There are two types of people in the world. The ones who would describe this novel as cute’, ‘sooo good’, (or, God forbid: ‘heartbreaking’) and then there are the ones who would describe this book as redundant World War II drivel told from an insanely annoying child perspective and sold to the public solely on the premise that it involves the Holocaust, which means that the quality of writing can plummet by about 90% without the book losing an iota of market value or demand of being treated with the Utmost Respect by readers and critics alike. Regardless of which category you fit into, you must admit that the fact that the following stupidity wasn’t edited out is just plain mind-blowing:
The story is told from the perspective of a little German boy named Bruno. Darn it, he’s so cute and innocent, he doesn’t even realize the couple his officer daddy has over for dinner one night is Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun (‘oh, you know, that pretty blond woman who sat across from me while I ate my schnitzel, lah-di-dah….”). Gosh, that’s so sweet it makes me want to vomit. And because these neat-o misunderstandings are so adorable, they occur about as frequently as the across-the-street Jew murders that are pretty much ignored throughout the entire course of the book. Until, of course, the tear-jerker ending. Natürlich.
What I’m really bitching about, though, is this:
Cutiepie Nazi-son frequently confuses the meaning of the austere words ‘em weird adults in uniforms use. Like ‘Auschwitz’. Sounds kind of like “out-with”, doesn’t it?
“Out-with what?” Bruno muses.
And “Führer”? Sounds kind of like ‘Fury’. Why are all the grown-ups talking about this ‘Fury’? Bruno is extremely perplexed.
Except he’s GERMAN!! Doesn’t speak a friggin’ word of English! How the fuck is he contemplating what the ‘fury’ is, or what it is that’s “out-with”???
Sizable fucking plot hole if you ask me. What the hell, editors?
And literary critics? Why weren’t you all over this? That was just plain disappointing.
SPOILER ALERT: in the end, Bruno stumbles into das Gas Chamber and dies. Thank Gott.
(…which sounds sort of like ‘Goth’, right?. Consider that a free tip if you’re planning a Zombie sequel, John Boyne.)
Aus-mit? Furie? It could work, I guess. Still sounds like a sack of sap.
Ah, so it might not be entirely devoid of proof-reading. Thanks for the insight! You are sadly right about it still being a sack of sap.
My younger sister raved on and on about how good this book was and how “heartbreakingly sad” it was. Why was it so sad? Because a little Aryan German boy dies in a concentration camp by mistake?!?!! Oh, I get it, how sad. Nevermind the 6 million jews…. Well after that, I just had to read it to see what the fuck John Boyne was thinking.
This was not only a badly written book, it was downright insulting.
You’ve got it exactly right. This book tastes like hilarious fodder for anti-semites.