Message.

About fifteen minutes ago (maybe more; my computer takes so long to get internet open) I finished reading the Marcus Zusak book "I Am the Messenger" (I know I should underline that but I'm too freaking lazy). It took me about a month, mainly because I picked it up, read the first 60 pages, and then couldn't summon up any enthusiasm for it anymore and didn't read it again for about 4 weeks. So, really, you could say I was actually reading it for two days- one where I was bored out of my mind (the first 60 pages) and one where I was intensely interested (the last 290 or so pages).

I have to admit, at first, I just found it a bit slow. Nice characters, fairly good plot, fine word choice (although quite a bit of swearing), and, as typical in a Zusak book, amazing description and personification. It just didn't really appeal to me at the time- a book about a cab driver who suddenly recieves some higher calling. How nice for him. But I stuck with it, as I always do (I've never been known to put down a book once I've started it- not even the Silmarillion). And after about page 60, it got interesting, and heartwarming, and almost (if I dare to say it) sweet.

This loser of a person who seems so typical of rough, lower income communities, Ed, suddenly becomes this intruiging, multi-layered protagonist who almost seemlessly adopts these multiple personalities and causes to help the people who surround him. He becomes Jimmy, the deceased husband of an old, lonely woman, Milla, who has been dead for over 60 years. He becomes the brave defender of a woman being raped daily by her alchoholic husband. He finds the solution for the worry of a beautiful teenage girl who can fly when she runs barefoot in the morning but can never quite win that race. He brings two boys together when they, well, beat him up. Twelve stories. Twelve cards. Twelve aces. I won't explain the whole card thing because I'm really hoping you read the book.

But then the last ace comes, and who's been sending them? Was it Audrey, who he's loved for decades? Was it his recently deceased alchoholic father? His abusive mother? Was it someone we don't even know yet? I'll tell you in a minute.

But before I tell you, since I want to make it all offricial and "spoiler alert" safe, I'm going to finish my post first. As the story ends, everything made (somewhat) clear to Ed, his dreams either in the trash or fulfilled, Ed comes to one last conclusion. All those messages he was supposed to send? All those aces? All those times he thought of himself as the Messenger? Really, he's not the Messenger. He's the message.
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Kay, well, here comes the spoiler, because I'm just DYING to give it away (I've never been good at not sharing plot points- By the way, Snape kills Dumbledore).

SPOILER ALERT:
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The real sender of the cards? The author, Markus Zusak. THAT certainly adds a plot twist, doesn't it? That really, the entire story was (POSSIBLY) just a story, in the imagination of the author, even to the characters? The protagonist, Ed, asks one finalquestion: Is this all real? Am I real? The response is there, all set out by Zusak. He knows what the question is going to be, because it was his question first. And the answer comes: "Of course you're real- like any thought or any story. It's real when you're in it."