Book Talk: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

John Boyne

Title: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Author: John Boyne

Published: 2006 by Random House

Pages: 216

Find it at: Amazon

My Rating: 3.5/5!

Blurb excerpt from Goodreads
Bruno is nine years old, and the Nazis’ horrific Final Solution to the “Jewish Problem” means nothing to him. He's completely unaware of the barbarity of Germany under Hitler, and is more concerned by his move from his well-appointed house in Berlin to a far less salubrious area where he finds himself with nothing to do. Then he meets a boy called Shmuel who lives a very different life from him -- a life on the opposite side of a wire fence. And Shmuel is the eponymous boy in the striped pyjamas, as are all the other people on the other side of the fence. The friendship between the two boys begins to grow, but for Bruno it is a journey from blissful ignorance to a painful knowledge. And he will find that this learning process carries, for him, a daunting price.

My Thoughts!

Before reading this book, I had imagined it to be something really, really profound, considering it’s been made into a movie as well. Based on the horrific time of the Holocaust, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas follows the story of nine year old Bruno who lives happily in Berlin. His father is a senior soldier, and one evening, ‘The Fury’ decides to come to dinner at their home. He’s the man who runs the country, and although Bruno doesn’t realize it, it’s a pretty big deal. Bruno’s father is promoted to the post of Commandant, and he tells the family they’re to move to a new place that Bruno calls Out-With. He’s horror struck at first, and doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about. He cannot surely leave his three best friends for life! But the move is made, and soon enough Bruno feels he’ll go mad if he just stayed put. So he decides to explore.

Part of the new house that disturbs him is the view from his window. He can see a huge wire fence, taller than their three-storied house, going endlessly on both sides. And behind the fence, he sees desolate men and children, all in striped clothes and matching caps. When he decides to explore around, he walks along the fence and after some time, finds a boy his age sitting behind the fence. The two become friends. The year that follows is one where Bruno is gradually exposed to the horrors of the world, and the book describes how he feels about the same, and how he acts. After about a year, their mother decides she’s had enough and wants to take the kids (Bruno has a twelve year old sister Gretel) back to Berlin. Now Bruno is sure he will badly miss his new friend, Shmuel, so he decides to do something special for his last day at Out-With.

The story has been narrated in third person, and written as a children’s book. It’s suitable for all ages, though. From what I could infer from the writing style, the story and the theme, the author tried to put forward a child’s viewpoint about the horrors of war, and how it affects them. It definitely talks about a friendship without limit or distinguishing between communities and caste, away from the malice of ignorance. By playing down with words the terrible events at Out-With, it seemed the author wanted to talk about mistreatment and the terrible things that happened at concentration camps, which he managed to. Somewhat.

I had been feeling pretty much okay with the book until I read a couple of comments on Goodreads, which was when I realized that that’s what I feel too, to some extent. To begin with, Bruno could have been shown a more... understanding child. It is reasonable to assume he’d be innocent at age 9 and seeing things like that for the first time, but perhaps if the mother, if not the father, could have sat him down and told him why they moved at all. That’s what would normally happen, right? What I found slightly off-putting was that a whole year passed when he was friends with Shmuel, yet there’s little progression of his maturity. A kid listening to stories about the other side of the fence for a year, looking at his emaciated friend should be able to understand things better.

As for the ending, since I hadn’t yet watched the movie, it was pretty surprising, and I wished it weren’t that way, but well, even if it’s sad, it made a point. And drove it home. I just wish the last chapter could have been more elaborate, but then again, I think it goes with the way the book has been written. The focus is almost entirely on Bruno. Overall, it’s a light read in terms of writing style, not so much in terms of content. It might not be the best book themed around the Holocaust, but for younger readers, it makes its point quite well. I’d recommend giving this book at least one read. And then perhaps enjoy the movie version (which I've heard is better!)

Quotes from the book

“Don't make it worse by thinking it's more painful than it actually is.”

“. . .only the victims and survivors can truly comprehend the awfulness of that time and place; the rest of us live on the other side of the fence, staring through from our own comfortable place, trying in our own clumsy ways to make sense of it all.” 

“Just because a man glances up at the sky at night does not make him an astronomer, you know.” 

