Brittany Harrell

LIS 618

Author Study: Written Summary

Due: March 5, 2016

Markus Zusak

About The Author

Markus Zusak was born in 1975 in Sydney, Australia to immigrant parents, a

German mother and Austrian father (Hudson, 2010). He has published five books between 1999 and 2005 in his native country, with many of them gaining international success (“Markus Zusak”). He still lives in Sydney with his wife and two children (“Markus Zusak”). Currently, Zusak is preparing for a US book tour to celebrate the 10 year anniversary of his most popular work, The Book Thief (Zusak,

2016).

His writing has won a variety of awards over the years in various countries.

Most notably, Zusak won the Margaret A Edwards Award in 2014 (“2014 Margaret A

Edwards Award”). He was also a 2006 Printz Honoree for I am the Messenger

(“Markus Zusak”).

About the Project

Because Zusak is an Australian author, his novels have been published differently in each country. In the United States, only four of his five books were published as individual novels. The fifth, also known as the first in the Wolfe brothers or Underdogs trilogy, was only published as part one a combined set with the other two in the trilogy. All five books were read for this assignment but, in order to read the fifth book, the combined trilogy is the one cited throughout this discussion when referring to direct page numbers. If the individual novel is being cited but not direct page numbers, the citation will refer simply to that book instead of the combined trilogy.

Also worth noting: the availability of reference material to Zusak’s books, besides The Book Thief, is almost nonexistent. Almost all reference information was received from interviews with Zusak from various websites or journal publications.

Short Summary about the Books

Underdogs

The Wolfe Brothers trilogy follows the youngest boys in the Wolfe family:

Cameron and Ruben Wolfe as they try to figure themselves out and their place in the world and within their family, all told through Cameron’s narration. The story has a lot of similarities to SE Hinton’s The Outsiders, to the point that even Zusak says

“Cameron was inspired by Hinton’s Ponyboy” (Carstensen, 2014). Ruben is also very similar to Sodapop and their older brother Steve is reminiscent of Dally. Unlike The

Outsiders though, Zusak’s characters still have parents and even a sister.

The individual books in the trilogy do not rely on each other to be understood, which can be beneficial for readers who can’t get their hands on the other books in the trilogy. That being said, to really enjoy the struggle, triumphs, and lives of the Wolfe brothers, the whole trilogy should be read.

Each book in the series features elements of an irony or satire, as define by

Northrope Frye, but the trilogy as a whole is more indicative of Frye’s definition of a comedy (Gann, 2016b). As Cameron and Ruben, and even the rest of the Wolfe pack, progress through the stories, they overcome the odds that are stacked against them and find a new, brighter way to look at themselves and their stations in life.

I am the Messenger

Ed Kennedy is a 19 year old, car playing cab driver that’s going no where until his whole live changes after being held hostage in an armed bank robbery. One day, he starts receiving mysterious playing cards with names or addresses on them, pointing him towards people who need his help in some way while also revealing the darkest and brightest parts of human existence.

This romantic quest novel uses suffering to not only impart knowledge on Ed but to also show the triumph of the minor characters he ‘helps’ throughout the story

(Nilsen, Blasingame, Donelson, & Nislen, 2013). By allowing the reader to go on this journey with Ed to deliver messages and, in the end, find out the source of it all along, Zusak provides a realistic journey story. He doesn’t need dragons or magic to create the adventure Ed goes on, just a little bit of mystery until the last possible moment.

The Book Thief

Zusak’s most popular novel is set in 1939 Nazi Germany with a narrator none other than the Angel of Death. The story follows Liesel, a young German girl brought to live with foster parents, who steals books as way to learn about and make sense of the world around her.

The story was inspired by his own parent’s experiences in Germany and

Austria as children, stories which they would tell him as a child. In an interview with his publisher, Zusak said “I heard stories like that, stories of my dad not wanting to go to Hitler Youth and people who didn’t want to hang their flags in their windows and I thought ‘I’m gonna write about those people’” (“Interview with Markus

Zusak”).

