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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I was annoyed at the English interpretations of German words and at how the people of Auschwitz were treated in the novel. I do not think what they experienced was anything as mild as what was described in the book. I know that the book was written for young people, and it is a decent book to introduce the subject, but a boy at a concentration camp would have seen and smelled the thousands upon thousands of dead bodies. I liked that idea of two boys from separate worlds meeting and becoming friends, I just didn't think that Bruno would have been that naive.
Whilst I enjoyed this book, the age it is aimed at is much younger than I originally thought it would be (early / pre-teen).
A good way to introduce that age group to why happened during the final solution, and it’s important to remember that this happened
A good way to introduce that age group to why happened during the final solution, and it’s important to remember that this happened
sad
Well, buku ini banyak banget kata-kata "Well" nya. Sampai capek sendiri dan gregetan begitu nyadar. Hahaha...
Setelah baca ulang aku pun menonton ulang filmnya. Masing-masing ada kekurangan dan kelebihan masing-masing. Malah kalau digabungkan, terasa lebih pas.
Setelah baca ulang aku pun menonton ulang filmnya. Masing-masing ada kekurangan dan kelebihan masing-masing. Malah kalau digabungkan, terasa lebih pas.
I cant say more for this book except there's too much innocence and the child is too naive probably because of his age in the setting of the book. The film is much much better for me tho, it's sadder (so much sadder i can't even). The book wasn't as sad as i thought it would be. After all, i watched the film first before reading the book itself. Oh well.
Too many improbabilities and impracticalities, and not enough magic or insight to balance it out.
I'm floored. Absolutely, completely floored.
I honestly don't have the words to express my appreciation and admiration for this book. It gives me such mixed emotions because on the one hand, it is so beautifully written. Boyne perfectly eclipses prejudice through the naivety and innocence of a child. On the other hand, I am heartbroken that a book such as this had to be written; that this message had to be told; that this story may have been fictional for us, but for so many, it was a horrendous nightmare.
This is a story that so many today need to hear. This is a story that may have been about a foreign time, but in today's world, it is all too relevant.
May we have the compassion and innocence of Bruno, and may we never lose it.
I honestly don't have the words to express my appreciation and admiration for this book. It gives me such mixed emotions because on the one hand, it is so beautifully written. Boyne perfectly eclipses prejudice through the naivety and innocence of a child. On the other hand, I am heartbroken that a book such as this had to be written; that this message had to be told; that this story may have been fictional for us, but for so many, it was a horrendous nightmare.
This is a story that so many today need to hear. This is a story that may have been about a foreign time, but in today's world, it is all too relevant.
May we have the compassion and innocence of Bruno, and may we never lose it.
The movie based on this book crushed me, so I was interested to see how the content was presented in written format for young readers.
This is one of the few times I believe the movie is better.
Bruno is described as 9-10 but his sister jokes that he is 6. Honestly, the narrative voice felt closer to 6 than 10. Bruno would certainly have corrected the pronunciation of Furher and Auschwitz after only a few corrections. The repetition of his frustration with Maria going through his things and the "off limits" areas presented him as a younger narrator.
This is one of the few times I believe the movie is better.
Bruno is described as 9-10 but his sister jokes that he is 6. Honestly, the narrative voice felt closer to 6 than 10. Bruno would certainly have corrected the pronunciation of Furher and Auschwitz after only a few corrections. The repetition of his frustration with Maria going through his things and the "off limits" areas presented him as a younger narrator.
I really wanted to like this story. I'd heard of it back when they made it into a movie a few years ago. I figured it must be a good story/book if they made it into a movie. I'm interested in historical fiction, especially WWII stories. Again I say that I really wanted to like this.
Sadly, I didn't.
I gave it two stars because it had potential. It just didn't hit the mark. It took me a really long time to read this book, especially considering how short it was. But it just never really drew me in. It wasn't one of those books where I just couldn't put it down.
I had problems right from the start with the author's writing style. I didn't like the run-on sentences with lots of conjunctions and phrases that were obviously very important and meaningful and were repeated throughout the rest of the story and you just knew they were important even though they were repetitive. See what I mean? It's distracting. I did not feel like the voice of Bruno was that of a young boy. I felt like the narration was almost exclusively from Bruno's point of view, with occasional deviances into other characters' perspectives. That was distracting for me, too. I have nothing against 3rd person omniscient, but I felt like the author needed to pick one and stick to it.
Another thing that I had issue with was that the eponymous character didn't even show up until halfway through the story. I felt like if the author felt that this was the most important character - he named the book after him, after all - that he should have been introduced, or at least mentioned, or SOMETHING before 50% through the book.
