The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas

The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas by John Boyne is a young adult novel set during WWII. While I am not a fan of this genre, I read it with high hopes because it was recommended by my book club. I have to say that I was very disappointed. It is the story of a boy whose father is a high-ranking Nazi Officer and is reassigned to Auschwitz. The family is forced to leave Berlin and live on the grounds of the camp. The boy has no one to play with, so he meets a boy that “lives on the other side of the fence.” They become friends and spend several afternoons talking. The end of the novel takes an unfortunate turn that leaves the reader questioning the point of the entire book.

One of the many things that bothered me was the changing of names/people to child-speak. This would have been all right if the novel was narrated by the boy, but it was a third person narrator through out, so the changing of names made little sense to me. Auschwitz was changed to “Out With” and the Fuhrer was changed to the “Fury.” I did not see the point in this and it distracted me throughout the entire book. Unfortunately for Boyne, the novel also drew comparisons to Night, which no book that I have read about WWII can win that comparison. There were other problems too, some of the language in the book also seemed out of place and not very authentic to the time period.

On a positive note, the book was well paced and read very quickly. I was able to read it in a single day, which is nice because it provides a sense of accomplishment.