I love books that put you right into the situation as soon as you read the first words; books that can introduce the conflict right away. “I Am the Messenger” by Markus Zusak, also the author of the renowned “The Book Thief,” did just that.
The first scene takes you right into a bank robbery. Yes, a bank robbery. The main character, Ed, is an average-Joe 19 year old taxi driver living in a large unnamed city in Australia. Face down on the floor with his three best friends, Audrey, Marvin and Ritchie, Ed realizes that the gunman robbing the bank is unbelievably stupid. As the clumsy gunman fumbles out of the door with his poorly collected bag of money, Ed realizes that he could easily stop the gunman. Something in him changes.
Ed has always thought of himself as screw-up. A good-for-nothing 19-year-old with no future, just a perpetual cab driver, living in a shack with his dog, who he named the Doorman. Throughout the story, he struggles with his non-existent father, who died of drug and alcohol abuse when Ed was young. His younger siblings had moved away to start lives with solid jobs elsewhere. Ed is the only sibling who hasn’t done anything with his life. Plagued by these inefficiencies, Ed is itching for something in his life to change. For a chance to do something with it. The bank robbery was the perfect opportunity.
Ed never thought that he would be the one to do it. He sees the gun that the gunman had dropped on his way out of the bank. Something in him that he doesn’t quite understand propels him out the door to snatch up the weapon. Pointing it at the scatterbrained robber, Ed keeps the thief at a standstill until the cops arrive.
“Maybe everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of.” – Markus Zusak, “I Am The Messenger”
On his way back to his shack, he realizes the weight of what he had just done. The media are all over his story. Everyone is calling him a hero. But what Ed doesn’t know, is that by the single act of stopping that bank robber, he has triggered something much greater than he thought he could take on.
Coming back to his house after work one night, he finds a letter in his mailbox. Curious, Ed greets the Doorman, and pulls out an old playing card; it was the Ace of Diamonds. Confused, Ed sees three addresses and times scrawled on the face of the card. Anxious and a little scared, Ed realizes that at some point he must go to these addresses at the times given and find out for himself what this absurdity was really about.
Arriving at 45 Edgar Street at midnight, he sees something he wouldn’t easily forget. Something so horrid, he didn’t want to come back. He wanted to ignore his gut impulse; his impulse that told him to help. To help this disgusting situation. And after several nights of driving back and forth down the street, contemplating, Ed comes to his senses. He does something. Something that can never be undone once completed. But Ed doesn’t regret it. He never will.
“It’s not a big thing, but I guess it’s true–big things are often just small things that are noticed.” – Markus Zusak, “I Am The Messenger”
I cannot express enough how incredibly suspenseful this book is. The entire book has you guessing about what Ed’s next situation will be, which card he will get, which people he will meet. The relationships he make are far from what he could have ever expected, and in so many different ways, they are beautiful relationships. And every card he completes, he becomes even more thrilled to receive the next one.
Even though Ed has no idea who is sending him the cards, he knows it has something to do with his stopping the bank robber. Someone noticed how he stood up to the ridiculous gunman. Someone wanted Ed to start changing things. And what Ed notices is that he himself has started to change. He notices things about his best friends he couldn’t see before. Not only his friends, but himself. And he is surprised about what he finds. He is no longer a good-for-nothing cab driver with no future. Ed is changing lives.
Every situation he is put into is different. Some will make you laugh hysterically, and some will make you so concerned and anxious that you might have to put the book down a moment and let the drama soak in. But each time Ed completes a card, he gets closer to the real truth, and starts asking himself the most basic question: who is behind my missions?
The ending of the book is the climax. Literally, the last page is the climax. Everything that Ed has done leading up the end, is countered by a rather startling concept. You find out who it was sending Ed on the missions, raising a multitude of rattling questions. Though you don’t get too much closure, you are left to think about what could have happened if–well, I won’t tell you that part. It’s best you read it.
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