John Boyne
Hardcover | Pages: 240 pages Rating: 4.14 | 466530 Users | 25438 Reviews
Present Based On Books The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
| Title | : | The Boy in the Striped Pajamas |
| Author | : | John Boyne |
| Book Format | : | Hardcover |
| Book Edition | : | Anniversary Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 240 pages |
| Published | : | September 12th 2006 by David Fickling Books (first published January 5th 2006) |
| Categories | : | Young Adult. Contemporary. Fiction. Humor. Realistic Fiction. Death. Teen |
Narrative In Pursuance Of Books The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
I hardly know where to begin bashing this book. Do I start with the 9-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister, who read about 6 and 8, respectively? The imperial measurements (miles, feet) despite the German setting? The German boy, raised in Berlin, who thinks that Der Führer is "The Fury" and Auschwitz is "Out-With," despite being corrected several times and seeing it written down? The other English-language idioms and mis-hearings, despite our being told that he speaks only German? And that he believes that "Heil Hitler!" is a fancy word for hello, because he understands neither "Heil" nor "Hitler"? So maybe these are fussy issues, and I shouldn't trash the book on these minor linguistic flaws. Instead, I can start with the plot holes big enough to drive a truck through: that Bruno, whose father is a high-ranking official in "The Fury"'s regime, doesn't know what a Jew is, or that he's living next door to a concentration camp. Or that the people wearing the "striped pajamas" are being killed, and THAT's why they don't get up after the soldiers stand close to them and there are sounds "like gunshots." Or that there's a section of fence that is (a) unpatrolled and (b) can be lifted from the ground high enough to pass food and, eventually, a small boy through, AND that nobody would try to get OUT through this hole. Or that Bruno's friend Shmuel, a frail 9-year-old boy, would survive over a year in a Nazi camp. Or even the author's refusal to ever use the word "Auschwitz," in an effort to "make this book about any camp, to add a universality to Bruno's experience." That last is from an interview with the author that appears at the end of the audio version. I can't speak to most of what he said, because it was a lot of "here are all the places that are hyping my book," but the worst part of it, to me, was where he was addressing criticisms: "there are people who complain that Bruno is too innocent, too naive, and they are trivializing the message of this book." Um, no. I'm not trivializing the message; I'm objecting to his trivializing of the Holocaust. I find his treatment of the Holocaust to be superficial, misleading, and even offensive. As an audio recording, I'm pretty neutral. The narrator did the best he could with the material and there was some differentiation between the characters' voices, but the music that was added... some chapters ended with appropriately-somber music. Other chapters had no music at all. Sometimes the music appeared in the middle of a chapter. Two other incidental notes: first, normally you can't say anything negative about a Holocaust-themed book without being an asshole, because the books are so tied in with the Holocaust itself. In this case, though, I feel like, due to the fictionalizing of it, the book is far enough removed from Auschwitz that it's okay to be negative about the book without being insensitive about the Holocaust. Second, this doesn't land on my "run away! Save yourself!" shelf, because that's more for books that are comically bad--books that I can bash with glee and mock with abandon. I can't find anything funny about what makes this book so bad; it's just plain offensive and shallow.Itemize Books To The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
| Original Title: | The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Bruno Wisitzki |
| Setting: | Germany,1943 Poland,1943 |
| Literary Awards: | Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Reader's Choice Award for Intermediate (2009), Deutscher Jugendliteraturpreis Nominee for Preis der Jugendjury (2008), Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Award for John Murray Show Listeners' Choice Award (2007) |
Rating Based On Books The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Ratings: 4.14 From 466530 Users | 25438 ReviewsWrite Up Based On Books The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
This Review ✍ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷 What exactly was the difference? He wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms? ★ I picked this because I heard a lot of good things about the authors writing and I like the books name but I did not know what it is about. I did not even read the synopsis!★ The writing was light hearted and I think having the book revolving about Bruno was a great idea! The innocence of the young did5★Bruno had read enough books about explorers to know that one could never be sure what one was going to find. Most of the time they came across something interesting that was just sitting there, minding its own business, waiting to be discovered (such as America). Other times they discovered something that was probably best left alone (like a dead mouse at the back of a cupboard).A remarkable, simply told fable, as the title says a parable about a boy who realises if he wants answers to his
A powerful concept, but very poorly written (even allowing for the young adult target audience) - and one of a tiny number of books I can think of that was better in the film version.PlotBruno is 9 and lives in Berlin in 1943 with his parents and 12 year old sister. They are wealthy and his father is an important soldier who is promoted to be the Commandant at Auschwitz. The trick of the story is that Bruno doesn't realise the horror of what goes on behind the barbed wire, where everyone wears
I hardly know where to begin bashing this book. Do I start with the 9-year-old boy and his 12-year-old sister, who read about 6 and 8, respectively? The imperial measurements (miles, feet) despite the German setting? The German boy, raised in Berlin, who thinks that Der Führer is "The Fury" and Auschwitz is "Out-With," despite being corrected several times and seeing it written down? The other English-language idioms and mis-hearings, despite our being told that he speaks only German? And that
"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" would easily top my list of "Worst Books about the Holocaust."I am writing as one who was there -- I was once myself a boy in striped pajamas and am a survivor of six German concentration camps. This book is so ignorant of historical facts about concentration camps that it kicks the history of the Holocaust right in the teeth.John Boyne's premise is that the nine-year old son of the commandant of Auschwitz, bored with his isolated life, takes walks to the fence
This Review ✍ Blog 📖 Twitter 🐦 Instagram 📷 What exactly was the difference? He wondered to himself. And who decided which people wore the striped pajamas and which people wore the uniforms? ★ I picked this because I heard a lot of good things about the authors writing and I like the books name but I did not know what it is about. I did not even read the synopsis!★ The writing was light hearted and I think having the book revolving about Bruno was a great idea! The innocence of the young did
0 comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.