...

- Quem vai ganhar A Fazenda na sua opinião?

- Torcia para o Marlon, ao meu ver o único autêntico da casa. Mas ele saiu. Agora vai dar Joana na cabeça.

Drink, Play, F@#k - Andrew Gottlieb

What to do on a Friday night? How about sit down for three hours in a supermarket and gobble down a whole book - from page one until the very last one. That's exactly what I did yesterday and the book was none other than "Drink, Play, F@#k" by Andrew Gottlieb.
This book is a satire of the book "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert (which by the way is one of my utmost favorites!) and it's all about an angry, hurt and abandoned husband who decides to go out around the world to find but one thing: Happiness!
No, it's not a true story (which I thought it was and only discovered otherwise the next day) but it could be and I am sure it portrays what a lot of divorced older men go through in trying to find their ego back and live life once again. He is basically a sad man that decides he will quit his job and travel a full year to be able to drink to his heart's delight (which is something he does in Ireland), gamble and play away (of course, he had to go to Vegas!) and at last to a beautiful hidden resort in Thailand to makeup for all the sex he hasn't had. At one point when he is in Vegas and loosing a scandalous amount of money he joins up with this guy called Rick  who becomes his main guru and shows him the ropes not only when gambling money but in many things in life as well. One of the things Rick tells him is about taking things at your own pace. Not rushing things over but not staying stopped at one point as well. Life is all about pacing yourself with your own rhythm. 
The book is completely hilarious and shows a whole lot of what goes into a man's head (which is something hilarious as well!) and yet it isn't all comedy and does have a deep and human side when the main character, Bobby expands on his feelings and what he gains in each place he travels to. 
I really enjoyed my read and if all books were as good as this one I wouldn't mind spending long hours in a cold air-coned supermarket more often - especially when it ends with a "Happily Ever After"... 


BOOK REVIEW:

In his 195-page tome, humorist Andrew Gottlieb pumps out a funny take on what men are looking for in life. It’s Bob Sullivan’s story: a fully jilted, newly divorced New York liberal who sets foot into the world, after years of lockdown domesticity. His journey takes him (and us) to Ireland to get smashed, to Vegas to throw dice and to Thailand to … well, enjoy the pleasures of the opposite sex.

What Bob finds, however, is not what you might expect at the beginning of what seems like an obvious parody of Elizabeth Gilbert's "Eat Pray Love."

Here’s Gottlieb, discussing his book with Jacket Copy:

JC: First of all, your book is clearly a play on "Eat Pray Love." It is nearly the husband of that book taking his own journey. Did you love or hate "Eat Pray Love"? Does your book mock or embrace it?

Gottlieb: I had this idea I was aware of the widespread success of "Eat Pray Love." And knowing of the success of that, I thought it would be funny to do it from a guy’s perspective. I admire "Eat Pray Love’s" intentions, but it was a hard read for me. I didn’t want to mock it; I just thought it would be funny because there’s another perspective to tell a completely different version of the same story.

JC: Why did you write this book?

Gottlieb: Beyond being funny, I thought there was something more significant and profound that could be told from a guy’s perspective.

JC: It’s a fictional tale of Bob Sullivan, a newly divorced guy. Tell us a bit about your main character.

Gottlieb: He’s like a lot of guys I know. Guys talk about grandiose stuff — if I could do this or that.…Bob was hemmed in for so long that he lost his wanderlust. But Bob learns he doesn’t need total crazy reckless freedom. He still wants someone to share his life with. Someone to have fun with. Once you stop worrying about what’s going to make you happy or have fun, you find out what really makes you happy and have fun.

JC: What are we supposed to learn from Bob’s failings and triumphs? Anything?

Gottlieb: I would never presume to teach anybody anything. But what’s interesting is that while it is so different from the original, and as different as men and women are, we all want the same things. You want to share your life with someone who makes you feel good.

(More after the jump)

JC: "Eat Pray Love" begins with a woman crying in the bathroom and then asking for a divorce. Your book begins this way too. Why?

Gottlieb: I started by purposely creating an architecture similar to "Eat Pray Love." But after initially mirroring the original, I stopped mirroring so much chapter for chapter.

JC: Did you learn anything from writing this book? Was it cathartic for you in any way?

Gottlieb: It was cathartic finishing it! Ha. I guess what I learned … it felt initially like a comedy book, but I realized it was more of novel about characters that I really care about.

JC: Tell us about Rick, the guru, whom Bob meets in Las Vegas. Who is he?

Gottlieb: The real Rick is a friend of a friend of mine. When we decided we wanted a guru character, we thought of Rick because Rick always had a good time in whatever situation he was in. The idea of that this guy teaches Bob to relax and let things come to you— the real Rick is like that.

JC: Alicia — the heart of the story, the woman he lands at the end — how did you come up with her character?

