Kay's Bookshelf

I added this book to my TBR shelf a while ago, after reading and loving The Book Thief. When I started reading this, I had no expectations. I was of course happy to notice that the writing style was very similar to TBT, perhaps with shorter sentences and fewer metaphors, but the very style I enjoyed back then. However the topic was, as I expected, a lot less serious than Nazi occupation in Germany. A bunch of kids, one in particular, doing… something. Meh. But then, without noticing, I slipped into it. The seemingly simplistic writing has a way of inescapably drawing one in. I finished the whole book in just a few hours, and only then I realized I loved it, unexpectedly, even more than I did TBT.

Throughout the book, Ed has no idea why is he chosen, who has chosen him and for what purpose, and yet he never hesitates in doing what he knows he should. Albeit an ordinary guy, with no particular set of skills, his deeds do indeed make the world a better place, for others, and ultimately for himself. He starts to gain confidence, he meets new people, he begins to live. A testimony to the power of doing good.

The characters are, all, inherently flawed. They all have their issues, from Audrey whose childhood has left her afraid to love, to Marv, who’s always grumpy and such a skinflint he’d rather kiss a smelly dog than paying for a meal. They sometimes use strong language or have casual sex. They could be called losers without batting an eyelid. And yet, somewhere deep inside, they all have redeeming qualities. I ended up rooting for each, I ended up caring for each, and I took it to be yet another sign of how great this book actually is.

Two quotes I liked:

“How do people live like this?
How do they survive?
And maybe that’s why I’m here.
What if they can’t anymore?”

and another, containing just the sort of imagery I love discovering in Zusak’s books:

“She also sits down, like the girl. She’s got her nightie on again, torn, and she has her head in her hands. [...] At one point, she holds her hands out, forming a cup. It’s like she’s holding her heart there. It’s bleeding down her arms.”

Thoughts on the ending: The kind of powerful ending that leaves people either adoring the book or hating it to bits. For me it was the. Single. Best. Ending. Ever.
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What I liked most: First of all, the very idea the book is based on, of going around and change people’s lives for the better was bound to strike a chord within me (yup, I was a diehard fan of Quantum Leap :) ). This being said, my favorite parts were of course the most successful “messages” Ed “sends”, the ones where the recipients are touched the most. I so like reading about happy people.

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What I liked least: There’s nothing that I did not like. Sure, it needed a bit of disbelief suspension at first, when Ed poured so much effort into something seemingly random (a card arrived out of nowhere), but somehow it all made sense later on. What if Ed’s life was simply so meaningless that he jumped at the opportunity of giving it a little meaning, even if that meant chasing card-shaped windmills? Also, Ed seems to really love people, and being around them, and so, what might have started out as simple curiosity grew into a must-do after a while.

Recommend it to? Absolutely everyone. My favorite book in quite some time.

Written by the same author:
The Book Thief

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