The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a fictional story of a Nazi official’s young son living next to Auschwitz concentration camp during World War II. John Boyne’s nuanced writing showed the child’s innocence and the conflict caused by the answers he received to his many questions about what was taking place on the other side of the fence that divided his yard from the camp.
I had almost forgotten how delightfully creative and zany Roald Dahl can be. It doesn’t matter that The BFG is a children’s book. He had me laughing out loud at all silly and inventive ways he twists the English language for his own purposes. By the way, initially Dahl wrote exclusively for adults. Why was I in my mid-thirties when I finally discovered that? (Thanks, Derrick!) I recommend his adult short story collections.
My Name was Keoko is a fictionalized account of author Linda Sue Park’s mother’s experiences as a girl living in Japanese-occupied Korea during World War II. The novel gave me insight into how Koreans suffered at the hands of the Japanese military and why today’s older Koreans might behave the way they do. It was also interesting to be reading this book while living in the land of the enemy, so to speak.
Black Radishes is about a Jewish boy who works with the French resistance to help his family stuck in Nazi-occupied Paris. Like My Name was Keoko, this novel is based on the experiences of the author’s parent. Susan Lynn Meyer did an excellent job of conveying the daily fears and struggles of Jews living during that time and place.
I initially enjoyed Costa Rican author Lily Kruse’s collection of short stories, Sala de Espera, because it had been awhile since I had read any books in Spanish. However, halfway through the book, some of the pieces began to feel formulaic. Also, I was disappointed that none of the stories were set in Limón, the province where the author was born and raised.
You may have noticed that (quite coincidentally, or perhaps not) I ended up on a World War II reading jag. I was finishing a book per week until I got to Righteous Gentile by John Bierman. That one took three weeks—not because it was long, but because it was such dense and heavy material that I had to read it in doses. Also, I often stopped to research* some of the people mentioned in the book. (I’ll share my thoughts on this book in a separate post.)
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*I learned that Nazis were, aside from murderous and in humane, a bunch of scandalous degenerates. Many of the higher up officials were incorrigible philanderers, which caused their wives much grief. While everyone knows about Eva Braun, who married Adolf Hitler hours before they committed suicide in the basement of the Nazi party chancellery, not many know that the love of his life prior to her was his niece, Geli Raubal, who committed suicide due to his controlling behavior and the possibility that she was pregnant with his child.
November 24, 2018
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