Gottlieb: My wife of 21 years is named Alicia, and I even asked her what she [the Alicia character] should do for a living. And my wife said she should be a documentarian. …It was as if Bob were a friend of mine and I was trying to set him up.

JC: There was actually a lot of heart at the end of this book. From Chapter 33:

“For all of God’s (and/or the Universe’s) mysterious ways, some things are extremely simple. You can talk and talk and pray and pray and meditate and meditate, but none of that will change the facts of life. And of those facts is as follows: Even when you’re scared, lost, overheated, lonely, miserable, and in extreme agony after having been struck in the midsection by an automobile, the right woman can magically make everything instantly okay.”

You so easily could have ended this with another folly or one last foible for Bob to stumble through. But you didn’t. Why is that?

Gottlieb: For all my cynicism and for all my comic antics, I’m a complete mushy, hopeless romantic. This is how I wanted it to end. Things worked out for him. Thing can work out. You can’t give up. Things can work out.

I think I assumed when the book was bought that everything was going to be a crazy romp — gambling and prostitutes in Thailand. But it really is a weird, twisted love story. I like that. It started out crazy and ended in traditional happiness.

— Lori Kozlowski

How Stella Got Her Groove Back - Terry McMillan

It's not a bad book but it isn't a great one either. The main reason for that is because it most certainly doesn't portray a realistic concept of love/long distance relationships, etc. today (and never for that matter!) But on the other hand Terry McMillan does know how to write what a woman thinks, desires, fears and goes crazy with in her head and that's what makes the book not only readable buy even enjoyable to a certain point. "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" is one of those books that you read in no time because the language is easy and the story is cute and you wish upon a star during the whole time you are reading it that something just as nice and wonderful could happen to you as well. You see, it's not like I don't believe in love stories or that a long distance relationship could work out - much to the contrary - I've seen it happen over and over again. But here in this story it all happens so easily, without any problem, any drama at all, she has enough money to go back and forth and pay him a first-class ticket as well and everything is a breeze. Her son not only accepts him from a minute to the other but so do her family (except for her cynical sister Angela, and that is soon taken cared of as well) and so all in all it's just too unrealistic to the point that it makes you want to scream and say "when is anything at all going to happen? Don't they fight just once? Doesn't he ignore or forget to call her even once for Pete's sake? But no, nothing of the likes. All of this makes the book way too predictable -  I'm telling you, hand nine out of ten people walking down the street a two-sentence description of the concept for this book, then give them a week at a word processor and you'd get this exact same script from all of them. And even being so, I discovered that this book made big success, and I mean BIG!!! It even turned out to be a movie and so I am sharing the trailer of the movie (even though we all know that movies are always super different from the actual book). If you enjoy "Happily Ever After" love fairy tales you will really enjoy this book as well and you might even relax and get a kick or two out of it.


BOOK REVIEW:
"Stella is a divorced mother of one son. At the age of forty two, she is quite content with her life, or so she thinks, which consists of work, managing a household, and raising a pre-teenager. Stella is very involved in personal fitness and spends much of her free time running.

After watching a television commercial about vacation packages, Stella decides to take a trip, with her friend Vanessa, to Jamaica. Once in Jamaica, she meets twenty-year-old Winston. Winston is very attracted to Stella but Stella thinks that he is too young. Winston continues to pursue her and eventually, the two become intimate. Unfortunately, Winston begins a new job and rarely has time to spend with Stella. Soon, she returns home.

Winston continues to call and express his regrets for not being able to see Stella much before she left. At first, Stella treats him badly, but eventually, her heart warms and she agrees to return to Jamaica to visit Winston. This time, he even takes her to the home of his parents. Stella feels ashamed that she is as old as his mother. His mother is not pleased with the situation either and makes it very clear to Stella. While in Jamaica, she finds out that her best friend, Vanessa, is terminally ill.

Once again Stella returns home, only this time Winston moves in with her. Stella is the talk of the town. Her sister makes her feel ashamed. Her friends envy her. Her son resents both Stella and Winston at times. Vanessa dies of cancer. Seeing that you can't take life for granted, Stella must make some very important decisions about how she wants to spend the rest of her life. Winston and Stella have their differences, like any couple, and, in the end, must decide if they can stay together in spite of their age difference." 

On Beauty

I think I have lost my ability with words and writing and that’s a horrible feeling. But that doesn’t stop me of telling you all about the wonderful books I do get to read daily. This one is one of those books.

“It’s easy to mistake a woman for a philosophy. The mistake is to be attached to the world at all. It will not thank you for your attachments. Love is the extremely difficult realization…” – that over there is Jerome, the son of Mr and Mrs. Besley. The deep and sensitive boy, rooted into Christianity who falls deeply in love for Mr and Mrs. Kipps daughter, Vee.

