The protagonist is Ed Kennedy, an uninspired 19-year old Australian taxi driver. Ed laments his mediocre life and strained relationship with his mother, as his father died recently and left Ed with only his dog, the Doorman, but does nothing to improve his situation, instead preferring to continue living alone and playing cards every week with his friends: Ritchie, who is unemployed and generally apathetic about life; Marv, a stingy carpenter; and Audrey, a fellow taxi driver whom Ed is in love with, although she does not reciprocate. After accidentally foiling a robbery he is proclaimed a hero by the public, though the robber leaves him a warning that Ed is "a dead man" before being taken away by police. How he figures out the message and what effect it has on him and others is the crux of the book. I have to say, Zusak does test my patience with his extravagant wordplay. There were many times I wanted to tell him to drop the pretentiousness and just get on with the story - but then I realised that that is Ed. He is not the dim-witted dill that he leads us to believe. He’s imaginative and poetic. In 2015 the novel was adapted for stage by Xavier Hazard and Archie Stapleton and performed by the Redfoot Youth Theatre Company in Perth, Western Australia. [4] Television [ edit ]

One of the best things about the story for me was Ed. I loved him as a main character. Some might find him a little too self-deprecating to be likable but I personally could empathize with him so much. I felt his pain and understood what he was going through. He is ordinary, average, has no special talents, no great ambitions, no grand accomplishments. At 19, he believes that he has already come as far as he can go. While people around him do great things and have awesome jobs, his life has come to a stop. He is just living, never really changing. Then there was the writing, which I had some conflicting feelings about. Zusak does this thing where he sometimes spaces out sentences and makes them into an entire paragraph. This can be an effective literary device, however, I felt that it was overused and the fact that it was always employed when something meaningful was said felt very in-my-face “this is important”. I prefer books to be more subtle. Ed receives a summons to court to testify against the bank robber. The judge criticizes Ed’s casual appearance with distaste. When Ed gives vehement witness testimony vilifying the bank robber as an “ugly bastard,” the judge puts him in his place as not being one to talk. As the police lead off the gunman to jail, the gunman says Ed’s a dead man and tells him to remember that fact every day when he looks in the mirror. Ed initially takes it as a threat, but when he gets in his cab and looks in the rearview mirror, he recognizes the metaphor for his dead-end life. Analysis of A♦, 2♦, 3♦, 4♦ I wanted to try another book by Zusak, to be able to see if The Book Thief was just a one off. I have a handwritten book list I made when I was younger, long before Goodreads and this was on it, so I gave it a go, and was thoroughl

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Ed accepts his role as a messenger as an opportunity to change people’s lives for the better. He practices with Marv for the Sledge Game. Ed knows Marv compulsively saves his income and has thirty thousand in the bank. Marv opens up about an old girlfriend, Suzanne Boyd, who suddenly left without saying goodbye. Ed wants to ask him about her but instead, he changes the subject to his general malaise. Me: OUT. OUT. OUT NOW. * grips him by the collar and drags him to the cross at the top of the screen* YOU DONUT I AM SO DONE WITH YOU. That moment of sheer unwonted joy was and still is unmistakably the favorite one of mine. It's like I can imagine the look on Ed's face. In 2011 the novel was adapted again for the stage by Curtin's Hayman Theatre Company and performed at the "Subiaco Arts Centre" in Perth, Western Australia. [3] [ failed verification]

The narrator, nineteen-year-old Ed Kennedy, introduces himself. He grew up in the slums where unemployment and teenage pregnancy are norms. His circle of friends—Audrey, Marv, and Ritchie—play the card game Annoyance several times a week. His father, an alcoholic who mismanaged money, died six months prior, leaving behind his mother Bev. Two sisters, Leigh and Katherine, have moved out. Ed’s younger brother Tommy attends college in the city, an option Ed considers out of reach given his father’s neglect of family finances. Ed compares himself to what Bob Dylan, Salvador Dali, and Joan of Arc achieved by age nineteen. In contrast, Ed is an underage cab driver who lives alone with the aged family dog, Doorman. He fantasizes about dating Audrey but respects the boundaries she erects against intimacy as a result of her rough family life. Ed analyzes his dating history and wishes that sexual prowess were regarded like math skills, with no shame in being clueless. Summary: 3♦ the ace of diamonds What happens when the world doesn't care about you? Let's just say it ain't pretty, and since this is one of the big questions I Am the Messenger asks readers to think on, you'll find loads of people in this book that you often don't find in young adult books. Ed is sent to help a rape victim, a poor family, a beaten kid, an overwhelmed mother… need we say more? Author Markus Zusak takes the YA genre to a very serious place and asks readers to consider some very real adult problems. Okay, I can see the flaws, I mean..I'm not a stupid sap. I could see the formula... I knew what was coming. But, the writing makes up for it.This book is just... beautiful, from start to finish. I'm not really good at putting my thoughts into words so I know that nothing I could ever say will bring this book justice (but that still won't stop me from trying). The one relationship I wasn’t a big fan of was the romance. It was very tame, almost bland and just did nothing for me (this may very well be due to the fact that I didn’t like the love interest). I don’t think it was superfluous, but it didn’t really add anything to the story either. This book is a delightful mix of the weird and the wonderful, with a few pensive moments here and there. So many things that Ed does are ordinary like buying an ice-cream for a young mother, yet they tug at your heartstrings in a way that's extraordinary. But the unfortunate byproduct of Ed's unfortunate obliviousness to the reality of the world around him is that Ed is missing out on the big things. Like he says at one point "Big things are just the small things you notice." (Or something like that.) First of all, it took me a long time to read this book, but it wasn't the books fault. I had to study for a test to get into college (I got accepted, YAY!), so my reading had to suffer from it. But even that didn't stop me from enjoying this book completely. I think if I had the time I would finish it in one sitting.

Ed: * stumbles along, hands shielding his head from the anticipated blow yours truly is half tempted to give him but won’t because dammit he’s too adorable* OK OK I’M GOING no need to get all violent now, is there?

I Am the Messenger Resources

Ed was not your typical hero. He wasn't the brooding or panty-dropping type that are mostly on YA and NA books. He was plain. He was ordinary. And he knows that. He hasn't done anything remarkable in his life... until now.