This tragedy, by Frye standards, poses Liesel as the hero of Death’s story

(Gann, 2016). Even in the darkest times, like when locked underground for a bomb raid, Liesel never loses hope. Instead, she provides hope to those around her by reading aloud from her book, making her a truly heroic character (Zusak, 2005).

Overarching Themes in the Canon

Australian Setting/Slang

Zusak utilizes his own knowledge of Australia, particularly in and around

Sydney, in four of his five novels. All three of the books in the Underdogs trilogy and

I am the Messenger came to life in the streets of Zusak’s hometown.

Underdogs only mentions bits and pieces of the city, placing less emphasis on a specific physical setting and more on an emotional setting. However, especially in the second and third books in the trilogy, quite a few neighborhoods are brought up.

When Cameron and Ruben begin boxing to make extra money in Fighting Ruben

Wolfe, their sponsor of sorts tells the boys of the various gyms they’ll compete in around the city, which include Glebe, Maroubra, Ashfield, and Helensburgh (Zusak,

2013, p. 179).

In Getting The Girl, Cameron has some minor stalker tendancies and ends up sitting outside of the house of the girl he has a crush on, which is located in Glebe

(Zusak, 2013, p. 320). Cameron, ever the romantic, also goes to meet his major love interest in the story at Circular Quay Harbour as well as at her house in Hurstville, both of which are actual locations in and around Sydney (Zusak, 2013, p. 393, 405).

As the reader progresses to I am the Messenger, more concrete locations in and around Sydney are utilized. With the main character, Ed, being a cab driver, streets and locations in the city are more prominent in this book. He mentions various places he has to drive his customers, most often to ‘the city’ which seems to be the name for Sydney proper, rather than the suburbs usually mentioned in

Zusak’s novels.

The most interesting setting details though, come with the mysterious playing card packages Ed receives. A quick Google maps search will reveal that places like Edgar Street or Harrison Avenue actually exist in the suburb of Maroubra

(Zusak, 2002, p. 1). There’s even a St. Michael’s Catholic Church a little further out from Sydney as well (Zusak, 2002, p. 154). Many of the places in I am the Messenger are real locations and feasibly can be reached by walking, much like Ed does in the story.

Another commonality in these four novels is the Austrialian slang. Words like bloody, shirty, and mate pop up often through out the novels. Two words actually required some translation though. ‘Whinging’ appears in all four novels fairly often and means ‘whining’ or ‘griping,’ which wasn’t hard to determine considering the closeness in spelling of whining and whinging. However, ‘Sledge,’ which is pretty exclusive to I am the Messenger, was a little harder to find and actually refers to the game of cricket (Zusak, 2002, p. 98). The use of real places and common terms in his novels are indicative of

Zusak’s upbringing in the same area. They also add an authenticity to the stories that provide the readers with another level on which to enjoy them.

Stylistic Formatting

All five of Zusak’s novels have an extra emphasis added to the story through the means of some form of stylistic formatting. Each style choice elaborates on the character or book message by providing more insight or introducing another level to the narrative.

Underdogs as a trilogy is a perfect example of using stylistic formatting to provide more insight into a character. Each novel in the trilogy employs a different kind of writing but they all do it in the same way: through an italicized passage at the end of each chapter. In The Underdog, the italicized passage at the end of each chapter is a dream Cameron is having, oftentimes nightmarish in nature. Each dream allows the reader to understand Cameron a little more by showing his fears, how the events of the chapter affected him, and, in some cases, foreshadow the coming chapters (Zusak, 1999).

Fighting Ruben Wolfe, as a story, focuses more on the brotherhood between

Ruben and Cameron and the italicized section at the end of each chapter does the same by spelling out conversations between the brothers, oftentimes late at night in their shared bedroom. These conversations offer the biggest insight into Ruben’s character, especially considering all of the books are from Cameron’s perspective, and how he relates to Cameron as a brother and friend (Zusak, 2000). By the end of the novel, the reader has a better sense of the strength of Ruben and Cameron’s relationship and how they’re separated, in a sense, from the rest of their family.