The Kipps and the Besleys – two totally different families who somehow find themselves attracted and pulled to each other by some crazy force and the whole story revolves around what happens when their internal, liberal and political conflicts collide together.

Zadie Smith is a natural writer and she writes with an intensity that fulfills your idea of how an artist should be: passionate, attentive, bringing her native enthusiasm to even the smallest of paragraphs. And her power of description is also something that leaves the reader in awe. For example; when she describes the sun: “The sun is a lemon today. It is. It’s like a huge lemon drop.” 

Something which jumped out to me in this book is the idea of ‘fittingness” which appears around the middle of the book. Basically that is when you accept your chosen pursuit and your ability to achieve it – no matter how small or insignificant both might be – are matched exactly, are fitting. They argue, that this is when we become truly human, fully ourselves, beautiful. To swim when your body is made for swimming. To kneel when you feel humble. To drink water when you are thirsty. Or – if one wishes to be grand about it – to write the poem that is exactly the fitting receptacle of the feeling or thought you hopped to convey. “Fittingness” is when you become the fitting receptacle and instrument of your talents and beliefs and desires.

Another subject that this book touches on is self-sabotage.  How many times do we addict ourselves to a negative thought pattern that it becomes so deeply embedded in our head that we compulsively sabotage all possibilities of personal happiness. We convince ourselves that happiness is not what we deserve and we feel impelled to inflict upon ourselves something which can only be called emotional cruelty.

This book is all about deep topics mixed into a story. You need to read the book though, searching, with an open eye and mind for the revelations you will find inside of it. One of these deep topics is about us – the feminine race – the new female generation and how we aren’t all that different from our mothers and grandmothers. We still feel one thing and end up doing another when the truth is that all we want is just to be wanted. We still continue starving ourselves by reading women’s magazines and chick lit that explicitly hate women, still cut and hurt ourselves in places that we think can’t be seen, fake our orgasms with men we dislike, lie to everyone about everything. We end up being nothing more than just objects of desire instead of desiring objects. We lack being womanish (as the author puts it) – we forget to radiate an essential female nature that comes by being honest, natural, powerful and unmediated, full of genuine desire. That also includes strong, active and well expressed beliefs and has nothing to do with false intellectuality. That’s what a true woman is. Zadie Smith portrays this perfect woman in her character “Kiki Besley” who thinks aloud a very important phrase “When you feel entitled to it, you achieve it!”

This book doesn’t have much of a continuation with the story and its characters. It seems like it just jumps from one thought to the other and so being my review is pretty much the same: skipping from one idea to the other – which brings me to how important and miraculous it is when you communicate what is most intimate to you. And in essence this is what Zadie Smith does in this book – she lets the reader know what she holds deep inside and she does so with great style which is what makes this book as good as it is!!! 

BOOK REVIEW:

here's an old observation that novelists who honed their craft in universities tend to write an awful lot about middle-aged academics contemplating adultery. With that in mind...

At the center of Zadie Smith's On Beauty is Howard Belsey, a middle-aged academic teaching in the humanities at Wellington College, a fictitious liberal arts college on the outskirts of Boston. The nice thing about Boston is that it's got so many well-known academic institutions already that you can give it another whole college without worrying about changing its character. Wellington's got a reputation in this universe as a den of left-leaning academics, and Howard, a British art history professor who married an African-American woman and has three mixed-race children, is everyone's dream caricature of a liberal academician. His archnemesis is Montague Kipps, a Jamaican-born black British academic who is going to be lecturing at Wellington this year. Professor Kipps is a well-known leader in reactionary political circles and a darling of the American right. He has brought his wife Carlene and one of his two children with him. That's where I'll arbitrarily stop, before I get further into the tangled connections between the many major characters.

On Beauty is at its most amusing when accurately (I imagine) satirizing liberal arts academia. It also deals well with issues of cultural identity, particularly circling around Howard's teenage son Levi. Zadie Smith has a great ear for dialogue, particularly characters who are rather less than articulate (Levi) or characters who are ridiculously full of themselves (too many to mention). I also have to applaud Smith's very, very British sense of humor in creating social awkwardness for your dignified characters.

That said, I got a strong impression that the characters, as realistic and entertaining as their dialogue can be, are really just game pieces being moved around the board. You must remember that the universe of On Beauty contains no more than two dozen or so actual people, who bounce off of each other in a slow sort of Brownian motion. Just keep that in mind, and your mind won't be blown by the coincidences that dog this story, particularly the big one in the final section, involving a painting.

The Book Thief

Guten morgen (good morning): Good morning! This book review will be quite different from the ones I usually write. I choose a few German words which were spread across this book that caught my eye and I wrote what each one of these words made me think about or feel towards this book.

Saumensch (pig): Men. The atrocities men are capable of doing get to be almost unbelievable! Take this story for instance - and many other stories that became worldwide famous - all happened because men acted like pigs instead of rational human beings. What happened during the holocaust and is portrayed in this book makes you realize how men can steep so downward to act like animals hurting and inflicting pain, humiliation and rejection all for their own good. 

