I Am the Messenger

Let me start by giving you a little background before I jump into my review. Last month, I went a little online book shopping crazy. One of the books I picked up was critically acclaimed The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. I thought since The Book Thief received such great reviews, I wanted to try

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something else by the author. I picked this one up too, and man, am I glad I did.

I Am The Messenger stars Ed Kennedy as a young man with no future, he barely even has a present. He's a nineteen year old card-playing cab driver who is a bit of a smartalec with no real career, no respect in the community, no great love, well, nothing much at all. He constantly asks himself "Well Ed - what have you really achieved in your nineteen years?" He can't come up with anything either. That's all about to change for him when for some reason he'll "never understand," he thwarts a bank robbery. And that's when the cards start coming. First the message is obvious, an address and time written on the card. Then they start to get a little tricky, riddles he has to solve in order to deliver his messages. Sometimes his messages are as easy as an delivery ice cream to as difficult as taking a human life. But he does them, he doesn't know why but he keeps at it until the end.

This has to be one of the best Young Adult novels I've read in a long time. The best way to describe this novel is that it's a coming of age story. It's dark, suspenseful and laugh-out-loud funny. Mr. Zusak does an incredible job of delivering realistic characters. I know Ed, I've met him before. He is in my Godson David, he's in every kid who had no idea what to do with their life, who starts a journey and finds their way. I love how Ed refers to himself as "less than ordinary," when we know he is anything but. I couldn't put this book down because I wanted to know what he would do next. I loved how the answers just came to him, how they were there all along but it was his growing confidence in himself that revealed them. I loved the relationship he had with his friends, and then with the people he helps. My favorites are Sophie the barefoot runner and proud family man Lua Tatupu.

I think even though this novel is written for our younger readers, it's a story that can be enjoyed by all. I liked it, I really did and I look forward to seeing what else Mr. Zusak has up his literary sleeve. He does a great job of delivering fantastic kernels of goodness. I will leave you with this one: "It's impeccable how brutal the truth can be at times. You can only admire it."

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After reading Markus Zusak's The Book Thief earlier this year, I rushed right out and bought I Am The Messenger. It has taken me 11 months to actually sit down and read it...and although I can't rate it at the level of The Book Thief, I wasn't disappointed.

Ed Kennedy is a young taxi driver, a

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do-nothing sort of guy who hangs around with his friends playing cards and drinking coffee with his geriatric, smelly dog, The Doorman. Then one day he intervenes in a bank robbery...and his life changes. He begins receiving playing cards - aces - with messages he must figure out. The novel creates tension in that the reader (and Ed) are kept in the dark as to who the deliverer of the messages is...until the very last page.

Written in simple prose, but with Zusak's signature brilliant language, I Am The Messenger delivers powerful and profound messages of faith, the underlying goodness of humanity, and the admonition that one must risk and stretch to achieve their purpose in life.

'I want words at my funeral.
But I guess that means you need life in your life.' - From I Am The Messenger, page 278 -

I love that Zusak is still a young man with, I hope, lots more stories inside of him. He is a writer of immense talent, and I Am the Messenger is just another example of this.

Recommended.

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This was one of the best books I’ve read in the past 12 months. Markus Zusack also wrote The Book Thief, which is another favorite of mine. In I Am the Messenger Zusack tells a coming of age story about a young man who drives a taxi for a living in an unnamed Australian city.

The beginning of the

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book finds the main character, Ed, and three of his friends on the floor of a bank during a hold-up by an armed robber. Ed and his friends are all unmotivated, but essentially good young people in their late teens. They are wandering aimlessly from childhood to adulthood without any clear goals or desire to do anything other than work in dead end jobs and play cards with each other on a regular basis. When Ed confronts and disarms the bank robber, he becomes a momentary hero in the eyes of his community, and sets in motion the events leading him up to becoming the messenger. He starts receiving messages from a mysterious stranger, and has to figure out what they mean and how to help the people the messages send him to.

Ed seems to be a pretty ordinary nineteen year old and Zusack is great at building his world from that of ordinary to extraordinary. The other characters in the book are simply lovely. Ed’s friends are following a loser track, but their quirks and revealed truths make them come alive. The minor characters, from Ed’s Ma, to the thugs who deliver a couple of the messages, to the people Ed helps are all fully drawn – you feel they could walk off the page and into your world with no difficulty.

