The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas 

  - John Boyne

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have a kind of divided opinion about this one. I had expected it to be an emotionally distressing book, given the subject matter. However, it was a quick, easy read, until the last chapter, which was heartbreaking. This book is refreshingly different as it tells the story from the perspective of a German boy, who is brought up in a very protective manner by his parents, and is therefore unaware of the brutal reality of the persecution of the Jews. It targets the young-adult readers, and hence presents a simplistic view (too simplistic, some may say, but I will come back to it later).

I haven’t exactly researched the subject of holocaust, but I have read enough of true life stories (mostly in Readers’ Digest magazine) and a few books (eg Anne Frank’s Diary), to be aware of the stark horror of the Nazi concentration camps. Since I haven’t myself looked into the details, I am willing to accept other reviewers’ assertion (since they sound logical, and some of them were themselves survivors) that the book has great loopholes in its description of concentration camps. However, I am also willing to overlook this aspect as a plot device used by the author.

But there are other incongruities that are not so easy to overlook. The boy’s ignorance about the realities of the camp can be accepted because children believe their parents to be right, powerful and kind, and their parents may have wanted to shield them from the truth. But it is incomprehensible that a 9-year-old German boy, whose father is a high ranking officer in Hitler’s army, will not know that there exist people called ‘Jews’, and moreover, continue to insist on mispronouncing the title of the leader. I believe, a high ranking father or not, it would be an unpardonable offense if the boy had been heard calling Fuhrer as Fury. I fact, I did not understand the logic behind this – why does the author keep using ‘Fury’ and ‘Out-with’ (Auschwitz) until the very end. If he intended to introduce the subject to young readers, he should have used the correct names, at least after one or two corrections.

Which brings me to the simplistic approach taken by the book, raising the question - who is this really aimed at? Since everything is indirectly alluded to, a teenager (or anyone else) who is not already aware of the horrors, can’t make out what is really taking place. It takes someone who knows a bit about the history to understand it, but then, what is the point of reading this book? 

It’s not to say I did not like the book. I liked it for the sensitive portrayal, a different perspective, and for an endearing yet heartbreaking story. But I didn’t find it an extraordinary book to recommend as a must-read.