Arschloch (asshole): All of us. All of us human beings are assholes in one time or another in our lives. And yet without good enough reason to be one we still are. Like Liesel's mother: despite her loving her adoptive daughter (the main character in this book) she still knew how to be a complete asshole with her at many times - not to talk about with others - which was almost at all times. And so that is us, human nature. We know what we got to do yet we don't do it. We know that our actions will hurt someone deep inside and yet we act anyways, or sometimes just don't act which is being an asshole just as much. All that to say: we human beings are one sorry lot of assholes!!!
Saukerl (bastard; hog): The materialistic world we live in. We are never content with what we have - to the contrary - we always have to receive more, have more, get more - even if that means getting it from people who have so much less than what we do. What we have is never enough so we have to act like bastards and hog it from others so that we can fill ourselves. It's the sad truth.

 Zufriedenheit (contentment): Contentment comes by with us knowing how to appreciate the small little things in life. Liesel`s contentment came out of reading a good book and drinking in words that she made her own. Contentment was hers when she would sit by her adoptive father and listen to him play his acordeon and that was all she needed to be happy despite all her sad surroundings. 

 Verzeihung (forgiveness): It's what makes couples last for fifty year together, friends to stick together until their last days, family to love each other despite the craziest of occurrences - it's what proves that you truly love someone - that love is so big that you forgive despite all odds.

 Angst (fear): Sometimes fear is justified. Like in this story - there was no possible way that they could always be strong and fear none if what they feared was a power so great that could determine the end of your existence, the crushing of your body, the separating of your family. Other times fear is what holds you, bounds you down and doesn't let you be free enough to try different things and take risks so that you may fly to heights unknown.

Elend (misery): It's what every single character in this story goes through - including you, the reader who is holding the book steadfast in your hand. Misery is what Hitler brought down during the Second World War to millions of people. And you'd think that it was misery only on the Jews - well, this story makes you see that it's not quite so - from Jews to German, both rich and poor, of all walks of life, with all types of different lives were subjected to misery. Misery is one hopeless feeling. I'd rather feel anger, sadness, rejection, frustration and hate before having to feel misery. Because misery is synonymous to hopelessness - and when you are hopeless then you are surely helpless as well.
 Schweigen (silence): A lot of people relate silence with peace. Personally I don't really feel the same way. I would relate silence more with fear, respect, apprehension, anxiousness (the one that keeps you holding your breath), being uncomfortable, introspection, or ignoring something. All of these feelings are very real and tangible when reading this book - you receive a certain amount of each one of them while you leaf through the pages passing from the very first one until the very last. It's a book to be read alone, in silence so that you can experience all of the emotions it contains in its pages. 

 Nachtrauern (mourn): This book has a very sad ending. Everyone Liesel loves dies or leaves her and she ends mourning. Mourning for others. Mourning - it's what wars make everyone do. 

 Wort (word): The most dangerous and powerful weapon we posses. The power of words - how they can change your life for better or for worse. Words have built nations, moved dynasties, caused destruction and brought peace, traveled across the world and made the biggest changes ever known all throughout history. In this book everyone was moved by the power of words. It was what made all of Germany go against the Jews, made both young and old despise a whole nation and race - and it was also what calmed the whole crazy lot locked inside the cellar, what strengthened others when they could stand no longer, what soothed the storm welling inside so many people's hard interiors. Words, the power of words - and oh how we fail to realize that power!

 Gelegenheit (opportunity): This book is all about what happens to people when they have no more opportunities in life. When they are forced to face whatever comes their way without a chance to choose how to build the next years of their life. And even then when opportunity does come our way sometimes we fail to take it - or pass it on to someone else - in an act of loving kindness. Rudy had his opportunity but his father took it to save his son because he believed it was the right thing to do. Liesel had countless opportunities to kiss Rudy and show the love she had for him and yet she always refused those opportunities thinking there surely would be one more right around the corner like there always had been for the past many years. Well there never was. For me that was the saddest part in the whole story - the letting go of priceless opportunities.

 Bis morgen (until tomorrow): Until tomorrow where I will write my next post about the latest book I just read!

