Play Book Tag discussion

I Am the Messenger – Markus Zusak
Book on CD read by Marc Aden Gray
2**

From the book jacket: Ed Kenney is an underage cabdriver without much of a future. He’s pathetic at playing cards, hopelessly in love with his best friend, Audrey, and utterly devoted to his coffee-drinking dog, the Doorman. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.

My reactions
Water The Flowers.

I picked this up because I enjoyed Zusak’s The Book Thief and was hoping for … well, not more of the same, but something that would spark some of the same feelings I had reading that work.

I liked Ed well enough. He’s nineteen and struggling with what to do with his life. But when put to the test he rises to the occasion and figures out ways to help all those he’s directed to help. I loved a couple of the scenarios: the priest, the running girl, the elderly widow, and the family with the Christmas lights; but found several others really puzzling or even distasteful. I have no idea what the purpose was of Daryl and Keith.

In the end, I wound up confused about what was actually going on and found the entire premise rather unbelievable. Zusak joins the likes of author John Boyne for me – an author I’ve enjoyed at least once, perhaps even loved, but who is just as likely to completely disappoint me in another work .

Marc Aden Gray does a good job of narrating the audiobook, although his Aussie accent was a bit thick for me at times. I was glad I had the text handy so I could a read some of the passages when I wasn’t quite sure what I had just listened to. That’s not really his fault, though.



LINK to my review

I liked this one better than you did. That may be because, unusually for me, I did not listen to it. I enjoyed all the literary references that were embedded in the clues. And I really liked the dog.

Yes, I did love the literary references. And I also loved "the Doorman"!