Book Report: The Messenger

(I Am) The Messenger
By Mark Zusak


From the back cover:
Meet Ed Kennedy--cab driving prodigy, pathetic card player and useless at sex. He lives in a suburban shack, shares coffee with his dog, the Doorman, and he's in nervous-love with Audrey. His life is one of peaceful routine and incompetence--until he inadvertently stops a bank robbery.
That's when the first ace turns up.
That's when Ed becomes the messenger.
Chosen to care, he makes his way through town, helping and hurting (where necessary) until only one question remains. Who's behind Ed's mission?



First paragraph:
The gunman, is useless.
I know it.
He knows it.
The whole bank knows it.
Even my best mate Marvin knows it and he's more useless than the gunman.

I adore this book. I adore Markus Zusak. I adore Caroline for gifting me this book.

In The Messenger, the words flow over the pages with heartbreaking beauty and sharp humor and bits of slowly-unfolding puzzle. After a spur of the moment action turns Ed into a mild, short-lived celebrity, he gets a playing card in the mail, the Ace of Diamonds. On it are three addresses, each with a time. Ed tries to forget about it--the weirdness of it--but eventually finds himself in front of the first address, a house, at midnight. What he witnesses there is brutal and painful, and he wonders if the other two addresses hold the same sort of terrible fate. Days pass and after Ed works through his shock, he goes to the second address.

"I was quite relieved, to tell you the truth, because nothing really happened at all. The only person there was an old woman who has no curtains on her windows. She was in there on her own, making her dinner and sitting there, eating, and drinking tea.
I think she ate a salad and some soup.
And loneliness.
She ate that, too."

After watching the old woman for a few days, Ed decides to make a move. He's not really sure what he's doing, other than it's obvious that this woman is lonely. He buys a cake and just as she's preparing for another solitary dinner, knocks on her door.

"Her footsteps climb to the door. Her feet sound like the tick-tock of a clock. Counting time to this moment.
She stands. She looks up at me, and for a moment, we both get lost in each other. She wonders who I am, but only for a split second. Then, with stunning realization clambering across her face, she smiles at me. She smiles with such incredible warmth and says, "I knew you'd come, Jimmy." She steps towards me and hugs me hard, her soft, wrinkled arms encasing me. "I knew you'd come."

Ed becomes a regular at Milla's place. The tenderness between them squeezed my heart--the first of many times in this story. The third address on the card is a similar case--a young girl who needs confidence, and after much watching and thinking, Ed is able to deliver. Now it's back to the first address, to a problem that will not be resolved with cake or a shoe box. This house requires more assertion, more aggressiveness--this house requires a gun. Ed accepts the challenge because the outcome is worth it; after all, he must protect the Diamonds.

I love the cryptic-ness of the card delivery, and the feel-good moments Ed experiences when he is able to give these random strangers what they need. This story is very much Pay It Forward, except in it's own way, better. Maybe even a pinch of Boondock Saints in here, too.

"He drops his spoon and says, "I have something to tell you, Ed."
I also stop. "Yes, Father?"
"You know, they say that there are countless saints who have nothing to do with church and almost no knowledge of God. But they say God walks with those people without them ever knowing it." His eyes are inside mine now, followed by the words. "You're one of those people, Ed. It's an honor to know you."
I'm stunned. I've been called a lot of things many times--but nobody has ever told me it's an honor to know me. I suddenly remember Sophie asking if I was a saint, and me replying that I'm just another stupid human.
This time, I allow myself to hear it.
"Thanks, Father," I say.
"The pleasure's mine."

Ed's journey is to go from a carefree, future-less cab driver to being something more. With each successful mission, his confidence is boosted and he continues to care about these people, long after they are 'fixed.' He realizes that he wants more from life.

"I go back through town and visit my father's grave and stay there a long time. From the cemetery, I see a small glow that's the fire, and I sit there, looking at the gravestone with my father's name on it. I cried at his funeral. I let the tears trample my face in complete silence, guilty that I couldn't even summon the courage to speak about him. I knew everyone there was only thinking about what a drunk he was, while I was remembering the other things as well.
'He was a gentleman,' I whisper now.
If only I could have said that on the day, I think, because my father never had a bad word for anybody, or a true act of unkindness. Certainly, he never achieved much, and he disappointed my mother with broken promises, but I don't think he deserved not a word from anyone in his family that day.
'I'm sorry,' I tell him now,as I get up to leave. 'I'm so sorry, Dad.'
I walk away, afraid.
Afraid, because I don't want my own funeral to be that forlorn and empty.
I want words at my funeral.
But I guess that means you need life in your life."



"It's impeccable how brutal the truth can be at times. You can only admire it.
Usually, we walk around, constantly believing ourselves. 'I'm okay,' we say. 'I'm alright.' But sometimes the truth arrives on you, and you can't get it off. That's when you realize that sometimes it isn't even an answer--it's a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced."

This is a feel-good book about a normal if not down-trodden character who overcomes his own worst enemy--himself--and emerges on the other side a better person. The emotions are very strong and lingering, very inspiring for one to take a moment's notice of the people around them in their own life and see if you can't make someone else's day just a little better. I'd have preferred this story to end one chapter earlier, for I am not fond of the author being present in their own story, but it does not ruin the overall enjoyment. This is a quick read and I think it's better that way--makes the impact more concentrated and memorable. The imagery is gorgeous, the characters real and unique, the pacing steady. Emotion rules these pages, though, as I doubt anyone could read this and not be warmed.

Five out of Five stars for eliciting strong emotions and casting a stone of hope and initiative to an audience normally too young to care.