BOOK REVIEW:

The Book Thief is a novel by Australian author Markus Zusak.^[1] Narrated by Death, the book is set in Nazi Germany (a period when the narrator notes he was extremely busy.) It describes a young girl's (named Liesel Meminger) relationship with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa, and the other residents of their neighborhood, and a Jewish fist-fighter who hides in her home during the escalation of World War II. Published in 2005, it has won numerous awards and has been listed on the New York Times Children's Bestseller List for over 190 weeks.^[2]

The narrator of the book, Death, begins by introducing himself as a benign and sympathetic entity with a tendency to define moments by their color (for example a sky turned red after a bombing raid). Death describes his first encounter with a nine-year-old girl named Liesel Meminger in the late 1930’s in a graveyard shortly after the death of her younger brother on a train taking them to Molching, Germany, where their mother is to leave them with a foster family. It is revealed that the reason for the fostering is to distance the children from their parents’ past communist sympathies. The death of the boy forces Liesel and her mother to make a stopover for a burial. It is just after this tearful and unceremonious burial that Liesel steals her first book, The Grave Digger’s Handbook, after it is dropped in the snow by a gravedigger’s apprentice. Despite being uneducated for her age and unable to read the book, she keeps it as a final memento of her brother.[edit]

Plot summary

Death continues to narrate, but as a second-hand account of Liesel’s own writing from years later. Upon arriving at the home of her foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, Liesel finds it hard to adjust. She is haunted by nightmares about her mother and, most of all, her brother. It is through Hans Hubermann’s unfailing comfort throughout the middle of the night, every night, that the two come to share a bond. Noticing The Grave Digger’s Handbook tucked under Liesel’s mattress one night, Hans, who is a painter by trade and by this time is known to Liesel as “Papa”, decides to teach her to read and write.

Rosa Hubermann, whose personality is much coarser than Hans’, takes Liesel under her wing in her own way, by having her help with her job of washing and delivering laundry for other households. Shortly after the start of World War II, Rosa makes it Liesel’s job to pick up and deliver the laundry in the hopes that penny-pinched customers will feel guilty about telling a child that they cannot afford to enlist her mother’s services any longer.

For Christmas, Liesel is gifted two used books, paid for in cigarettes by Hans Hubermann. The Hubermanns have a son and a daughter of their own, both of whom are grown and live elsewhere, but visit at Christmas-time. Their son is a staunch Hitlerite and, after an intense argument with Hans about his failure to obtain membership in the Nazi party (due in most part to a much earlier incident in which he painted over anti-Semitic graffiti on a Jewish shopkeeper’s door), leaves angrily, but not before suggesting that Liesel should be reading Mein Kampf rather than the sort of books that the Hubermanns have given her.

Meanwhile, Liesel befriends a neighbour boy of the same age by the name of Rudy Steiner who often asks Liesel for kisses, only to be rejected each time. The pair eventually takes to stealing as an occasional pastime, usually fuelled by Rudy’s constant hunger. At a rally on Hitler’s birthday, April 20, 1940, during a public book burning, Liesel steals a book for a second time. The only witness is the mayor’s wife, who is also a customer of Rosa Hubermann’s.

When Hans Hubermann is contacted by Max Vandenburg, the son of a Jew who saved his life in the First World War, he takes his son’s advice and buys a copy of Mein Kampf. In it he hides the train tickets and forged documentation necessary to get Max to the Hubermann residence, arranging for him to arrive under cover of night. Max takes up residence in the Hubermanns’ basement, hidden underneath the steps by hanged sheets and stacked paint cans.

Having seen Liesel take the book at the rally, the mayor’s wife, Ilsa Hermann, eventually invites Liesel to read from the books in her extensive library. Doing so with each pick-up and delivery, Liesel eventually learns of Ilsa Hermann’s crippling self-pity over the death of her only son during the First World War. Liesel quickly befriends Max. For having kept watch over the fugitive Jew for many nights as he recovered from his wearisome journey to find the Hubermanns, Max writes a short illustrated story called The Standover Man for Liesel and gives it to her as a birthday gift. The title refers to the people in one’s life who will stay comfortingly at one’s bedside in times of need, just as Liesel did for Max and as Hans had done for Liesel.

So as not to appear hypocritical after urging townspeople to be as economical as possible in order to support the war effort, the mayor and his wife discontinue their use of Rosa Hubermann’s laundering services. As Ilsa Hermann gives Liesel a letter explaining that they will be doing their own washing from then on, she tells her that she is still free to read from her library at any time and gives her a book to take home with her. Knowing that this will exacerbate her family’s financial woes, Liesel reacts angrily, attacking Ilsa’s state of self-pity for her son’s death, informing her “it’s pathetic that you sit here shivering in your own house to suffer for it” as she throws the offered book back to the woman’s feet.

Liesel returns to the mayor’s home at a later date with Rudy and steals the book by climbing in through the window. A short time later, the pair encounter a group of older boys who have it out for Rudy and they throw Liesel’s stolen book into a river. Always seeking ways to earn a kiss, Rudy retrieves the book from the ice cold water.

Upon Winter’s arrival in 1942, Max falls gravely ill. Even more so than upon his first arrival at their home, Liesel keeps a relentless vigil over Max as he sleeps without waking for days stretching into weeks. Periodically she leaves small presents by his side – found trinkets, usually, such as ribbons, buttons and the like –and reads to him daily.

