I Am the Messenger

I recently read John Grisham's The Racketeer. It was a very fun book; and if you're looking for some brain bubblegum, then I recommend it. And when I was done, I went looking for another fun book. The recommendation that I found was I Am The Messenger. It turned out to be the fun that I was looking for. I wasn't prepared, though, for just how much more than fun this book would be.> "Why me?" I ask God. God says nothing. I laugh, and the stars watch. It's good to be alive.The author was obviously influenced by Catcher in the Rye. The protagonist of the story is an anti-hero with seemingly mediocre mental resources and ambition. He has a similar lack of responsibility towards money, and also seeks love from an apparently average sort of woman.> It makes me look deeper into the street, trying to find the future events in store. I'm happy.The author uses the lyrical technique of having the story progress with a mysterious list. Much like And Then There Were None or Atlas Shrugged, a list appears without an obvious purpose, and the protagonist's adventure is to proceed through this list. And like Catcher in the Rye, we watch the protagonist's character grow as he proceeds through the adventure.> I didn't know that words could be so heavy.All of the above is extremely fun, and would have satisfied exactly what I was looking for. But then there's the "more." The author is able to interweave lyrical prose into his colloquial speech. Like a droplet of watercolor crashing into a glass of clean water, these moments of poetry bring extreme beauty to an otherwise simple appearance.> This isn't about words. It's about glowing lights and small things that are big.And then there's more beyond that. We find that through the character's growth, his mental faculties become stronger than we had thought. In the most believable and common way, he demonstrates cleverness. And then, like The Things They Carried, the reader can begin to wonder whether this is a story at all. Is this a book, or a letter, or something else?> I want words at my funeral. But I guess that means you need life in your life.I'm being purposefully vague. I worry that I've already revealed too much. In my life, I've come to realize that competence is unusual. Most people seem to stumble through life with the goal of minimal effort. Competence is so unusual that I celebrate it. In those rarest of occasions, I get to interact with something more than competence: excellence. I Am Messenger is one of those experiences. I hope that I get to meet Markus Zusak (the author) someday; I'd like to give him a hug.> When the job's done, he smacks me on the shoulder and we run off like handsome thieves. We both laugh and run, and the moment is so thick around me that I feel like dropping into it to let it carry me. I love the laughter of this night. Our footsteps run, and I don't want them to end. I want to run and laugh and feel like this forever. I want to avoid any awkward moment when the realness of reality sticks its fork into our flesh, leaving us standing there, together. I want to stay here, in this moment, and never go to other places, where we don't know what to say or what to do. For now, just let us run. We run straight through the laughter of the night.

I was inspired by the main character Ed’s very normal life. Maybe normal is too nice a word. His life is more mediocre. He doesn’t have any ambitions or achievements or direction really. The story is about him receiving anonymous cards in the mail that challenge him to help people. He changes their lives in small and big ways just by being observant. It made me want to observe and serve others more. If an ordinary guy can help in small ways, then so can I.After reading I Am The Messenger, I got that chance.I saw a guy shopping for baby formula at the grocery store. He would look at a can of baby formula for a minute and put it back. Then he’d look at another can. Then he’d put it back. I found this strange and fascinating. Most people quickly dump 8 cans of the exact same formula in their shopping cart and hurry off. I have never seen someone compare types of baby formula so carefully.This guy was taking his time for some reason. I continued to watch him (he didn’t notice because he was now scrutinizing a fifth can of formula) and tried to figure out what situtation would make someone shop for formula like that. He must never have bought it before. Maybe he has a wife at home with a screaming newborn baby and was instructed to “get formula” only to find the grocery store has 473829 kinds. And now he doesn’t know what kind to get. So I went up to him and helped explain the difference between the 439280 kinds of formula and gave him a coupon. He seemed grateful. I imagined him going home to his wife victorious because he’d gotten the right formula AND used a coupon.It’s not life changing or anything. That being said, Ed didn’t feel like he was doing anything life changing either.It’s not a big thing, but I guess it’s true— big things are often just small things that are noticed.-Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger (p. 221).But it reminded me that kindness, true kindness, comes from listening and observing others to see what they really need. Small acts of kindness are big in their own way.The reason this story works is because it’s crude, crass, biting, sarcastic, and full of swearing. Let me explain. The writing hides the preachiness of the story so well that I really enjoyed reading it and it wasn’t until the end that I realized I learned something. I’m not saying something has to be crude for you to learn something. But hiding a story about serving others in a crude story might accidentally teach someone something when all they had really intended was to pick up an entertaining book. Making it a little crude can also make the story relatable so you close the book feeling like the character did things that you are more than capable of doing, too.There were some parts of the writing that I found so beautiful. Here’s one of my favorite quotes. I just love how Markus Zusak takes a cliche saying and switches the words around to paint a lovely picture:Quietly, Marv cries.His hands appear to be dripping on the wheel. The tears grip his face. They hold on and slide reluctantly for his throat.-Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger (p. 316).I like that the tears grip his face instead of his hands gripping the wheel. But I can still imagine the image of tears gripping his face like he’s trying so hard not to cry but he can’t help it. I find it so beautiful for some reason.

One of the best books I ever read. First time read in Portuguese, second time reading it in English, and now buying the hard cover version for my collection

Adoro esse livro! Já li em português, e agora em inglês pra praticar. Leitura leve, divertida. Recomendo!

No llegó la portada que aparece en la imagen.

Amazing novel. This messenger is delivering a beautiful message "Maybe everyone can live beyond what they are capable of". I've read Book thief previously, loved Markus Zusak way of writing, expressing and delivering feelings. Everyone should read this novel at least once.

Basically I enjoyed the book