Zusack’s use of language is beautiful. Here’s a passage where Ed is talking directly to the reader, “But you’re far from this. Your fingers turn the strangeness of these pages that somehow connect my life to yours. Your eyes are safe. The story is just another few hundred pages of your mind. For me, it’s here. It’s now. I have to go through with this, considering the cost at every turn… The scattered stars shower down like icicles tonight, but nothing soothes me. Nothing allows me an escape.” Here is one more passage I liked, “An expression of surprise falls from her face, though she’s trying to keep it. It breaks off and she seems to catch it and fidget with it in her hands.” There’s another place where Ed talks about the color of mint ice cream on a girl’s lips. I could just picture it, and almost taste the ice cream.

The moral of the story is that even ordinary people can make differences in peoples’ lives, but this simple truism is delivered in such an original way that I feel this is a book that I’ll re-read with great pleasure. Ed could have ignored the messages and gone on with his mediocre life, but he didn’t and the world is a better place with stories like this in it.

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I read this as I enjoyed 'The Book Thief'.
‘I Am The Messenger’ is a very different book to 'The Book Thief'; however it is similarly a wonderfully written, page turning, original and thought provoking book. In other words, it’s equally brilliant.
It's very readable, (I couldn't put it down

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and carried it around with me all day) and the characters are flawed but I loved them all. The book is very uplifting but never wallows in sentimentality. It’s everything you’d wish from a book before starting it; the concept is inspiring, it’s a riveting read, with heart warming moments interspersed with some really laugh-out-loud funny moments. Then it surprised me - at points it was rather dark and occasionally difficult to read (not unlike moments in ‘The Book Thief’, of course).The dialogue is sharp throughout:

“The gunman is useless. I know it. He knows it. The whole bank knows it.”

19 year old Ed Kennedy is a poor man, a down-on-his-luck taxi driver. He hasn't achieved anything great, isn't a genius, his mum despises him and his dad died of alcoholism. He’s a nice guy with an average life, with card playing mates and a boring, dull and directionless life. The only real thing that he has is his dog, named the Doorman, who everyone says desperately needs a bath. And, he's in love with Audrey, a girl from a bad neighbourhood, just like him, who also happens to be one of his best friends since forever. The thing is, Audrey doesn't know that Ed is in love with her, and worse yet, she says she doesn't believe in love.
One day Ed and his friend stop at a local bank. A robbery begins while they are in line. Ed stops the guy and he becomes a local celebrity of sorts. Shortly afterwards he starts receiving cryptic messages written on playing cards, and his life begins to change. Ed's two male friends, the despondent miserly Marv and unemployed Ritchie seem unimpressed, but Audrey offers encouragement, so Ed follows up on the directions on the card. It soon becomes clear to him that he is supposed to take action concerning the people he is directed to, but then he must decided what it is he is supposed to do. He does his best. He travels around the city in his taxi to deliver the messages, and in so doing, make changes in people’s lives. As Ed (sometimes reluctantly, sometimes gladly) takes on his role as the messenger, he forms many bonds and his learning grows.
The writing is first rate, succinct and direct, and the story enough to leave one guessing on several levels. ‘I Am the Messenger’ is a story of self discovery, of finding a purpose. Ed as narrator maintains a sense of humour along with a passive acceptance of the tasks put before him. He derives comfort from The Doorman, but what he longs for above all is the love of Audrey.
I pondered various possible endings as the book progressed, and my suspicions about who was sending Ed the cards changed regularly - the element of mystery was spot on. I couldn't have predicted the twist at the end though, I found it both surprising and pleasing. This is an EXTREMELY clever book, and one which you will be glad you read. If you like things that are quirky, and a little different, then give this book a try. You wont be disappointed.

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I'm a harsh rater, sorry. Most 'popular' fiction wouldn't get one star from me. Most people who read this book would rate it much higher than I have, but I'm ranking him against Hardy, Dostoyevsky, Flaubert, Steinbeck et al. So is this a modern classic? I think Markus Zusak has a great book, and

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possibly a classic, in him. The Messenger is absolutely fabulous and soooo much better than the 'popular' and 'everybody loved this' garbage promoted in the media.