Max eventually wakes from his sickness and has no sooner gotten back to normal than the party sends a man without warning to check basements for suitability as bomb shelters. Max is miraculously able to hide in the basement right under the nose of the party man, who concludes that their basement is too shallow to serve as an adequate shelter.

The Hubermanns’ fortunes improve with the growing danger of air raids as Hans is employed to paint over windows so that bombers cannot see the lights on inside the homes. In the meantime, Liesel has continued to steal books from the Hermanns’ library and even food for Rudy from their kitchen. One day, they find that a book, a dictionary in fact, has been placed on the sill. Liesel steals it and as they are leaving, looks back and sees Ilsa Hermann as she stands behind the window and raises a hand to wave. Inside the dictionary, Liesel and Rudy discover a letter addressed to Liesel, informing her that the mayor’s wife has known all along that they have been stealing books and that she only hopes that Liesel will one day choose to knock on the front door rather than sneak through the window.

When the air raid sirens begin sounding with regularity, Liesel helps maintain calm in the designated shelter by reading to the others from one of her books. The Hubermanns’ next door neighbour, with whom Rosa has been feuding for years, proposes that Liesel read to her on a regular basis in exchange for her coffee ration; the deal is struck.

Two weeks later, a group of Jews are marched through Molching toward Dachau. As they are paraded through the town in front of a crowd of onlookers, Hans Hubermann takes pity on an enfeebled old Jewish man and steps forward to hand him a piece of bread. A soldier takes notice and whips both Hans and the elderly Jew.

Regretting his actions for the attention they will surely draw to them from the Nazis, Hans has Max leave for his own safety shortly after the incident. Before leaving, Max tells Liesel that he has left a gift for her that she will only receive when she is ready. With each day that passes without a visit from the Gestapo, however, Hans begins to regret sending Max away, believing he may have needlessly sent him away from a danger that wasn’t coming. When two “coat men” finally approach the Hubermanns’ house, Hans is relieved to think that he didn’t send him away for nothing. In fact, they have come to the wrong house, and proceed down the street to the Steiner residence. They are interested in taking Rudy to a special Nazi-run school based on his academic and athletic performance. His parents decline. The punishment that Hans Hubermann has been waiting for finally comes when he is conscripted for military service. Alex Steiner, Rudy’s father, is also drafted for having refused to send Rudy to the special school. They leave by train and that night Liesel wakes to discover Rosa Hubermann crying herself to sleep in the living room with Hans’ accordion clutched to her chest, a nightly occurrence from then on.

When another group of Jews is shepherded through Molching, Liesel and Rudy decide to run ahead of the pack, leave pieces of lying bread along the path, and hide in some nearby trees. Liesel compromises her hiding spot while trying to tell if Max is among the group, and is spotted after a soldier notices prisoners bending down to pick up pieces of bread. The children are chased through the woods but manage to get away.

Rosa, deciding that Liesel is ready for Max’s parting gift, reveals a bundle of papers, not unlike that on which The Standover Man was written, hidden within her mattress. During his stay with the Hubermanns, Max had used the scraps of paper as a sort of journal and sketchbook to pass the time. The journal is titled The Word Shaker, after its most significant entry, a short illustrated fable that serves as an allegory for Nazi Germany and the power of words.

Ignoring Ilsa Hermann’s suggestion to use the front door, Liesel returns with Rudy to the mayor’s home to steal again. This time she finds that a plate of staling cookies has been left on the desk, but is intercepted by Ilsa before she can make her escape. Liesel takes comfort in the realization that the age of the cookies indicate that the library belongs to Ilsa (had her husband used the room, he would surely not have left cookies to go stale on the desk) and not the mayor. She awkwardly reconciles with Frau Hermann and quickly takes her leave.

In early 1943, Liesel is greeted by a strange face when she makes her scheduled visit to read to her neighbour, Frau Holtzapfel. It is Holtzapfel’s son, returned from Stalingrad where he lost three fingers and a brother. After hearing the news of her second son’s death Frau Holtzapfel appears distant and depressed every time Liesel comes to read to her.

When a truck that Hans is riding in the back of loses control and rolls over, he suffers from a broken leg and is sent back from the Eastern Front. Before he arrives, however, Molching receives another air raid warning. All but Frau Holtzapfel, who is still under the hold of crippling depression, make their way to the bomb shelter. Her son, Liesel, and Rosa all try to convince her to proceed to the shelter, but to no avail. Before leaving for the shelter themselves, Liesel tells her that if she does not come, Liesel will stop reading to her and she will have lost her only friend. A short time after they arrive at the shelter, Frau Holtzapfel finally removes herself from her kitchen and joins them.

