I Am The Messenger - Markus Zusak

The biggest fear about reading another book by your recently discovered favorite writer is whether or not the creation will be able to uphold your expectations. So even after buying the book, I was skeptical about starting the book; fearing the worst. Thankfully my fears were poorly founded. 

I am the messenger is a work of art. Not as amazing as The Book Thief (I should really stop comparing books by the same writer; I mean you can't compare a rose and an orchid. They are beautiful in their own unique ways.), but brilliant indeed. Markus Zusak is the "master of the words" and he knows how to trigger the heart strings by them to create magic.

A nineteen year old cab driver Ed Kennedy is not some protagonist you will swoon over. But a simple man ragged with flaws. He lives in a house with his foul smelling dog, Doorman. At times he meet his friends Marv, Ritchie and Audrey for a game of cards or two (in which he is terrible). He loves his best friend, but she is too afraid to lose him as a friend to love him back. His mom complains about him all the time. He is not close with his brother. He is unsure about his destiny; just taking one moment at a time. "I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness."

But by chance he foils a bank robbery with his friends and shots to temporary fame in his home town. After that incident, he starts receiving Aces of cards riddled with cryptic messages.

At first, he ignores considering it to be a joke. But curiosity takes the best of him and he starts to follow the messages trying to understand the meaning. Slowly he realizes these messages means he has to be part of someone else life and help them get through their big and small problems; he simply needs to care about their lives. He fulfills the task diligently and in the process grows emotionally. 

In the end he realizes he is not the messenger but a message himself. "I'm not the messenger at all. I'm the message." And how a simple act of kindness reflects back to the doer. And how doing things for others means doing things for yourself.

The end is a little stumbling for me but the beautifully woven words make up for that.
A simple morale woven with words so deep that penetrates your heart.
A must read not just for teenagers as suggested but for everyone. I bet you won't stop laughing at the humorous expression every now and then.

HAPPY READING

Quotes

• Sometimes people are beautiful. Not in looks. Not in what they say. Just in what they are.
• It's not a big thing, but I guess it's true - big things are often just small things that are noticed.
• Believe it or not - it takes a lot of love to hate you like this.
• I'm not the messenger at all. I'm the message.
• You can kill a man with those words. No guns. No bullets.
• I didn't know words could be so heavy.
• Only in today's sick society can a man be persecuted for reading too many books.
• Of course you're real - like any thought or any story. It's real when you are in it.
• I realize that nothing belongs to her anymore and she belongs to everything.
• No, I am not a saint, Sophie. I'm just another stupid human.
• Have you ever noticed that idiots have a lot of friends? It's just an observation.
• Things just keep going as long as memory can wield its ax, always finding a soft part in your mind to cut through and enter.
• The night is alive with stars, and when I lie down and look up, I get lost up there. I feel like i'm falling, but upward, into the abyss of sky above me.
• May be one morning I'll wake up and step outside of myself to look back at the old me lying among the sheets.
• It's impeccable how brutal the truth can be at times. You can only admire it.
• I did it because you are the epitome of ordinariness.