Pay it Forward with a deck of cards, a review of Markus Zusak’s I am the Messenger
I am the messenger, by Markus Zusak
When Ed Kennedy happens to be in a bank while its held up, due to the sheer incompetents of the robber he’s able to capture him until the cops arrive. He’s written about in the local papers,, interviewed on the radio, and then his life goes back to normal, which basically means he spends his days driving a taxicab and his nights playing cards with his friends, who are almost as shiftless as he is.
Then he gets an Ace of diamonds in the mail, with three addresses on it. When he goes to the addresses, he realizes that whoever sent him the card wants him to help the people at each address. A lonely old lady, a teenager with no self-esteem, and a woman who gets raped every night by her husband.
I wasn’t wild about this novel. Its well written, with realistic characters, and the voice of the narrator is believable and funny in a righ, world weary sort of way.
The plot starts out interesting, but as more cards arrive in Ed’s mailbox, along with more people to help, the book slows down. After the fifth or sixth person is introduced who Ed is supposed to help in some small way, it begins to feel like Zusak is telling the same story over and over again.
I was never outright bored by the book, but the plot is always dictated by the card Ed gets, and the omniscient person who keeps sending them.
I was starting to think that maybe USA would never tell the reader who sent the cards and why they sent them, but luckily this isn’t the case. Everything’s revealed at the end, although this revelation provides more questions, and not enough answers.
The book is worth reading for character and action, but if you want definitive answers to all the questions the book poses, you definitely won’t get them.
The book suffers from a plot that is riddled with coincidence and serendipity. At first this isn’t a problem, but later on it becomes grading. The book picks up slightly towards the end, when Ed is directed to help his group of friends and his mother, but the sense that everything he does is inevitable never goes away. The book’s message of hope is sweet, the narrator is funny, but the plot drags it down to something only above average. Still worth a read, if you’re in it for atmosphere and Idea’s, however.
Author’s web site. http://www.randomhouse.com/features/markuszusak/
three out of five stars.
Pages & Rages 