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3.66 AVERAGE
3.66 AVERAGE
Dit boek stond eigenlijk meer op mijn 'to-read-list' omdat ik meer klassiekers wilde lezen.
Eerlijk gezegd ben ik met enig tegenzin aan het boek begonnen. Het verhaal en de schrijfstijl pakten me echter al na de eerste paar bladzijden en ik had moeite het boek weg te leggen.
Over de inhoud kan ik kort zijn: indrukwekkend, gruwelijk en gitzwart.
Eerlijk gezegd ben ik met enig tegenzin aan het boek begonnen. Het verhaal en de schrijfstijl pakten me echter al na de eerste paar bladzijden en ik had moeite het boek weg te leggen.
Over de inhoud kan ik kort zijn: indrukwekkend, gruwelijk en gitzwart.
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is the first novel I have ever read that made me gag. Maybe I'm missing something because where other people see beauty, I see misogyny and a celebration of human cruelty.
dark
medium-paced
An excellently written tale of a young boy's experiences during World War II. At four, in order to protect him from the German pogroms, his parents send him to a foster mother in the country. Unbeknownst to them his foster mother dies and he is set adrift in a world gone mad to fend for himself against both the elements of nature and those elements of human brutality and superstition.
This book is filled with vivid imagery and very little human kindness and can be tough to read. The loss of innocence and resulting conclusions that he draws the he is also an agent of hatred and destruction are so vividly portrayed that I found myself having to out the book down and walk away for a day or two at a time. Still it a reading experience that should not be missed.
This book is filled with vivid imagery and very little human kindness and can be tough to read. The loss of innocence and resulting conclusions that he draws the he is also an agent of hatred and destruction are so vividly portrayed that I found myself having to out the book down and walk away for a day or two at a time. Still it a reading experience that should not be missed.
The book was interesting and absorbing, however the sheer amount of violence was very overwhelming. I read if for my literature class and I was surprised to like it despite the fat that so many parts of it were simply vile. If you can't stand violence, both targeted at people and animals I would not read this book. I tried to tune out the parts that made me want to give it up and instead focus on and appreciate the story of survival of the small boy in the time of war.
A fictional account of an orphaned gypsy boy during the German occupation of eastern Europe during World War II. Pretty much every awful thing you can imagine (and many you can't) happens to this poor kid. Predictably, the boy's trials and tribulations change him, and not for the better. Reminds me of John Bunyan's 17th-century classic The Pilgrim's Progress, but much darker. Here are a few memorable excerpts:
"Wouldn't it be easier to change people's eyes and hair than to build big furnaces and then catch Jews and Gypsies to burn in them?"
"After each train had passed I saw whole battalions of ghosts with ugly, vengeful faces coming into the world. The peasants said the smoke from the crematories went straight to heaven, laying a soft carpet at God's feet, without even soiling them. I wondered whether so many Jews were necessary to compensate God for the killing of His son. Perhaps the world would soon become one vast incinerator for burning people. Had not the priest said that all were doomed to perish, to go 'from ashes to ashes'?"
"Human being, he said, is a proud name. Man carries in himself his own private war, which he has to wage, win or lose, himself—his own justice, which is his alone to administer."
"Wouldn't it be easier to change people's eyes and hair than to build big furnaces and then catch Jews and Gypsies to burn in them?"
"After each train had passed I saw whole battalions of ghosts with ugly, vengeful faces coming into the world. The peasants said the smoke from the crematories went straight to heaven, laying a soft carpet at God's feet, without even soiling them. I wondered whether so many Jews were necessary to compensate God for the killing of His son. Perhaps the world would soon become one vast incinerator for burning people. Had not the priest said that all were doomed to perish, to go 'from ashes to ashes'?"
"Human being, he said, is a proud name. Man carries in himself his own private war, which he has to wage, win or lose, himself—his own justice, which is his alone to administer."
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
For over 50 years people have been arguing over whether this book is autobiographical or fiction, original or plagiarized, written by Kosinski or by ghost riders.