The stylistic formatting outside of the Underdogs trilogy is a lot less uniform.

When reading I am the Messenger, the formatting is less obvious. This novel is broken into five sections and each section relates to a suit in playing cards, starting with diamonds and going through to clubs, spades, hearts and even including jokers

(Zusak, 2002, p. 1, 93, 181, 263, 339). Within each section, each chapter is labeled with a card in the suit in order from ace down to king, adding a sense of structure to the format (Zusak, 2002). While each suit has a connection to the story, especially the section for the hearts, the chapters assigned to each card don’t seem to have a significance outside of that structure.

In his most recent novel, Zusak’s stylistic structure is also less pervasive when compared to the Underdogs trilogy. Despite occurring in different pattern, the style choices in The Book Thief are arguably the most resonating. Death as the narrator of the novel already sets up the novel as uniquely formatted while also giving Zusak some room to play around. However, it’s a style choice he’s often had to defend in interviews and on his own website:

“I heard the last line of the book in my head and thought, ‘That’s

it. Death is haunted by us. He is all powerful but for the fact that

he’s tired, and due to seeing humans mostly at their worst, he tells

Liesel’s story to remind him that humans can be beautiful and

selfless and worthwhile’” (Zusak, 2016). The important style choices don’t end with the narrator though. Throughout the novel, pieces of information that are meant to provide an impact or highlight a discussion or some other piece of important information are set off from the general text by centering them, putting them in bold, and adding asterisks (Zusak, 2005).

Zusak also included diary/short story book sections in the novel written by Max, the

Jewish man being hidden in the basemant, for Liesel (Zusak, 2005, p. 224-236, 445-

450). Together, these two stylistic choices provide emphasis to the story as well as an additional emotional component for the reader, allowing them to connect with the story on a more personal level.

Focus on Family

Each of Zusak’s novels approaches family in a different way, allowing the reader to analyze their own family dynamics through the writing. From big families to small families, complicated families to simple families, and families of birth to families of choice, Zusak covers it all. Interestingly, this is both in contrast and concordance with Havighurst’s developmental task of seeking independence from adults because, while most of the novels do lack a strong parental hand, the family plays a large part on the book as a whole (Gann, 2016a). The protagonists of the novels still have the opportunity to “assert their independence and prove that they can take care of themselves,” a feature that promotes the absence of a strong familial presence, but they do so in relation to their family unit and, especially in the

Underdogs trilogy, they perform these tasks as a way to find their own place within the family as a whole (Nislen et al, 2013, p. 129). The Underdogs trilogy focuses primarily on the relationship between brothers Cameron and Ruben, especially on what it means to be brothers, but the rest of the family has a huge impact as well. The brothers are very protective of their sister Sarah in The Underdog, especially after she it dumped by her boyfriend for another girl (Zusak, 2013, p. 95). The whole premise behind Fighting Ruben Wolfe is

Cameron and Ruben joining an organized boxing ring to after their father is injured and can’t work (Zusak, 2000). In Getting the Girl, Sarah has a much larger impact because she seems to be the only person in the family that really sees Cameron through most of the novel, especially how he wants to be seen to the world (Zusak,

2001).

Throughout all three novels, the parents and their older brother Steve are primarily background characters but Cameron talks about their impact on him a lot.

In The Underdog, there’s a deep respect for Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe and Cameron often compares himself to Steve as Steve is seen as the success of the Wolfe pack (Zusak,

1999). Fighting Ruben Wolfe carries on that intense respect for the family, especially for their father as he struggles internally about getting “the dole” that is basically filing for unemployement, which leads to a great coming together of the whole family in support of Mr. Wolfe (Zusak, 2013, p. 279-283).