I had to read everything else by this author after reading 'The Book Thief'. This is a great read, well better than average, and shows Markus Zusak's ability to write in the 'voice' of completely different people ... in this case, a 20 year-old Aussie boy who's driving a cab in a dull provincial town because he's given up on himself and everybody around him.

The language is strong and true. Markus Zusak has a truly great ear for how we talk.

The enchantment of this novel is a beautifully-constructed set of mysterious challenges that Ed, our nice, but slacker, young hero, has to face and overcome.

It's an Australian Odessy. And just like Jason, Ed has to overcome real and physical challenges, as well as internal and psychological ones. It's a bruising, battering, and difficult ride as this poor lad faces up to dealing with violence, death, loss, unrequited love and sex, and your useless mates.

I totally recommend it! Markus Zusak - you rock!

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19 year old cab driver Ed Kennedy lacks purpose, direction and motivation. His life consists of three friends, a smelly dog, a dead beat job, an argumentative relationship with his mother and monotonous card games with his small group of buddies.

Life changes when he witnesses a bank robbery and

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inadvertently stops the robber which then in turn sets a domino like string of events in place.

Originally feeling like he is never dealing with a full deck and is missing the meaning and purpose of life, he is suddenly thrust into days and nights of decision making when he systematically receives playing cards with names and/or addresses.

As he searches for the clues regarding the meaning of the cards, his discovery leads him to people needing assistance.

Some of the stories resulting from his adventures are heartbreaking and touching.

While I enjoyed this book, I found it meandered too much for my liking. The story line was confusing at times and too often I went back to read passages that simply didn't make sense.

While some of the stories of the people he helped brought tears, for the most part I grew frustrated at the lack of direction and sentences that seemed to go no where. The ending was a disappointment.

2.5 stars

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I loved this book. It's funny...I only picked it up because the cover caught my eye! Then I noticed the author is Markus Zusak, the writer of one of my favourite books, The Book Theif. That did it. I had to buy the book.

The LOST television series just ended and so that is on my mind, but I have to

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say that this book is written in a manner that reminds me of LOST. Yeah, it's that intriguing. If you enjoyed LOST, chances are you will enjoy this book.

It is marketed to young adults but all along I felt as if it were an adult-read. I guess I feel that if the writing is excellent enough there really shouldn't be separation of those two genres.

Ed Kennedy is the main character. He leads a life of mediocrity. Same stuff every day. Boring. He really amounts to not much.

His life changes when he reacts to a bank robbery and is suddenly thrust into the spotlight as a hero. Soon, though, the spotlight fades and his heroics are forgotten. But then he receives something odd in the mail. An ace of diamonds. What does it mean and where will it take Ed Kennedy? Read the book and find out.

(Granted, I should have been able to figure much of this story out. I think I was so lost in the excitement of the story that I never quite ruined it for myself by seeing where the story was headed.)

My favourite quotes from this book:
'I'd'rather chase the sun than wait for it.'

'I hold her close now around her hips and she holds me back. She places her hands around my neck and rests er head on my shoulder. I can smell the sex on her, and my only hope is that she can smell the love on me.'

Sometimes when reading a book I get the idea that I should play 'casting supervisor' with the book, pretending I am casting it for a movie. Sometimes it works out really great, as it did this time!

Here is my cast:

Ed Kennedy - Ben Stiller (but I think Adam Sandler would also work well.)

Marv - Owen Wilson
Ritchie - Seth Rogen
Audrey - Drew Barrymore
Cemetery Security - Ted Levine
Milla - Betty White
Mr. Tatupu - Rob Schneide

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I love Marcus Zusak, and I found this to be enchantingly lighthearted. The way he uses language is unique; you always know a Zusak book when you read it.

After falling in love with Zusak’s masterpiece, The Book Thief, I wanted to read more by him. However, this book was a real disappointment. The writing felt flat, and I just couldn’t buy into the premise (a young guy gets playing cards in the mail that identify people he needs to help). The

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book just didn’t work for me, and it was a bit of chore to finish it. I’m guessing this is an earlier book than The Book Thief, but it feels like it was written by a totally different author. It wasn’t a BAD book, but I guess I was so disappointed after the high of The Book Thief that this felt really low.