When the sirens signal that it is okay to leave the shelter, the townspeople’s attention is drawn to a bomber plane that has been downed on the banks of a nearby river. Rudy and Liesel are the first to arrive on the scene, where Rudy comforts the dying pilot. He places a teddy bear on the shoulder of the pilot, who thanks him with his dying breath.

Three months later, two more groups of Jews are marched through Molching and, like the last time, Liesel watches to see if Max is among them. She is unsure whether to hope that he is a part of the procession, in which case she at least knows that he is still alive, or that he is not, in which case he might still be free, or perhaps dead. Around the same time, Frau Holtzapfel’s only surviving son hangs himself one night from the rafters of a local laundry, devastating her further.

A month later, more Jews are paraded by and this time Max Vandenburg is among them. When Liesel runs in among the crowd of prisoners for a tearful reunion with her friend, they are finally pulled apart and each of them whipped by a soldier. Rudy runs to help Liesel and to get her off the street, but she breaks free and again runs toward the long line of Jews to find Max. Before she can do so, however, Rudy catches up to her and tackles her to the ground as Max is led away with the rest.

After keeping to herself for three days after the incident, Liesel finally tells Rudy everything about the Jew they’d been hiding in their basement after forcing him to promise that he would never tell anyone.

To cheer herself up, Liesel once more sneaks into the Hermann’s library, but instead becomes angry at what the power of words has done to Germany and tears up one of the books in frustration. Before leaving, she leaves an apologetic note of explanation for Ilsa Hermann, writing that she will no longer be returning there. Three days later, Ilsa arrives unexpectedly at Liesel’s home and gifts her with a small black book of lined pages for writing in, saying that she wrote well in the letter she’d left in the library.

Over many weeks, Liesel writes the story of her life since arriving on Himmel Street in the little black book while sitting in the basement where she had first learned to read with her foster father and had later read with Max. On the very night that she finishes her story with the line “I have hated the words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right”, Himmel Street is bombed without warning. Despite having earlier been dismissed as unsuitable for a bomb shelter, the Hubermanns’ shallow basement is the only thing that helps make Liesel the only survivor on the whole street of the bombing. She is liberated from the rubble by the rescue squad and is distraught by the scene of destruction all around her. She finds Rudy first, and after tearfully trying to revive his lifeless body, at last gives him the kiss he’d always asked her for.

Next she finds the bodies of Hans and Rosa Hubermann and cries by their side until she is finally taken away by the emergency responders. Liesel’s little black book of reminiscences, titled The Book Thief, is picked up from the rubble and mistaken for trash. Death picks it up off the back of a garbage truck as he passes with the souls of the residents of Himmel Street in hand. Shortly after the bombing, Liesel is adopted by Ilsa Hermann and her husband, the mayor and Alex Steiner returns from his military service and laments, “if only I’d let Rudy go to that school”. Rudy’s father reopens his tailoring business and Liesel passes the time by helping him in the store. After the war, Max is liberated from Dachau and returns to find Liesel at the store, where they share an emotional reunion.

Many years later, Death comes for Liesel in Sydney, and reveals to her that he has carried her little black book, The Book Thief, with him for all these years. Astonished, she asks, “could you understand it?”, to which he simply replies, “I am haunted by humans.” ^[3]

]Main characters

• Liesel Meminger: An adopted girl with blond hair that "was a close enough brand of German blonde" and dark brown eyes on the verge of adolescence and the protagonist of the story. She is fostered by the Hubermanns when her father "abandons" their family and her mother is forced to give her up for adoption. Her younger brother, Werner, dies on the way to the Hubermann household. She is very close to her foster father, Hans Hubermann, and has a rough but loving relationship with her foster mother, Rosa. She befriends Max, the Jew whom the Hubermanns are hiding, as well as the mayor's wife, who allows Liesel to read, borrow, and "steal" books from her home library. She also befriends the other children of Himmel Street, among them Rudy Steiner, who becomes her best friend. Despite her many refusals to Rudy's requests for a kiss, her love for him is clear, as seen by the lustful nature of some of her fantasies of him. Liesel finally grants Rudy's much-awaited kiss as he lies dead among the ruins of Himmel Street. In the last few chapters, it is mentioned that Liesel eventually married and had several children and grandchildren.

• Hans Hubermann: Liesel's foster father, who works as a painter. He also has an addiction to smoking cigarettes. Originally he served in the German army during World War I. During the War, Hans is the only survivor of his company because he is chosen to stay behind while the other soldiers are sent off on a mission where all of them die. In the Holocaust era, he does not agree with the Nazi party, but is forced to join, and is, upon being accepted into the Nazi party, drafted into the German army in order to protect his livelihood and his family. He is described as having silvery-grey eyes and being very tall, although despite this he is described as being very capable of blending in with the crowd. He was taught the piano accordion by Max's father Erik Vandenburg, a friend from the army (who saved Hans' life), and he occasionally performs in pubs to make extra money. He becomes very close to Liesel, as he calms her after her nightmares of her brother dying, and teaches her to read. However, he has a falling-out with his actual son, Hans Jr., because of his son's support of the Nazis. Hans Hubermann is killed in the Himmel Street bombing.

