REVIEW: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, by John Boyne
This book doesn't need another person on the planet tooting its horn. It has received wide acclaim, deservedly so, and it has been made into a movie, which I have yet to see. But I wanted to mention this particular piece of juvenile fiction because I think it is a very worthy addition to literature concerning the holocaust.
Try to imagine a world before the holocaust. There were very few human atrocities that approached it in ferocity or in scale. The crusades were ugly, the Inquisition was pure evil, and American slavery was utterly horrific. Yet somehow the holocaust seems different. It was an unprecedented horror in how modern it was, how mechanized, and how singular in its purpose. The crusades, the inquisition, and slavery all demeaned and tortured humans to serve some other end, whether religious or economic. In the Nazi holocaust, the torture WAS the end. The holocaust was its own purpose, and it was executed with disturbing efficiency. Before it happened, I think it would have been impossible to imagine.
The inconceivability of such a horror is why the book works so well. It shows a concentration camp through the eyes of an innocent young German boy, the son of a Nazi commandant, who has no reason to suspect that his stern but loving father is doing anything immoral or questionable. All he knows is that he is living in a very isolated place, and he has no one to play with, until he meets a little boy on the other side of the barbed wire fence, a thin, hungry little boy, and he strikes up a friendship with him. Their innocent musings about what is happening around them are heartbreaking, and the ending, which is a tragic result of their innocence, is devastating. I strongly recommend this book. It is sure to haunt you for years to come.
Try to imagine a world before the holocaust. There were very few human atrocities that approached it in ferocity or in scale. The crusades were ugly, the Inquisition was pure evil, and American slavery was utterly horrific. Yet somehow the holocaust seems different. It was an unprecedented horror in how modern it was, how mechanized, and how singular in its purpose. The crusades, the inquisition, and slavery all demeaned and tortured humans to serve some other end, whether religious or economic. In the Nazi holocaust, the torture WAS the end. The holocaust was its own purpose, and it was executed with disturbing efficiency. Before it happened, I think it would have been impossible to imagine.
The inconceivability of such a horror is why the book works so well. It shows a concentration camp through the eyes of an innocent young German boy, the son of a Nazi commandant, who has no reason to suspect that his stern but loving father is doing anything immoral or questionable. All he knows is that he is living in a very isolated place, and he has no one to play with, until he meets a little boy on the other side of the barbed wire fence, a thin, hungry little boy, and he strikes up a friendship with him. Their innocent musings about what is happening around them are heartbreaking, and the ending, which is a tragic result of their innocence, is devastating. I strongly recommend this book. It is sure to haunt you for years to come.
posted by Amy at 4:00 PM
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