John Boyne – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (2006)
Novel – 215 pages – my copy (paperback; 2010) borrowed from the Worm’s nearest and dearest
- 3 nods out of 5 -
John Boyne has done what most novelists never achieve: written a best seller that has been genuinely enjoyed by those in walks of life. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas has sold by the bucket load as well as converted onto the big-screen. And this all from a book he typed out in a mere two days; such is the strange nature of art. Years can be spent and squandered on uselessness, whilst inspiration may strike at any moment.
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas charts the journey of Bruno, a young boy in 1940s Nazi Germany. Although in third-person, the perspective is entirely Bruno’s, therefore little is known of war and atrocities, that his father is an ardent Nazi and fan of ‘the Fury’ and that his new home that he calls ‘Out-With’ is actually ‘Auschwitz’. At the camp Bruno strikes up a friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the fence, and through youthful innocence, become the best of friends.
Boyne accomplishes a master-stroke in having this chaotic and confused time viewed through the eyes of a young boy; the lack of complex ideology and histography explains the reason why it was such a success internationally. Yet the book’s end is clear and evitable to anyone with foresight upon Bruno’s first meeting with his new friend. Will the Worm spoil it for those out there yet to pick up Boyne’s short novel? Yes, he will: Bruno slips under the fence and ends being gassed to death alongside his newfound best friend.
Boyne doesn’t go in for moralizing within the pages, this is left for the readers themselves. However, the ending lines perhaps hint at the horror that can lie within us: ‘And that’s the end of the story about Bruno and his family. Of course all this happened a long time ago and nothing like that could ever happen again. Not in this day and age.’
The author has come under fire for historical inaccuracies: would Bruno have been allowed so much time to spend with his Jewish friend? Of course not; but this is of little point. Boyne’s job is a novelist first and foremost, to transport the reader to different realms and situations, and in this case, to bring about a clear distinction between good and evil, of truth and justice. In this, Boyne has surely succeeded.