Okay, one more (not-too-spoilery) thing that bothered me was the "clever" mispronunciations of Bruno. I understand why the author did that, but it didn't really fit. Sure, if these kids spoke English, I get it. But they don't. Even though the book was written in English, these characters would be speaking German. So Bruno hearing "The Fury" instead of "The Führer" doesn't really make sense. Fury isn't a German word. Same with Bruno saying "Out-With." Those aren't German words. Perhaps I'm being too literal, but...it annoyed me.
Okay, several more things are spoilery, so they're going under the cut...
Bruno thinks of his Grandmother often, fondly remembering their performances at holidays. When she died, I thought that Bruno would be more upset. But he barely seemed to notice. The narration says there were sad days in Berlin, but other than that...it didn't seem to affect him.
There was a lot of stuff with Lt. Kotler that wasn't explicitly stated, and I wonder a lot about that. This is a YA book; I don't think that most of the things implied would occur to the target age group. Maybe it was just me, but I felt like those things (his relationships with both Gretel and Mother, for example) were kind of inappropriate and unnecessary. Also, why didn't the author use the word that Kotler kept calling the waiter? Young kids would have no idea what kind of words the Nazi soldier would use. In fact, I'm not even completely sure what word the author was going for there. Maybe he wasn't either.
I find it pretty difficult to believe that for over a year Shmuel was able to go to the fence just about every day to talk to Bruno, and NO ONE NOTICED. I honestly don't know that much about how Auschwitz was run from day to day, but I have a feeling that children were not allowed to wander, with hours of time unaccounted for.
The ending...ugh, the ending. As soon as Bruno crawled under the fence, I had a feeling that things wouldn't end well for either boy. I am pretty conflicted about the ending. I guess it's powerful, but also...I feel like it could have been done much better. I felt like the author could have explored the utter confusion and terror that Bruno was going through. But I guess that he didn't want to be too explicit. He just lingered somewhere between, and it didn't really work for me.
Overall, as I said, there was potential here. I just didn't really like how it was carried through, despite my efforts to like it.
Sadly, I didn't.
I gave it two stars because it had potential. It just didn't hit the mark. It took me a really long time to read this book, especially considering how short it was. But it just never really drew me in. It wasn't one of those books where I just couldn't put it down.
I had problems right from the start with the author's writing style. I didn't like the run-on sentences with lots of conjunctions and phrases that were obviously very important and meaningful and were repeated throughout the rest of the story and you just knew they were important even though they were repetitive. See what I mean? It's distracting. I did not feel like the voice of Bruno was that of a young boy. I felt like the narration was almost exclusively from Bruno's point of view, with occasional deviances into other characters' perspectives. That was distracting for me, too. I have nothing against 3rd person omniscient, but I felt like the author needed to pick one and stick to it.
Another thing that I had issue with was that the eponymous character didn't even show up until halfway through the story. I felt like if the author felt that this was the most important character - he named the book after him, after all - that he should have been introduced, or at least mentioned, or SOMETHING before 50% through the book.
Okay, one more (not-too-spoilery) thing that bothered me was the "clever" mispronunciations of Bruno. I understand why the author did that, but it didn't really fit. Sure, if these kids spoke English, I get it. But they don't. Even though the book was written in English, these characters would be speaking German. So Bruno hearing "The Fury" instead of "The Führer" doesn't really make sense. Fury isn't a German word. Same with Bruno saying "Out-With." Those aren't German words. Perhaps I'm being too literal, but...it annoyed me.
Okay, several more things are spoilery, so they're going under the cut...
Spoiler
Bruno thinks of his Grandmother often, fondly remembering their performances at holidays. When she died, I thought that Bruno would be more upset. But he barely seemed to notice. The narration says there were sad days in Berlin, but other than that...it didn't seem to affect him.
There was a lot of stuff with Lt. Kotler that wasn't explicitly stated, and I wonder a lot about that. This is a YA book; I don't think that most of the things implied would occur to the target age group. Maybe it was just me, but I felt like those things (his relationships with both Gretel and Mother, for example) were kind of inappropriate and unnecessary. Also, why didn't the author use the word that Kotler kept calling the waiter? Young kids would have no idea what kind of words the Nazi soldier would use. In fact, I'm not even completely sure what word the author was going for there. Maybe he wasn't either.
I find it pretty difficult to believe that for over a year Shmuel was able to go to the fence just about every day to talk to Bruno, and NO ONE NOTICED. I honestly don't know that much about how Auschwitz was run from day to day, but I have a feeling that children were not allowed to wander, with hours of time unaccounted for.
The ending...ugh, the ending. As soon as Bruno crawled under the fence, I had a feeling that things wouldn't end well for either boy. I am pretty conflicted about the ending. I guess it's powerful, but also...I feel like it could have been done much better. I felt like the author could have explored the utter confusion and terror that Bruno was going through. But I guess that he didn't want to be too explicit. He just lingered somewhere between, and it didn't really work for me.
Overall, as I said, there was potential here. I just didn't really like how it was carried through, despite my efforts to like it.
