The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

This story is told completely from the point-of-view of a 9 year-old boy, who appears to be rather slow, even for his age. Although this method lends some authenticity to the narrative, it inhibits the forming of characterizations and depth of emotion. This 9 year-old boy simply doesn't understand enough about what is going on at "Out-With" and is too egocentric (as all children of his age) to provide much more than a bare-bones description of events. I also found myself not liking the narrator very much. The parable itself is very good but the narrator is simply too clueless to provide the reader much insight into the characters: they present as very one-dimensional. He also describes some scenes in such simplistic terms I am not really sure what happened. Readers need to know their Holocaust history because the narrator never actually explains anything (he doesn't know) so it would be impossibly confusing otherwise. I don't mean to say that it's not worth reading, but it doesn't stand alone as Holocaust fiction. It really needs to be taken in context with other Holocaust fiction and historical accounts.Show Less