Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

11 reviews

wouterk's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This book is a mixed bag for me. I knew nothing going in and had not even read the blurb. It is a terrible book, not terribly bad or terribly written, but it is beyond dark. And I like reading dark books, but still, I had moments I needed to sit back and swallow a lump in my throat. Every trigger warning regarding (sexual) violence, animal cruelty, discrimination, prosecution and war applies. If it was a fantasy fiction I'd say the violence is gratuitous but the purpose is very much to show human's worst side as based on the authors and others' experiences. Apparently some of it is based on the notes of the authors father, as well as reports from war survivors. If you still feel you can handle that, I think it is a valuable experience to read the painted bird.

This book really paints the picture of humanities darkest moments. The pettiness, cruelty and hatred of regular people, full of prejudice and selfishness. And Kosinski makes us feel these things even more by contrasting these phenomena by picking a first person perspective of a child to experience and witness these horrible things. Humanity at its worst experienced and contrasted by a human at its most innocent and inexperienced.

We follow a child that has been left with farmers in the countryside to prevent prosecution from the Germans during WWII. People consistently perceive him to be a Gypsy or Jewish stray and so begins a journey of continuous flight, cruelties (to himself and others). There are moments of hope but as looking at it from the outside as a reader we already see it is futile. I will not say anything about the ending, although I found it very interesting as we see how all these experiences add up into personality, behaviour and world view of the boy.

What stood out to me is how religion and religious practices are very attractive to those who feel utterly powerless and unfortunate. It also shows it does not help at all for the actual faith, but it gives a focus outside of the suffering which in itself eases suffering. This goes for Christianity but really for all sorts and also completely made up understandings of how the world work. At some point the boy really explains the world in influencing your faith by winning favor through doing evil or setting others to evil. How else could those who do evil be so powerful? To me, it shows the  clouding and inebriating effect of beliefs on our understanding of the world or acknowledging our current situation. Similary, it shows how beliefs may be the only way to mentally survive utterly desperate circumstances. 

Now I can talk a lot about this book, but not without spoilers. So I'll finish by saying I will think a lot about this book, probably for years and at the same time do not feel like reading it again. If you have not though, I do recommend it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism

juliacatherine's review

dark emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Honestly a traumatic read. It started out interesting, but progressively become more and more bleak. There was no hope, no silver lining, just horror. I feel that it crossed the line from showing the true brutality of war to just being trauma porn. It was exploitative and often sickening. It was well written at least, but I failed to see what the point was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, and Fire/Fire injury

jacobimerman's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Antisemitism, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

icanread17's review against another edition

dark sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Gaslighting, and War

kimisaboss123's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

alaniii's review

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Abandonment, and War

It's very brutal and gruesome

gssll_lpz's review

dark tense slow-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

0.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying and War

ghast's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, War, and Injury/Injury detail

al3k's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

azariah_k's review

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

0.25

Anything you could consider to be the worst thing humans can do to each other is probably written in here. When I read this, know not much else beyond Jerzy being Jewish, and from Łódź, Poland, I assumed most of what's written here was from personal account. It's just written in that kind of style. It feels like someone recounting memories, and some of the shit that goes on in this book, the details of it, feel so genuine, what kind of sick person would just make this up? 
Well, Jerzy Kosiński, I guess. He was only 6 when the war broke out, and due to his family's position, he was able to stay tucked safely away for the entirety of WW2. His family lived in extraordinary conditions, considering the time, even employing "house help". A journalist and author of writers' biographies  named Joanna Siedlecka retraced his steps, where the villagers who took him in, and those around them, testified they did so willingly, knowing the consequences. 
The Poles didn't torment Jerzy or his family, the traumas in his novel are fictitious, to him at least. Joanna even called Jerzy's brother (Henryk, a boy the family took in during the war) who was very little at the time, and so kept from commenting on the accuracy of The Painted Bird to spare his brother's career (he also felt he owed too much to the Kosiński family).
Knowing that this kind of story came from this kind of person, someone who became a poster boy for surviving the Holocaust while living at home with his parents and maids, avoiding the whole war, while I'm glad he did, of course, leaves a bad taste in my mouth. 
I wish this had been branded as pure historical fiction, rather than an autobiography. It feels incredibly done in poor taste, especially given that Jerzy is Jewish (as am I). 
I feel it's an important book, because I don't doubt at all that things like this happened during the war, to too many children, but it feels deceptive. I can't look at this book again for a variety of reasons, but knowing it's almost a trauma porn fic really cements it as a "will never read again"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Antisemitism, and War