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This was a selection for my monthly YA book club. We all agreed that we liked it right up until the last three pages and then we felt like the ending was kind of cheap. I would recommend it anyway since right up until that point it was a real page-turner. I also wasn't entirely sure why it was a YA

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title. The main character is 19, which is technically still a teen, but most people consider the cut-off for YA to be 18. Aside from that there's a lot of violence and sex. One of my group members said it was published originally as an adult book in Australia (where Zusak lives) but when it came to the US they decided that because the protagonist is so young they'd make it a teen title. I'm sure kids read much worse, and I'm not squeamish in general about that, but even to me it seemed kind of disturbing in places. I suppose I'm not selling it very well, but on the whole I really enjoyed reading it.

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I came to this book because I loved "The Book Thief", so I didn't bother to read what it was about, instead preferring that I find out in due course as the author intends. This book is an entirely different read, but has some of the elements I enjoyed so much from "The Book Thief". The characters

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are gritty and human with imperfections, even when the plot is manufactured. But the way he writes with so much attention to the words and the pace, rather than just the plot means that some lines just stick with you. Inanimate objects seem to have intentions, and the emotions he writes of seem tangible.
The most exciting thing to happen to Ed and his friends, is usually the regular card games at someone or another's house. That is until he finds himself the unlikely hero in a bungled bank robbery, and receives an Ace of Diamonds in the mail, with three addresses written on it. While the book is classed as a Mystery, I felt the importance of the book was more in the way Ed reacts to the challenges that are presented to him. I think the ending, (which I had to read twice before I really "got" it) confirms this. The device was almost used as a misdirection to steer you back to the point.

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I loved this book. It's hard, I think, for an author to appropriately mix serious subject matter with humor, but Zusak does it exceptionally well. I laughed my way through a majority of this book, but was sobered by its serious message throughout. You can't help but love the main character of Ed,

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his dog The Doorman, and Ed's group of cronies. Having read the audio version of this, I was especially endeared to the narrator, Marc Aden Gray, who helped make this book even more enjoyable for me. As much hype as The Book Thief has gotten, I liked this one even better.

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This book was very different from Zusak's other book The Book Thief but I still really liked it.

Ed Kennedy is a 19 year old guy who drives a taxi, living in a small town and not destined for great things in this life when he foils a bank robbery. Soon afterward, he receives a card in the mail with

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some addresses. He is given little instructions so he goes to check out the addresses and they have something in common: each resident is going through some kind of trouble. Ed has to deliver a "message" to them. It was a very well written book and I was very interested to find out who was sending Ed on these missions. Unfortunately, I thought the last chapter was probably the worst in the book--it seemed like a cop-out to me. I won't spoil anything but I was a little disappointed by it. Otherwise, it was fantastic!

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I just finished reading this story for a book group. Although, or maybe because, it is not anything I would ever have read on my own I'm really glad it was the suggested book.

Messenger begins with normal bloke, Ed Kennedy, witnessing a bank robbery along with his three friends. The robber drops the

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gun and Ed picks it up, leading to the capture and subsequent conviction of the bank robber. After this Ed begins to receive strange playing cards with notes on them of people in need. The story follows Ed as he strives to discover and provide what is needed in each case. At one point in reading the story I almost felt as though the philanthropic philosphy was getting a bit preachy, but each individual and family gave so much back to Ed, and the adventures and needs were so diverse, that it was impossible to be offended.

The ending of the story presented almost as many questions as Ed had throughout about who was behind the mystery of the cards. Despite that obscurity, I really liked the way the book ended. Sometimes it's good to read a story which makes you think, and this one will assuredly do that.

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I'd have enjoyed the story much more had I not gone in expecting something as powerful as The Book Thief. Zusak has complex characters with a distinct voice, and a beautiful story arc, that were unfortunately lost on this tearjerker-seeking reader.

I don't know how many music videos and novels have been made about "random acts of kindness" or how many times that phrase has been bandied about by people. You hear it so often that it starts to lose meaning, and so "random acts of kindness" has become overused. I Am the Messenger brings it back

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with a freshness and new perspective that intrigues and educates the reader. I don't like the feel-good music videos about doing good deeds for others (sometimes I'm rotten like that), but I do like this book, and I am happy that the subject of doing good things for others is not treated in a gushy, touchy-feely manner, but as a moral obligation.