The last novel in the trilogy, Getting the Girl, has the least focus on the family as a whole unit but rather on Cameron’s place in it, particularly in relation with his siblings. This novel is where Cameron really relates to Steve on a human level rather than someone he was around simply by birth. Cameron finds out that Steve has always seen him as a loser or useless but in this story, they’ve come to an understanding to the point where Steve feels the need to reintroduce Cameron to his live-in girlfriend as Cameron, “not just that loser brother of Steve” (Zusak, 2013, p. 425). As a whole, this trilogy is more about the family dynamic and brotherhood than Cameron specifically.

In I am the Messenger, Zusak explores a different kind of family dynamic and that is of family of choice. Ed’s parents and siblings are mentioned off and on throughout the novel but the focus as a whole is on friends that become family. The story begins with Ed and his three best friends, Audrey, Ritchie, and Marv, in a bank robbery and ends with his three best friends being the people he has to deliver messages to as part of the final suit of cards, the hearts (Zusak, 2002). Throughout the novel as a whole, Ed relates to and relies on this family of choice more than any of his biological family, allowing Zusak to portray the importance of friendship groups in the absence of a strong family unit.

I am the Messenger is the novel that aligns the most with Havighurst’s developmental tasks related to seeking independence from the family (Gann,

2016a). Ed doesn’t get along with his mother because she sees him as a loser and his sisters and brother don’t see him much differently. However, the whole story ends up being catalyzed by the death of Ed’s father whom he spends much of the novel trying to relate to and understand (Zusak, 2002). Up until the end of the novel, Ed is questioning who he is in relation to his family, his friends, and his world.

Family is the most complicated and most beautiful in Zusak’s final novel, The

Book Thief. The book opens with Liesel, her mother, and her brother on a train to

Munich where Liesel will be left with her adoptive family, after her brother has died during the journey, because her mother can no longer care for them (Zusak, 2005).

This leads to Liesel having to navigate her way through a whole new family unit with the Hubermanns, Rosa who is cold but loving and Hans who is the father every child should want (Zusak, 2005). Zusak explores tough love, the meaning of family, and how a family grows together in times of turbulence throughout the whole novel, creating an interesting contrast between the divisiveness of war and the coming together of this family unit. The following quote is from the beginning of this transition into a cohesive family unit but says so much about Liesel’s feelings towards the Hubermanns throughout the novel: “a definition not found in the dictionary – not leaving: an act of trust and love, often deciphered by children”

(Zusak, 2005, p. 37). By choosing her and not leaving, the Hubermanns become

Liesel’s family and she becomes a Hubermann.

The family focus in all of Zusak’s novels allow the readers to interact with the novels on a more personal level. Readers can experience a different sort of family while also asking questions about their own families and their place in that family unit as a whole.

Seeking Something

The protagonists in all of Zusak’s novels are seeking something and that something isn’t always tangible or material like traditional ideas of treasure hunts or adventure stories. Instead, Zusak’s characters are hunting for things that are integral parts of the human experience.

Underdogs as a whole details Cameron’s search for respect in his family and peer groups, especially with relation to romance and girls. He is trying to prove himself as worthy to be loved and to be seen as a reasonable part of the Wolfe pack and society (Zusak, 2013). A search for respect for the family is also seen, specifically during the family troubles in Fighting Ruben Wolfe and the subplot around the dole (Zusak, 2000). The need for respect and a positive reputation feeds directly into many of Havighurst’s developmental tasks related to identity and social roles (Gann, 2016a).

Much like Cam’s search for respect, Ed’s search for a purpose throughout I am the Messenger also feeds into Havighurst’s developmental tasks (Gann, 2016a).

Ed feels like he’s going nowhere in his job and his love life (Zusak, 2002). He really doesn’t have a true purpose in life until the mysterious packages with the cards start arriving. They give him a purpose and motivate him to change the direction his life is on, a fact that ends up being the true reason behind the packages in the first place

(Zusak, 2002). By the end of the novel, Ed has not only helped his life to gain a purpose and to become better, but he’s also influenced the lives of the people to whom he delivered messages.

