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rogier_vdw's review
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism
Moderate: Death of parent, War, and Death
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
The Boy Between Worlds is the true story of an unconventional, interracial family. They lived in the Netherlands during the time of the Nazi occupation so, sadly, large parts of their story are easily predicted.
For me the most interesting part of this story was at the beginning when we meet Waldemar, a Black boy from a wealthy family growing up in Suriname, a Dutch colony. His life there was vividly depicted. I enjoy learning through reading fiction and that was the case here since I’m relatively unfamiliar with Suriname. The impact of colorism also caught my attention in this section. While still in his teens Waldemar travelled to the Netherlands to study, became involved with Rika , his much older landlady who is estranged from her husband and they had a child together. Racism made their life challenging at times. War intervened, the family became involved in the resistance by providing a safe haven forJews. Someone informed the Nazis and both Waldemar and Rika ended up dying, albeit in different circumstances. Their son, 14 when he last saw them, struggled to find his place in his extended family and the wider world, discover exactly what happened to his father, and connect with his Suriname heritage.
I can’t say this was the most riveting book I’ve read. I feel that much of it would be of little interest to those outside the immediate family. Their role in the resistance and in providing sanctuary to Jews is obviously heroic, especially since they themselves were at greater than normal risk from the Nazi occupiers. It’s undeniably a worthy book but something about the writing style and/or translation made it feel a little too dry for me to enjoy or for it to make the emotional impact it arguably should have.
For me the most interesting part of this story was at the beginning when we meet Waldemar, a Black boy from a wealthy family growing up in Suriname, a Dutch colony. His life there was vividly depicted. I enjoy learning through reading fiction and that was the case here since I’m relatively unfamiliar with Suriname. The impact of colorism also caught my attention in this section. While still in his teens Waldemar travelled to the Netherlands to study, became involved with Rika , his much older landlady who is estranged from her husband and they had a child together. Racism made their life challenging at times. War intervened, the family became involved in the resistance by providing a safe haven forJews. Someone informed the Nazis and both Waldemar and Rika ended up dying, albeit in different circumstances. Their son, 14 when he last saw them, struggled to find his place in his extended family and the wider world, discover exactly what happened to his father, and connect with his Suriname heritage.
I can’t say this was the most riveting book I’ve read. I feel that much of it would be of little interest to those outside the immediate family. Their role in the resistance and in providing sanctuary to Jews is obviously heroic, especially since they themselves were at greater than normal risk from the Nazi occupiers. It’s undeniably a worthy book but something about the writing style and/or translation made it feel a little too dry for me to enjoy or for it to make the emotional impact it arguably should have.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide and Racism
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