I. Do. Not. Care. I couldn't put it down.
Trigger alerts abound so look out. It's non-stop cruelty and brutality. Men, women, children and animals. Beating, torture, rape, murder, incest, bestiality...you name it, it's in here.
If you like imagery, no matter if the picture is beautiful or hideous, and can handle things like GOT, TWD, Stephan King, this book is for you.
Here is an example involving gouged out eyes. Those of you with weak stomachs should look away now.
"And with a rapid movement such as women use to gouge out the rotten spots while peeling potatoes, he plunged the spoon into one of the boy's eyes and twisted it.
"The eye sprang out of his face like a yolk from a broken egg and rolled down the miller's hand onto the floor. The plowboy howled and shrieked, but the miller's hold kept him pinned against the wall. Then the blood-covered spoon plunged into the other eye, which sprang out even faster. For a moment the eye rested on the boy's cheek as if uncertain what to do next; then it finally tumbled down his shirt onto the floor.
"It all had happened in a moment. I could not believe what I had seen. Something like a glimmer of hope crossed my mind that the gouged eyes could be put back where they belonged...
"...The eyeballs lay on the floor. I walked around them, catching their steady stare. The cats timidly moved out into the middle of the room and began to play with the eyes as if they were balls of thread. Their own pupils narrowed to slits from the light of the oil lamp. The cats rolled the eyes around, sniffed them, licked them, and passed them to one another gently with their padded paws. Now it seemed that the eyes were staring at me from every corner of the room, as though they had acquired new life and motion of their own.
"I watched them with fascination. If the miller had not been there I myself would have taken them. Surely they could still see. I would keep them in my pocket and take them out when needed, placing them over my own. Then I would see twice as much, maybe even more. Perhaps I could attach them to the back of my head and they would tell me, thought I was not quite certain how, what went on behind me. Better still, I could leave the eyes somewhere and they would tell me later what happened during my absence."
I mean, come on! That's great stuff from the mind of our narrator, a 6-yo little boy in a rural village in Poland in 1939.
I. Do. Not. Care. I couldn't put it down.
Trigger alerts abound so look out. It's non-stop cruelty and brutality. Men, women, children and animals. Beating, torture, rape, murder, incest, bestiality...you name it, it's in here.
If you like imagery, no matter if the picture is beautiful or hideous, and can handle things like GOT, TWD, Stephan King, this book is for you.
Here is an example involving gouged out eyes. Those of you with weak stomachs should look away now.
"And with a rapid movement such as women use to gouge out the rotten spots while peeling potatoes, he plunged the spoon into one of the boy's eyes and twisted it.
"The eye sprang out of his face like a yolk from a broken egg and rolled down the miller's hand onto the floor. The plowboy howled and shrieked, but the miller's hold kept him pinned against the wall. Then the blood-covered spoon plunged into the other eye, which sprang out even faster. For a moment the eye rested on the boy's cheek as if uncertain what to do next; then it finally tumbled down his shirt onto the floor.
"It all had happened in a moment. I could not believe what I had seen. Something like a glimmer of hope crossed my mind that the gouged eyes could be put back where they belonged...
"...The eyeballs lay on the floor. I walked around them, catching their steady stare. The cats timidly moved out into the middle of the room and began to play with the eyes as if they were balls of thread. Their own pupils narrowed to slits from the light of the oil lamp. The cats rolled the eyes around, sniffed them, licked them, and passed them to one another gently with their padded paws. Now it seemed that the eyes were staring at me from every corner of the room, as though they had acquired new life and motion of their own.
"I watched them with fascination. If the miller had not been there I myself would have taken them. Surely they could still see. I would keep them in my pocket and take them out when needed, placing them over my own. Then I would see twice as much, maybe even more. Perhaps I could attach them to the back of my head and they would tell me, thought I was not quite certain how, what went on behind me. Better still, I could leave the eyes somewhere and they would tell me later what happened during my absence."
I mean, come on! That's great stuff from the mind of our narrator, a 6-yo little boy in a rural village in Poland in 1939.