Zusak’s The Book Thief seeks the most intangible things in life: family, companionship, and education. Liesel not only struggles to find her connection with the Hubermanns and her place in their family but she also has to deal with her friendship with Rudy, the neighbor boy who is unrequitedly in love with her, and

Max, the Jewish man hidden under the Hubermann basement stairs (Zusak, 2005).

While she navigates these complicated relational landscapes, she’s also hunting for knowledge through literature. She shares her passion for reading with Papa Hubermann and later Max, which strengthens and solifies her relationship with them (Zusak, 2005).

While each protagonist has their own sought-after intangible concept, one materialistic factor is sought in all of the books: money and the comforts that go along with having money. In the Underdogs trilogy, Cameron and Ruben often refer to having to eat the same meal that they dislike over and over again (mushrooms in tomato sauce) and Fighting Ruben Wolfe is all about the struggle to have money after their father loses his job, leading to them joining the boxing ring (Zusak, 2013).

Ed’s desire for money in I am the Messenger is less prominent but his references to his home as a shack, his part of town as being run down, and his desire to better his life are all indicative of a lack of money and the comforts associated with it (Zusak,

2002). Finally, because wartime is already a hard time for the people, Zusak’s The

Book Thief discusses how little rations are provided to the country, especially as

Liesel encounters pea soup for dinner night after night, which only worsens when they decide to hide Max and need to feed him as well (Zusak, 2005).

The act of seeking in all of Zusak’s novels are, in part, a motivation for the protagonists as they move through the story. Without trying to attain respect, purpose, education, or anything else, the characters would be stagnant and the stories wouldn’t have progressed naturally from beginning to end.

Breaking the Fourth Wall

The fourth wall is a term that comes from theater and film that refers to the imaginary wall that in the front of the stage or that serves as the tv or movie screen

(Pesner, 2015). When an actor on the stage or in the screen acknowledges the audience or that they’re in a work of fiction, they are “breaking the fourth wall”

(Pesner, 2015). When translating that to the world of literature, the characters or narrator speaks directly to the audience or acknowledges they’re in a book, like in

The Neverending Story when Bastian relizes he’s in the book within the book (Ende,

2005, p. 192). Zusak’s novels break the fourth wall in subtle yet interesting ways.

In the Underdogs trilogy, Cameron speaks directly to the audience a lot, in all three novels. He does it usually through throw-away phrases like “you’ll see” or

“that comes later” when he foreshadows an event (Zusak, 2013). For example, in

Fighting Ruben Wolfe, Cameron says “we both sleep hard and wake up without knowing that this is Rube’s day – the day that will change everything” (Zusak, 2013, p. 177). Breaking the fourth wall in these novels is used to both prepared the audience for what’s to come as well as provide emphasis on the events of the story.

Zusak breaks the fourth wall in I am the Messenger in a more complex manner, which can be a bit confusing for the audience. For instance, Ed calls himself the messenger throughout the novel without really explaining to the reader how he knows what the messenger is or does (Zusak, 2002). The most prevailant example of breaking the fourth call in this novel though is at the end, when Ed finds out that the whole story was written in a file given to him by the person who was behind the packages the whole time (Zusak, 2002, p. 353). This revelation can be quite confusing for the reader though, because the story’s narrator is Ed throughout the book but the book is actually in the file, written by the mysterious benefactor, given to Ed at the end, creating a circle of who is who in the story (Zusak, 2002). But the major take away is that because it’s a book within a book, the fourth wall has been well shattered.

The final example of breaking the fourth wall is the least creative. The Book

Thief is narrated by Death, who doesn’t have a clear timeline and knows when everything is going to happen or has happened in the world. In that sense, Death regularly references events that are going to happen in the story or even beyond

(Zusak, 2005). Death also speaks directly to the audience throughout the book. In the first five sentences, he says “here is a small fact: you are going to die” in reference to the reader’s own mortality (Zusak, 2005, p. 3). Moments like this occur throughout the entirety of the novel in a way that is similar to Cameron’s use of this method in the Underdogs trilogy: to emphasize important or emotional moments.

