The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
I had read a little bit about the film The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but I didn’t realize that it was based on a book by John Boyne. I hadn’t seen the film and decided to read the book. As I’ve said in other reviews, Holy Cow. What a marvelous, gut-wrenching book.
Like other books I’ve read and enjoyed (e.g., The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), this book is written with a child’s innocence; unlike those, this one is told in the third person. The story focuses on our main character Bruno, a nine year-old German boy, and tells of the events surrounding the early 1940′s from his perspective. And Boyne’s skill at portraying such a brutal period in human history through the eyes of a child is positively spellbinding.
Bruno’s father is in the German military, although Bruno doesn’t really know what his job is — just that he’s very important. And after a visit from “the Fury”, Bruno’s father gets put in charge of “Out-with”, and uproots his family from their comfortable life in Berlin to live in a large house bordering the concentration camp. Bruno is devastated at having to move and leave his best friends, and as he tries to find ways to occupy himself in his new environment (including getting along with his older sister Gretel), he is perplexed by the people he sees who live on the other side of the distant fence, all of whom wear the same style of striped pajamas. Hearing the scenes and events told as they are seen and understood by a nine-year old innocent child is incredibly moving. And when Bruno goes “exploring” along the fence, walking for an hour into the woods, he comes across a boy on the other side of the fence and the two become secret friends. As the boys begin meeting on a daily basis and as they talk and relay their experiences through the fence – being uprooted to a new place they didn’t want to go to, etc. — the similarities might resonate to the untrained eye; however, knowing the horror behind Bruno’s friend Shmuel’s story brings tears to your eyes.
Like the film Life is Beautiful, this book is a moving tale about a horrific and tragic time, and anyone with a heart would be stunned by this story.
August 25, 2010 8:51 am 2 Comments
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By Bluestocking, August 25, 2010 @ 8:28 pm
It’s interesting. I just finished reading this book as well and I had pretty much the same reaction. I found it incredibly moving and the innocence of the narrative completely blew me away.
Now that you’ve read the book, do you want to see the movie? I can’t decide…
By Shaft, August 26, 2010 @ 6:37 am
I’ve already got the DVR set to record the movie — I can’t wait to see it. Although I strongly doubt the innocence of the main character can be captured on film the way Boyne expresses it in writing, I’m fascinated to see how it’s depicted.