The main character of this novel is Ed Kennedy, a nineteen-year-old guy who isn't really quite sure what he is going to do with his life. He's drifting along, working as an underage cabbie, in love with his best friend, Audrey, playing cards with his buddies, and taking care of his beloved smelly dog, the Doorman. Life is pretty pathetic until Ed stops a bank robbery. And then the aces, playing cards with instructions on them, start to arrive in the mail. Suddenly, thanks to messages on the mysterious playing cards, Ed is helping people he never met, and learning more about himself. As he goes through each task, the only question that seems to be unanswered is who is sending the aces?

It's not a life changing book for me, and it didn't emotionally affect me to the point of sobbing like Zusak's The Book Thief did, but it made me think about how much an act of kindness can help a person's life. I enjoyed the characters and how different they all were from each other, and the progress of Ed as a protagonist throughout the book. The descriptions, metaphors, and sentences were elegant and rich, and I liked how there were no cliché lines in this novel. The twist ending was particularly enjoyable for me - Zusak knows how to stretch creativity to its limits.

A parental caution for this book: sex is discussed, even to the point that one of the beginning chapters is about Ed bemoaning his lack of a sex life (which I’m sure a lot of males do, but that doesn’t make it right). However, this chapter was just a small detail in showing how meaningless Ed Kennedy’s life was at the beginning of the book and how shallow everything was to him. As the book goes on, he learns that there are more important things than sex, and that helping others is one of the important features of life.

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Protect the diamonds
Survive the clubs
Dig deep through the spades
Feel the hearts

"I ask you:What would you do if you were me? Tell me. Please tell me!But you're far from this. Your fingers turn the strangeness of these pages that somehow connect my life to yours. Your eyes are safe. The story is just

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another few hundred pages of your mind. For me, it's here. It's now. I have to go through with this, considering the cost at every turn. Nothing will be the same. " - page 89

Out of all the books I read, why are the young adult books the most honest, brutal.. and usually the ones that make me cry? Well this one didn't make me cry, but Zusak's Book Thief did. I did love the story of Ed. It was nice to see "worthlessness" addressed in a book written for young adults. I also love that Ed was bookish. I could tell right away how bookish when he described a football player as being as big as Mama Grape. "Who?" "You know.. from that book.. and they made a movie out of it. Don't you remember? Johnny Depp?" Zusak is crafty by mentioning the book first just to show how bookish Ed is. I loved the book 'What's Eating Gilbert Grape' and the movie. I also love that he was annoyed with Wuthering Heights for the same reason that Wuthering Heights wasn't PERFECT for me (otherwise I loved it but the way Joe the servant's speech was written was confusing. It was a nice "me too!" moment) Anyway, I was surprised at how Australian Messenger was compared to The Book Thief. (Obviously The Book Thief had no reason to be Australian, being a book about WWII.) But it just surprises me that a writer can switch styles so easily (yet I know Zusak is Australian.) The only thing I didn't like was the ending.. I don't think it wrapped up well enough.

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Mind. Blown. Markus Zusak certainly has a different way of looking at things and the ending of I Am the Messenger shows how delightful his way is. I did not see it coming.

Ed Kennedy is a 19-year-old cab driver with little to no ambition. He drives his cab, reads an inordinate amount (for his world,

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anyway) and plays cards with his friend. His dog is called the Doorman and smells to high heaven. This is Ed's life.

Then one day, Ed and his friends get caught up in a bungled bank robbery where, quite by mistake, Ed becomes a hero by stopping the burglar.

Shortly after the trial, Ed starts getting messages written on playing cards which are tasks he must complete. Trick is, he doesn't know what the tasks are, or what the messages mean. He must figure that out on his own.

In total, there are 13 messages and as Ed works through them, his life and perceptions are changed. He begins to speak more honestly to those around him including his bullying mother and the friend he adores, Audrey. In each task, he makes someone's life better.

But #13 comes and he doesn't have a clue what to do. Not one. As I was reading, I kept thinking, "What a charming little book. I love his language. I like these characters even though they are all useless louts for the most part. I really like that Ed's life is improving."

And then BAM!! It went from a nice, charming book to a treatise on existentialism. And I teared up.

Reading the ending of I Am the Messenger made me think, "huh, that's interesting." And then tear up because Ed Kennedy thinks, "huh, that's interesting" and then sort of asks, "Now what?" And that's the big question isn't it?

