A Powerful Little Paperback! (Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne)

Member Name: karenuk

Product:	Boy in the Striped Pyjamas - John Boyne
Date:	19/02/09 (157 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Well written, not explicit, lets you work things out for yourself, suitable for all ages

Disadvantages: None

I have been fascinated with the Holocaust since my Mum introduced me to The Diary of Anne Frank when I was a teenager. I have continued to read biographies, autobiographies and historical books about the period as I have grown up and into middle age.

When The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas came out as a film last year, I hoped to go to see it, but didn't get round to it. So I bought the book recently, which is currently only £3.49 at Amazon UK.

It is quite a slim paperback, only 216 pages and can easily be read in a couple of sittings. It is suitable for both children and adults, as each person will take away something from reading this, depending on their level of understanding. Very few things are overt here; a lot of it is suggested.

The basic story focuses on a nine-year-old boy called Bruno who lives in Berlin with his parents and older sister. In many ways, he's an ordinary little boy. He likes playing with his friends, he dislikes his sister and he sometimes tires of the rules his parents impose on him.

The story is told from Bruno's point of view, so we soon empathise with him. After a happy life in Berlin, the family shortly have to move to a new house in a place Bruno thinks is called Out-With. This is after a visit from an important man Bruno calls the Fury, who visits Bruno's father, who is a Commandant.

Now, you can see from that paragraph how a ten-year-old boy and a forty-year-old man would understand this story on different levels. For kids, it is a kind of adventure story about one little boy. To adult readers, it is a tiny part of a huge historical event. For either group, this book has something to say - though not in a preachy way - and will be one you are unlikely to forget easily.

After Bruno's family move to Out-With, Bruno becomes very lonely, without his friends around him. While his mother and sister befriend a soldier, Lieutenant Kotler, Bruno feels increasingly isolated and bored. One day, he decides to go exploring and walks along the side of the camp not far from his house.

He eventually finds a little boy called Shmuel and after talking for a while, they discover they share the exact same birth date. They become friends and Bruno tries to visit Shmuel as often as he can. But Bruno feels sad that he can never really play with his friend, as although they live close to each other, Bruno lives in a house and Shmuel lives in a camp full of many people, all wearing the same striped pyjamas. Plus, of course, they are separated by a barbed wire fence.

Bruno doesn't understand the implications of this and his innocence or ignorance comes out throughout the novel. Shmuel is not so naïve, but he has to live in the camp and sees much worse things than Bruno does, in his nice house with well-off parents and lots of food to eat.

While reading this, I was surprised how much it made me think. So much is left unsaid, that you have to fill in quite a few gaps yourself, which I believe is a good thing. There is no explicit violence in the novel, no swearing or anything that would prevent children from reading this, but it is an incredibly powerful piece of writing.

I found it very difficult reading the last couple of chapters, as there was an almost unbearable sense of foreboding and I almost didn't dare to keep turning the pages. You just know something is going to happen - and something does - but I hadn't guessed it and it was written so movingly, so beautifully, so powerfully, that it gives me a lump in my throat just thinking about it.

I definitely recommend this to everyone. Read it yourself then pass it round your kids. There's an important lesson to learn from this book and the way it does it is superb. Rarely has such an innocent looking paperback been so powerful.

Summary: A powerful novel about the Holocaust