From: Beth Wright <bethlibrarian>
Date: Mon, 27 Feb 2006 08:24:43 -0800 (PST)

Kellye Carter Crocker wrote:

>I really enjoyed "I Am The Messenger"?agree with the
>comments about it here, but was very disappointed in the
>ending. I still don't get it. The big thing
>that is revealed seemed so obvious through the whole
>story. Is there something I'm missing?

Kelly, do you mean you found it obvious that the person responsible for sending Ed on his errands was the author of the story? Like maybe it was foreshadowed too heavily? I'm asking because I've also talked with readers who thought the ending was "too much of a trick," which I took to mean that it wasn't foreshadowed enough and came out of nowhere. It worked for me personally; there were a few bumps in the narrative voice (I remember one was after Ed threatened the rapist) where I thought, "Who is talking here?" Then I forgot about it until the ending, when it made sense. I also liked the author photo, where Zusak is holding presumably the same file folder full of notes that Ed observes in the author's hands at the end of the book. I guess an odd device like this one is bound to provoke a lot of different reactions.

Beth Wright







Beth Wright Youth Services Librarian Fletcher Free Library Burlington, Vermont
(802) 865-7216 bethlibrarian at yahoo.com

__________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
Received on Mon 27 Feb 2006 10:24:43 AM CST