I loved this book.

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Listened to the audiobook; very enjoyable because the narrator was fun to listen to. He had an Australian accent and told a good story. Ed Kennedy is a poor taxi driver who is hopelessly in love with his best lady friend. After foiling the plans of a bank robber, Ed is proclaimed a hero and praised

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for stopping the robbery. After these events, he receives a mysterious playing card in the mail. Written on the card is an address and a time. He goes to the destination and finds a woman who is raped by her husband on a nightly basis. He figures out that he must help the woman, and does. He receives other cards throughout the story and has to do tasks such as befriending an elderly woman and helping a girl realize her dream of being a track star. It is eventually revealed that the author of the novel is the one sending the cards and that Ed is merely the message, not the messenger. This book relates that we must take chances and touch peoples' lives.

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Wow, this is a great book! Ed Kennedy is a young man who is going nowhere, but all of a sudden becomes 'The Messenger', bringing messages of hope to all sorts of people. The prose in this book is amazing, there were passages that still impress me, weeks after I finished the book. The story is very

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beautiful, sometimes painful, but also heartwarming. And although some people didn't like the ending, it left me impressed and literally saying 'wow'. This book is described as a 'young adult' book, but except for maybe the readability of the language, I don't entirely agree with that. Some of the topics of the book are in my opinion not for the young, and I think adults will enjoy the book at least as much as the young adults. So, I highly recommend 'The Messenger' to anyone!

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Ed is a 19-year-old cabdriver, living in the same town he grew up in, hanging out with friends who are also doing nothing and going no where. When he suprisingly becomes the hero during a bank holdup, he starts receiving playing cards with names of people who need help and as he tries to help them,

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he helps himself as well. Zusak is an amazing writer and this was a great book.

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I really liked it. It wasn't on the same level as The Book Thief, but was an interesting story. I would have given it a higher rating if the conclusion had been on the same par as the rest of the book, but it seemed contrived and unlikely. It was a very disappointing ending for the emotional

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journeys of both the reader and the protagonist. I still enjoy his writing style, and plan to read other books by this author. I would also hesitate to recommend this to any of my students. It has some strong language, and even stronger adult themes and situations.

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Ed Kennedy, nineteen year old cab driver, stops a bank robbery and becomes something of a local hero. Subsequently, he begins receiving playing cards encrypted with codes in the post; some of the codes are addresses, but others are much more obscure. Ed becomes “the messenger,” the helper of

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troubled citizens. He saves a woman and her young child from an abusive husband; and he fills an abandoned congregation. Ed’s journey, of course, is a search for meaning. As his life moves in new directions, always his closest friends are with him: Marv, enamoured with his Falcon; Ritchie, whose name is not Ritchie at all; and Audrey, secretly adored by Ed, but always “involved” with another.

I parted company with I Am the Messenger half way through. To be fair, Zusak’s novel is YA fiction, and I’m not part of that target audience. I picked this one up because I found The Book Thief so impressive. However, this earlier novel did not hold my interest. That said, I admire the easy manner in which Zusak addresses some very serious matters affecting his young characters. Ed says of Audrey:

“I think of how she lives alone, just like me, and how she never had any real family, and how she only has sex with people. She never lets any love get in the way. I think she had a family once, but it was one of those beat-the-crap-out-of-each-other situations. There’s no shortage of them around here. I think she loved them, and all they ever did was hurt her.” (Ch 2)

I Am the Messenger is certainly a respectable read, but I do not personally recommend it for readers outside its targeted audience.

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I read it in a night. This book is beautiful, harsh, funny and wise all in one. Firstly, it's fast paced, and gripping - while the plot can sometimes slow, the writing is a joy to read, and keeps you absorbed. The characters are all well formed, interesting people, and they make you want to know

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more about them. The plot, is just gorgeous. It carries an underlying message that is brought to the surface slowly as the main character (Ed) realizes it himself. There is violence, but it's balanced with the beauty. Markus Zusak's writing is occasionally disjointed, and confusing, but his style compliments what this novel is trying to say. The ending, which came totally out of the blue for me, stuck in my head for hours. In my opinion, this story of the extra - ordinary, trumps The Book Thief (by the same author). This book is a keeper, and one to read over and over.

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