• Rosa Hubermann: Liesel's foul-mouthed foster mother. She is very short, with an extremely wrinkled face, and has browny-grey 'elastic' hair often tied up in a bun, and 'chlorinated' eyes. To supplement the household income, she does washing and ironing for five of the wealthier households in Molching, however, as the war causes economic problems, she loses her jobs one by one, the last being at the Hermann household. She has a quick temper, rules the household with an iron fist, and is known for straightening out previous foster children; however, though she often swears at Liesel, she cares very much for her. She has two children of her own, Trudy and Hans Jr. Rosa is killed in the Himmel Street bombing.

• Rudy Steiner: Liesel's neighbour and love interest. He is eight months older than Liesel and is described as having bony legs, sharp teeth, blue eyes, and lemon-colored hair. Despite being the German ideal (blond hair and blue eyes), he does not support the Nazis. As part of a household with six children, Rudy is permanently hungry. He is known throughout the neighborhood due to the "Jesse Owens incident" in which he painted himself with charcoal one night and ran one hundred meters at the local sporting field. He is academically and athletically gifted, which attracts the attention of the Nazi Party, who come to recruit him, and when he doesn't come, they take his father, Alex Steiner. He also gets into trouble at the Hitler Youth due to his smart mouth, rebellious nature, and vindictive group leader. Rudy becomes Liesel's best friend, often accompanying her on her adventures and talking her through her problems. He also teases her, regularly (though always unsuccessfully) asking her for a kiss mostly after he has helped her to accomplish something - for instance when one of Liesel's books (and most prized possession) is thrown into a river, he, being Rudy, rescues it. Rudy is killed in the Himmel Street bombing; Liesel finally grants him a kiss as he lies dead in the street.

• Max Vandenburg: A Jewish fist-fighter whom the Hubermanns stow away in their home. He is described as having feather-like hair and swampy brown eyes. Max finds Hans Hubermann and convinces him to shelter him because of Hans' friendship with Max's father. Max befriends Liesel due to their shared affinity for nightmares and words, and he writes two books for her and presents her with a sketchbook that contains his life story. He is taken away by the German Gestapo to a concentration camp, but manages to return to Molching after the war and is united with Liesel at the end of the novel.

• Tommy Müller: A friend of Rudy Steiner and Liesel. He has a hearing problem, due to being stranded in the snow. This caused him to have multiple ear surgeries. One failed, causing nerve damage that makes him twitch. As a result, he is frequently made fun of by his classmates and later punished by the head of the Hitler Youth when he is unable to obey commands promptly. Tommy is killed in the Himmel Street bombing.

• Ilsa Hermann: The wife of the mayor of Molching. They had a son, Johannes Hermann, who was killed in Russia. Rosa and Liesel do their washing and ironing for a time; eventually the bad economy forces the Hermanns to fire them, which causes an argument with Liesel. However, despite this, Ilsa allows Liesel to continue visiting and read books in the large library in her home. Ilsa fosters Liesel after she survives the Himmel Street bombing.

• Frau Holtzapfel: A neighbor of the Hubermanns. Originally she is an object of Rosa's hatred because she always spits on the Hubermann's door because of an old feud between the families that both sides have forgotten the reason for. However, eventually, she asks Liesel to read to her after she heard her read one of her books, stopping her spitting and giving the Hubermanns her coffee rations in return. Of her two sons, Robert died on the battlefield while his elder brother Michael committed suicide a few months later because of his guilt at "wanting to live." Frau Holtzapfel is killed in the Himmel Street bombing.

• Death: The narrator of the book throughout the story. Death is sympathetic to mankind and dislikes all of the despair and destruction brought upon humans by war, which is different from a belief that Death is friends with War. He comments on the thoughts, morals, and actions of humanity throughout the story while keeping a close eye on Liesel, even though at the beginning of the story he states that it was stupid for him to follow her. At the end of the book, he takes Liesel's story and carries it with him everywhere. He frequently likes to describe the colours of things, and has sympathy with the humans whose souls he carries, as revealed in the book's final line, "I am haunted by humans". He does not seem to have any control over life and death, frequently calling upon God with 'I don't understand' and answering himself with 'but it's not your job to'. Death says that he has a 'circular' heartbeat, making him immortal, though he says that he looks like a human, and acts like a human most of the time. He is tired of his job and wants a vacation, but cannot take one because there would be nobody to replace him. While many people find Death devastating, Death is, in many ways, funny and sarcastic.

Main themes

• The value of words: Liesel learns that words cause destruction and the peace in this world. When Liesel's foster mother gives her Max's second book (the Word Shaker) this theme is greatly noticed