Breaking the fourth wall adds an element to these novels that aren’t always common in literature, that which makes the reader a part of the story. All good literature can entice the reader into the action of the story so they feel like they’re fighting along with the hero or interacting with the characters but the act of breaking the fourth wall actually allows the reader to feel a direct interaction with the characters and the narrative in a new and interesting way.

Conclusions/Reflections

Markus Zusak’s novels are very different as individuals. The comparisons between the Underdogs trilogy and his other two novels are very few until viewed through a lens of overarching themes. With similar setting, stylistic, and content choices, a comparison can be made between all of his works. But that does not mean they were all meant to be read together. Underdogs as a trilogy needs to be read in sequential order. The books do not rely on each other to stand but to enjoy the content and really gain an understanding of the characters, all three novels need to be consumed. In contrast,

The Book Thief and I am the Messenger are each stand alone novels that rely on nothing in any way to be enjoyed. In fact, of the five novels used in this project, these two were the only truly enjoyable books from the canon.

Overall though, the common themes throughout the novels link them together as a way to indicate Markus Zusak as a writer. Like a calling card or a signature, Zusak can use these themes in future writing to separate his novels from other young adult fiction on the market. In doing so, Zusak’s work will have a sense of comfort and familiarity for the reader despite having drastically different characters, plots, or other literary devices. Bibliography of Books

(All bolded age recommendations came from Kirkus Reviews, italicized grade recommendations are my personal suggestion)

Zusak, M. (2013) Underdogs. New York: Scholastic Press

Age 12+, Grade 9+

Includes:

Zusak, M. (1999). The Underdog.

Zusak, M. (2000). Fighting Ruben Wolfe.

Zusak, M. (2001). Getting the girl.

Zusak, M. (2005). I am the messenger. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Age 14+, Grade 9+

Zusak, M. (2006). The book thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf

Age 12+, Grade 9+

Bibliography of Research

Carstensen, A. (2014, June 02). On Top of His Game: SLJ Interviews Margaret A.

Edwards Award Winner Markus Zusak. Retrieved from

http://www.slj.com/2014/06/interviews/on-top-of-his-game-slj-

interviews-margaret-a-edwards-award-winner-markus-zusak

Ende, M. (2005). The neverending story (R. Manheim, Trans.). New York: Firebird

Fantasy Books. Gann, L. (2016). Week 2 Class Materials: Developmental Chart. UNCG Canvas.

Retreived from https://uncg.instructure.com/courses/19975/pages/week-

2-class-materials?module_item_id=320521

Gann, L. (2016). Week 3 Class Materials: Structure of Literature (Frye). UNCG Canvas.

Retreived from https://uncg.instructure.com/courses/19975/pages/week-

3-class-materials?module_item_id=322611

Hudson, C. (2010, February 24). Interview With Markus Zusak-Author Of The Book

Thief |. Retrieved from

http://motherdaughterbookclub.com/2010/02/interview-with-markus-

zusak-author-of-the-book-thief-and-i-am-the-messenger/

Interview with Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief. (2009, May 01). Retrieved

from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7B8ioiZz7M

Markus Zusak. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak

Nilsen, A.P., Blasingame, J., Donelson, K.L., & Nilsen, D.L.F. (2013). Literature for

Today’s Young Adults. 9th ed. Boston: Pearson.

Pester, B. (2015, January 24). Fourth Wall. Retrieved from

http://dictionary.tdf.org/fourthwall/

YALSA. (2016) 2014 Margaret A. Edwards Award. Retrieved from

http://www.ala.org/yalsa/2014-margaret-edwards-award

Zusak, M. (2016, February 23). THE CITY AT OUR FEET... Retrieved from

http://zusakbooks.tumblr.com/