Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Painted Bird

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski

7 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.

Content Warnings

juliacatherine's review

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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.

Content Warnings