Marcus Zusak
writer of;
The Book Thief
I am the Messenger
Underdogs
Fighting Ruben Wolfe
Getting the Girl
On February 22 my school invited Marcus Zusak to speak. He is in his mid-thirties and is currently living in Sydney, Australia. When I found out that the author of one of my favorite books of 2012 was going to be in the same zip code as me I could not stop grinning. I was so bubbly and worried that would mutate into a hysterical fan girl, my darker side I have not yet had the pleasure of meeting. Previously, the thought of actually meeting an author was mind-boggeling. I had never met one before. I thought books just fluttered out of the sky for my to read. Zusak was an excellent speaker and teacher. I went to his keynote, community talk, and workshop.
For his keynote he was in a room filled with moody teenagers. I was nervous that my peers would be disrespectful, but as soon as Zusak started talking they listened. I had yet to see a speaker accomplish it. Instead of solely talking about his book he told us stories and explained how stories must be believable. His best story was about revenge. He began by asking us all to raise our hands if we were the younger sibling then he asked who was the oldest. He observed that all the younger siblings raised their hands normally. While all the oldest raised their hand with pride and started talking to their neighbor telling them that they are indeed the almighty oldest sibling. They were probably remembering all the pranks they pulled on their poor younger brother or sister. I myself am oldest and don't you forget it. He then went on to tell us a story directed at the younger siblings like himself about revenge.
The Egg Story(abridged)
This story is of how he got his older brother back for everything that he did to him. Like when poor Marcus would walk into the kitchen his brother would punch him in the stomach. "Why?!" Marcus would wheeze. "I was bored." His brother would say with a shrug. Now every Saturday he and his brother would go to work together, painting houses with their father. At exactly noon they would sit outside and eat lunch. Marcus' brother always brought two hard boiled eggs. One day their father told the brother that some people would crack the hard boiled egg on their head, so the brother began a doing that every week. Marcus, after getting tormented again by his brother had a stroke of genius. "Why didn't I think of that before he asked himself?" He said the inspiration was like rays of light shining down on him. The next Saturday he switched his brother's two hard-boiled eggs with raw ones. He thought, "This is going to be the best day of my life!"
As the day wore on he was in a cross between the ecstasy of seeing his brother hitting himself with the raw eggs, and the agony of how he would react. Losing his nerve he went to confess to his strict father what he had done and what was going to happen when his brother cracked the egg on his head. He went up to his father on a ladder and said, "Dad I need to tell you something." His father, used to Marcus's mistakes while painting asked him what he had messed up now remembering when Marcus painted himself into a corner and had to wait two hours for the paint to dry.
The father got down of his ladder, and Marcus losing his nerve said "Never mind, everything is fine."
His father said, "Look, I already stopped work to hear this, so what did you do?"
Marcus told him, "I replaced the hard-boiled eggs with raw ones." His father shook his head and said, "Son, that's brilliant. Why didn't I think of that? See you at noon. Don't be late!"
They waited until lunch and watched with glee as the brother smashed a gooey egg on his head. Their father was rolling on the ground laughing. Even after his brother punched Marcus a bit, he still thought it was worth it. Now every time his brother visits him in Sydney he says, "Four hour drive? That's rough. Are you hungry? Maybe you would like some eggs?"
His brother would respond saying, "Come on that was like forteen years ago. When are you going to get over it?"
Marcus says, "I'm never getting over it."
End
This story had the whole audience laughing. That is when Marcus made his first point; The best moments are the unexpected ones. The best part of that egg story was not the egg smashed into his brothers face, it was when the father said, "Son, that's brilliant." His second point was that details make the story believable. In his telling of the egg story he had many details like his brothers cooler was red. He told many stories in his keynote, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how everyone enjoyed it. The boys liked his sense of humor, the girls like his strong Australian accent, and we all liked his stories.
In his community lecture he talked more about his book The Book Thief. He told about how the idea came to him while writing The Messenger, and this book was unlike anything he had ever written before. It is interesting to find out how many parallels there are between a book and its author. His parents used to live in Austria before moving to Australia, so 20% of the stories in this WWII based novel are factual. Such as the part about some one giving an old Jewish man a piece of bread and how grateful they old man was then how they were both whipped because of it. It is stirring to see the real image of WWII that The Book Thief provides. He even read a bit of his book for us. He talked about the complications that writing a book brings. He explained the importance of drafts. He had to redo the introduction many times. He knew he wanted Death to be the narrator, but it kept sounding wrong. I thought it was hilarious when he gave us an example of how Death would be creepy and just plain wrong in the first draft. He would say things like, "This story is about a little girl. Do you like little girls? I do. Actually, I like everybody." I mean what the heck is that! I am so thankful he rewrote it because I would not read that version. I don't think anyone would. Death end up being almost normal, just a wise person with a hard job. He isn't as prevalent in the book as you might think. He just chimes in from time to time. My favorite quotes from Death regarding war is, “A small but noteworthy note. I've seen so many young men over the years who think they're running at other young men. They are not. They are running at me.”
Gives me the shivers. His final product however was amazing in the way words are used.
In his workshop he taught us how to create original sentences and how to avoid clichés by searching for an original word. He said a book is supposed to answer two questions; "What's happening?" and "How does it feel?". He demonstrated how to make the feeling what's happening. It really was a privilege to learn from him for he was very skilled. He even showed us how to find the perfect word to convey what you want to. In his book he uses the phrase, "planks of sunlight". That is original, and why I love his writing style so much. One of my favorite things about him is he talks like he writes. I am planning on reading all of his books.
He was also very kind, and he signed all of my books and took the picture you see above with me. Don't I look like I am about to explode in sunbeams of happiness? Because I am.