Oh John Boyne, what have you done? Was very engaged by this wonderful book by John Boyne and found myself being drawn to its emotional conclusion and I found myself hoping it was not going to end in a certain way. I have absolutely no doubt if I had been a soldier in the trenches in WW1 I would have been a white feather man. I would not have been able to help myself, with WW1 pretty much being my idea of Hell on Earth.
Yet it was not just the horrors of war which rippled through John Boyne's book which caused me to engage so readily with it. I found myself ache with the knowledge that so many prejudices and cruelties which permeated society in those days would persist until my own lifetime. I felt the same pains the lead character did, even made the same "mistakes", leaning into a relationship that mostly only existed in my head. I remember the pain of that as a teen, when I discovered feelings I had were not only not reciprocated, they were utterly rejected, in a way that made me feel like I would be a pariah all my life. If who I was came as a shock to the other person it was no less painfull to me to imagine a future where this would be a common event, rejection and scorn, ugh.As I read the novel I found myself whispering "find a way, just find a way."
I wont say if this played out the way I hoped but it played out indeed, in a most human way.
And right there is the life trap so few of us can escape.