He looked down and did something quite out of character for him: he took hold of Shmuel's tiny hand in his and squeezed it tightly. "You're my best friend, Shmuel," he said. "My best friend for life.”

PS- The Fury in the story is Bruno’s version of The Fuhrer, the German word for Hitler. Similarly, Out-With is Bruno’s mispronounced version of Auschwitz.

Review: The Bright Forever by Lee Martin

The Bright Forever by Lee Martin

Author website: Click here 

Publisher: Crown Publishing Group

Published in: 2005

Find it at: Amazon

Rating: 3.5/5

From the book cover

On an evening like any other, nine-year-old Katie Mackey, daughter of the most affluent family in a small town on the plains of Indiana, sets out on her bicycle to return some library books. This simple act is at the heart of The Bright Forever, a suspenseful, deeply affecting novel about the choices people make that change their lives forever. Keeping fact, speculation and contradiction playing off one another as the details unfold, the author creates a fast-paced story that is as gripping as it is richly human. His beautiful, clear-eyed prose builds to an extremely nuanced portrayal of the complicated give and take among people struggling to maintain their humanity in the shadow of a loss.

It is a compelling and emotional tale about the human need to know even the hardest truth.

This is an awesome description as it sums up precisely what’s in the book!

My Thoughts

The Bright Forever is a tale of a small town in Indiana and its people. I got this book from the library and what really made me want to read it was its simplicity. The cover’s simple and from the description we would think it would be an effortless story. Well, the story was effortless, if you just focus on the events that happened, but the basis of the book became clear when I was halfway through. It’s basically about the way humans think and delves deep into the psychology of those who’re lonely, who have regrets and guilt, who’re scared to love. It primarily talks about things you don’t see in many books and for this, it was different and unlike many that I’ve read.

A man is a mathematics teacher and lives alone with no one to love except the children who’re his students. What goes on in his mind? How does he cope with such loneliness? How does he feel about loving a 9 year old girl as if she were his own daughter? What does the society think about it? This is Mr. Dees and the lively nine year old is Katie Mackey, daughter of an affluent family whom he teaches math over the summer. Katie is a lovely girl and Mr. Dees is immediately taken to her. But he’s worried about letting his feelings show in case her parents or other people might think he’s got a negative side to such behaviour. That’s the way we would think, wouldn’t we? As depressing as the character was, I think his portrayal was wonderful.

It’s not a happy story and the character’s lives are certainly not happy. The point of the book is to deliver the thoughts and feelings sad / lonely people might have and the way they feel when they’re shunned from the society or have no one to love. There’s Clare, Mr. Dees’s 60 year old neighbour who lost her husband Bill and then found Raymond after a while. Ray lives with her but the neighbours don’t like him and they cut off from Clare. This is another character who’s lonely, but she had someone to love and now there’s someone else. How does she juggle her feelings, how she’s innocent and wants Ray to be with her because she couldn’t think of staying alone.

Then there’s Ray, who was one character that kind of scared me. He seemed jolly and well, but when he started communicating with Mr. Dees and later tried blackmailing him and the readers don’t know what kind of a person he is, because we don’t have any background information. He was a drug addict and had a bad childhood. Ray’s character describes how hatred in childhood can distort the minds of the people, affecting the way they grow up to be. It’s not really their fault, they want to be good, but there’s always been so much of loathing they’ve seen that they can’t help their behaviour. They need help, not temptation.

The book’s written in a way that gives us the perspective from many different minds, like one chapter on Mr. Dees, how he’s thinking, what he feels happened, how he feels about Katie and her disappearance, then one chapter on Clare and things that happened, things she knows about, the next one on Raymond, next on Gilley, who’s Katie’s elder brother and has been shown as the family’s thinking-representative. This way of telling the story is different and refreshing since it gives the views from all sides, and there’s always some element of mystery, but it’s mild in the first half of the book. Once the events start rolling, it’s always there and not having a single perspective can be confusing. But overall, it was okay. If you’re looking for something that will help you understand human behaviour, this is one such book that you can go for.

Recommended for: The story isn’t a happy one and there are no happy endings. So, if you’re not interested in psychology related stuff and a story that can be a little bit depressing, you can skip this one. But if you think you’d like to understand in depth the behavioural aspects of guilt and regret ridden individuals and don’t mind a sad story, you should go for it.