gymshoez's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
katiep9050's review
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
2beenough's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
iravkl's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
💀💀💀
mr_wford's review
4.0
A great, crazy, spell-binding and cruel novel! Kosinski's tale of a young boy lost in the lands of rural eastern Europe during the second world war is a crazy tale of a land beset by vile, cruel and small-minded people on all sides. This boy wanders on his own whims but is moved along by whatever events happen to him. And boy, what a series of events these are: war, rape, murder, bestiality, arson and beatings, endless beatings... He travels from one village to the next always shunned for his swarthy gypsy appearance and always given someone to flee. In each village, one man takes him in and mistreats him and the village boys beat him, all while the rest of the village shuns him and threatens to hand him over to the the Nazi's. He always ends up making an escape, only to wind up in another similarly horrible and brutal situation. The terrors that he experiences are lyrical in their strange details and the clear descriptions, but alas are all quite bad.
In some ways, the books seems like an allegory of the development of human philosophy and sociology. In the early pages, the book is filled with superstition, a relentless wall of "old fashion wisdom" which the boy becomes obsessed with, believing every ridiculous tale, cure and curse that he is told of. The lands around here are filled with old "wise" people and the villages are brutal places ruled by drunken anger. The book begins right off expressing an almost overwhelming atheism towards superstition and folklore, through the descriptions of these villagers and their actions and beliefs. He then encounters a village with a regular church and a priest and a vicar. While he dwells with his cruel master here, he eventually becomes an altar boy and takes on the beliefs of orthodox christianity. In Kosinski's hands, christianity is again shown to be a juvenile and ignorant farce just like the superstitions of the earlier villages, and we watch the boys beliefs move just as the world's did from "primitive" religions to modern religions. Then after most of the book has gone by, the arrival of the Red Army leads to the airing of the first actual atheistic sentiments, but long before this part the direction of the book in expressing the farce of religion is well exposed.
It is both interesting as a little roadmap through the human mental development from superstition through religion to acceptance of reality, and also a a very brutal and cruel novel of the dark side of human behavior and what it took for this young lad to survive years of abuse, beatings, ignorance and lies. I can't help but wonder as to some aspects of it reception when it was published. First off, the Communist Russia's are the best portrayed people in the book, and secondly, the local populations are shown as having no ignorance whatsoever about what was happening to those people who were going by in the trains towards the concentration camps.
In some ways, the books seems like an allegory of the development of human philosophy and sociology. In the early pages, the book is filled with superstition, a relentless wall of "old fashion wisdom" which the boy becomes obsessed with, believing every ridiculous tale, cure and curse that he is told of. The lands around here are filled with old "wise" people and the villages are brutal places ruled by drunken anger. The book begins right off expressing an almost overwhelming atheism towards superstition and folklore, through the descriptions of these villagers and their actions and beliefs. He then encounters a village with a regular church and a priest and a vicar. While he dwells with his cruel master here, he eventually becomes an altar boy and takes on the beliefs of orthodox christianity. In Kosinski's hands, christianity is again shown to be a juvenile and ignorant farce just like the superstitions of the earlier villages, and we watch the boys beliefs move just as the world's did from "primitive" religions to modern religions. Then after most of the book has gone by, the arrival of the Red Army leads to the airing of the first actual atheistic sentiments, but long before this part the direction of the book in expressing the farce of religion is well exposed.
It is both interesting as a little roadmap through the human mental development from superstition through religion to acceptance of reality, and also a a very brutal and cruel novel of the dark side of human behavior and what it took for this young lad to survive years of abuse, beatings, ignorance and lies. I can't help but wonder as to some aspects of it reception when it was published. First off, the Communist Russia's are the best portrayed people in the book, and secondly, the local populations are shown as having no ignorance whatsoever about what was happening to those people who were going by in the trains towards the concentration camps.
ben_sch's review
1.0
Misery lit. Ugh. Pretty much every chapter someone gets murdered, tortured, raped, or has their house burn down, probably more than one of these. The first couple chapters it was shocking. After chapter 6 or so I started question why this was considered great literature which was supposedly teaching me about the human condition. I can't understand how people believed it was real. I mean, the rats diving in and out of the dead dude like dolphins before dissolving him into a pile of mush? Seriously? My favorite is the old lady who has her house bombed and then she slowly crawls out of the rubble to stand up, clutch her breast and gasp before toppling backwards out of site. Hilarious. I was able to read it for comedy for a few more chapters before I wasn't interested anymore. Checked the last chapter and yep, more murder and rape. Fuck this book.
elyse_m's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5