| Genre: Children’s books Main characters: Bruno and Schmuel Time and place: 1944, Berlin and Auschwitz Summary: Make the best of a bad situation, Bruno’s Mom told him when they had to leave their beautiful house in Berlin behind and move into a smaller one in Out-With, a God-forsaken place. Nevertheless Bruno is terribly unhappy, having left behind his three best friends and his house filled with nooks and crannies to explore. At least there are a lot of people (children too) nearby: from Bruno’s window he can see a fence, and on the other side of it there are many thin people wearing striped clothing. One day Bruno goes “exploring” along the fence to see whether he’ll discover anything, and he does: a boy, same age as himself, sitting cross-legged on the other side of the fence. His name is Schmuel and he is very thin and very sad — nevertheless he enjoys talking with Bruno and Bruno enjoys talking to him, so they become best friends. |
In a way I have liked Bruno a lot, as he is honest and cares about other people’s feelings, making him seem at times to be older than his nine years. An opinion which is sort of reversed when it comes to the people on the other side of the fence in general, and to Schmuel in particular, as Bruno behaves, when relating to them, in an unbearably childish manner (outrageously so in the scene where he is carelessly eating turkey in front of his friend). Perhaps his behavior is explainable by the fact he, with his young mind, couldn’t properly perceive what lied behind the fence (especially as Schmuel himself shields him from things). It is perhaps interesting to notice that the life on the other side even seemed attractive to Bruno in his simplicity: so many children to play with, and getting to wear comfy striped clothing all day long!
The style the book was written in is, I think, its greatest asset. Simple words in simple phrases, just as (probably) a child might think. The narration is shielded, no gory details, fit for children and a child’s point of view. Bruno notices things around him and tries to make sense of them as best as he can, but nevertheless he misses details (whatever cannot fit in his idea of the world is shrugged away). A whole other image is formed in the mind of a reader 50 years later — quite an accomplishment of the author I would say, his managing to give just enough details for the reader to realize what’s going on and at the same time few enough so as to keep Bruno (young, innocent Bruno) always guessing.
The book has been criticized by some, saying that it needs strong suspension of disbelief in order to be appreciated. For one, there couldn’t have been a nine year old kid wandering around in Auschwitz as children younger than 15 were either gassed or experimented with. Also, German children were indoctrinated about Jews from an early age so it’s not very probable that a nine year old son of a Commandant would have had no idea about who they were and what was happening to them. Some serious flaws indeed — which is probably why the book is subtitled “A Fable” and meant to be enjoyed as such. Which I did (mostly because I liked the style it was written in :) )
What I liked most: Despite the gravity of the situation Bruno’s thinking of the Fuhrer as “the Fury” (due to a mispronunciation) never failed to amuse me :)
What I liked least: The other mispronunciation, Out-With instead of Auschwitz. While I could imagine the Fury/Fuhrer thing all too easily (although I have no idea if they would sound alike in German too), the Out-With part seemed sort of unexplainable to me and bothered me throughout the book (I wouldn’t say it’s that big a deal though, to spoil a book that I otherwise liked).
Recommend it? Yes. Short and nicely written (albeit on a sad topic).
Amazon Affiliate. If you click an Amazon link and buy something, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.
Popularity: 13% [?]
I read this book for a book group two years ago and it is still one of my most remembered books. I really enjoyed it and was just amazed at the ending.
Thank you for your great review! I hope to read this one sometime this year and then see the movie.
It does sound like such a great book, but sad…very sad.
@Sunnysmileqt Yes, I was amazed at the ending too. Quite hard to forget indeed.
@Literary Feline I recommend it to you wholeheartedly. The writing is very interesting and the approach of the topic is as novel as it may be.
@J.Kaye You know, in fact it’s less sad than it might have been, because of Bruno’s habit of filtering out things he doesn’t understand. I have really liked the way the author did that, hinting as horrors without actually unveiling them.
I enjoyed reading the book too and just like you, didn’t really go with the “Out-with” mispronunciation!
Have you seen the movie? It’s pretty good too although I find that they’d presented the characters slightly different from the way the book portrayed them.
I haven’t seen the movie but I intend to do so as soon as I get the chance. I am quite curious about the bits they (must have) added since the book is quite short :)