The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas**

Everyone seems to be making a huge fuss about this book and I think if Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia likes it, it can’t be that bad.

But I didn’t really like it. It is a great idea but I feel so much more could have been done with it. The boy in the striped pyjamas, for example, is hardly in the story at all. There are lots of really interesting characters in the book but most of them just don’t appear enough to do more than whet your appetite (many don’t even do that much).

Also some of the characters’ stories don’t seem to be resolved. In some ways this is realistic because in real life, stories often aren’t resolved. Sometimes people stay the same for many years, and it doesn’t matter that they’re unhappy, they just keep going. John Boyne gives us many tantalising glimpses of places and people and situations but he doesn’t go into any detail, which is disappointing and frustrating.

The writing is fine but again, it could tell you more. The descriptions are limited. Boyne might say something interesting but he doesn’t say enough to give you a full picture. The book is written a style that’s suitable for children so maybe that’s why Boyne doesn’t go into details – he wants to keep things brief in order to keep people’s attention. Or maybe it’s just that his main character is too young to take in a great deal of what he’s seeing.

The childish language in this book would probably appeal to young children but I really don’t think this is a children’s book. There’s a lot of subtlety which I think a lot of children just wouldn’t pick up on and the subject matter doesn’t really seem appropriate for children. I do think people often underestimate children’s ability to cope with horrifying situations – a lot of the time, children cope with it a lot better than adults. They might think a situation is exciting and cool whereas an adult would understand it more fully and might be more likely to be frightened. But you don’t want children, or anyone else, to think the happenings in this book are in any way cool. They’re not.

The main character is a nine year old boy called Bruno. He lives in Berlin with his family but then they suddenly have to move somewhere new. It’s some time before Bruno even works out which country he’s in (a surprise in itself) and I had no idea of the name of Bruno’s new home because the only name we ever know is Bruno’s unsuccessful attempt to pronounce the name. On reflection, I think perhaps I know the real name of the place (I won’t say what it is because that will spoil part of the story) but it took me weeks to get it.

Bruno really is quite an annoying character. Unless he has some sort of speech impediment, I don’t really understand why he has so many problems with pronunciation. In many ways, he seems a lot younger than nine. He insists on referring to The Fury instead of The Fuhrer which is not only very annoying but also a bit dodgy linguistically. If he was speaking English, it would be a more natural mistake but he is speaking German. The German for fury is Wut. Not very much like the word Fuhrer. I really can’t see how Bruno is going to get those words confused. True, there is the German word Furie which refers to the mythological Furies and you could certainly make parallels between them and Hitler (although the Furies are, of course, female) but you wouldn’t expect a nine year old to know the word. If you don’t quite understand a certain word when it is said to you, you’re more likely to hear it as a word you know.

There are also various phrases which Bruno likes and which feature in the book far too often. Like ‘Best Friends for Life’. I don’t mind the capitals so much, German nouns (although not adjectives) all have capitals anyway but the way it’s repeated over and over again is very annoying. It would have made more sense if Bruno was younger but he seems a bit old to insist on repeating particular phrases over and over again, even in his head. Later in the book, he forgets the name of one of his Best Friends for Life but I knew what his name was! Bruno had told us enough times.

Also, it was slightly surprising that Bruno’s older sister Gretel was still playing with dolls at the age of twelve. There’s nothing wrong with it but it is very unusual. She’s not generally immature for her age – she clearly fancies the eighteen year old soldier who spends so much time at their house. The new hobby she takes up towards the end of the book isn’t very typical of twelve year old girls either. But maybe children were different then.

The end is great though. I wouldn’t say I like it but it is wonderfully chilling.