The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosinski Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Painted Bird
Book Review: Hauntingly brilliant, but not for the weak of stomach!
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Painted Bird" offers a haunting, deeply disturbing look into the psychological impact of war, and how it can drive even the most civilized and the most innocent of people to do unspeakable things. The book opens in the fall of 1939. An unnamed, black-haired, dark-eyed 6-year-old boy is separated from his parents at the beginning of World War II. Wandering the countryside alone, the boy is mistaken for a Gypsy or a Jew by the fair-haired, blue-eyed rural villagers, and accordingly shunned. Even those who do shelter and feed him usually treat him with cruelty. But, even more disturbing, the boy's eyes are opened to the superstition-driven brutality with which these country folk treat their own neighbors, and even their own family members.
This is not an uplifting read. The cruelty the boy witnesses and experiences often defies the imagination. Kosinski makes no attempt to censor his gruesome descriptions, nor should he. To gloss over the atrocities of World War II would be an injustice to those who suffered through it. Though the book is not, as some would argue, autobiographical, events like those depicted here did indeed happen during the war. It is probably safe to assume that the story takes place in Poland, though Kosinski has deliberately left out place names in order to keep the narrative separate from his own life. As he says in the author's note at the beginning, he intended the book to stand alone.
The story actually spans the entire war, taking the boy from age six to age twelve. Over the course of the book, we witness his gradual loss of innocence. He tries repeatedly to make sense of a senseless world. For a while he throws himself fully into church, hoping that endless prayers will deliver him. When this fails, he decides that the only way to escape suffering is to make a pact with the devil. And when this, too, fails to relive his misery, he becomes entirely disillusioned with humanity. We see him begin, bit by bit, to embrace the very violence that has caused him so much pain. It is the only way to survive in the war-torn world around him.
"The Painted Bird" is tragically disillusioning, yet weaves a brilliant picture of the boy's psychological transformation. It will leave you feeling empty, but raises crucial issues to the reader's attention. Kosinski has deliberately used a very young, innocent child as the protagonist in order to emphasize the destructive, corrupting nature of war. At a time when war is a distant thing, taking place on other continents, it is easy to glorify it and to forget what a hell it is for those experiencing it first-hand. For this reason, books like "The Painted Bird" are especially necessary, forcing us to look at the physical and emotional havoc war can wreak on a person. Though I would highly recommend the book to anyone, it is not for the weak of stomach. Be prepared for a dark and disturbing journey.
Book Review: Holds a mirror up to life.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an unbelievably powerful book. And the reader should realize that things almost as bad, if not equally bad, happen right here in the USA.Book Review: Horrifying, excellent, important
Summary: 5 Stars
I had no idea what I was getting into when I started reading this book. I just knew my father was a fan of the author. And, I figured, I was a fan of Andrew Vachss, I'd seen and dealt with some pretty nasty stuff. I could take it.No, I couldn't.
"Man's inhumanity to man" doesn't even begin to cover it. Just nowhere close. It's not even because of war, it's because these miserable peasants don't know anything else, can't act like anything more than animals. More than anything else, this book is about just how evil ignorance and intolerance can be.
Even worse, the main character, an eight year old child, doesn't have the mental or physical equipment to deal with this enviroment or the complete hell he suffers through. He just doesn't understand. It'll gouge at your heart, the way he tries to deal with the cruelty visited on him for no good reason.
This is a powerful book, an important book, and one that shows just how awful life can get in an unjust, uneducated world.
Book Review: I don't believe in book burning, but ...
Summary: 1 Stars
... if I did, this book might top my list. I made it past the story of the man spooning out another man's eyes and stepping on them, but when I got to the woman having a bottle of poop shoved up her and being kicked until it broke and then kicked some more -- that's when I gave up. This is the most disgustingly graphic book I've ever seen, and it's not as if it had a plot to make up for it. The whole point of the book (to where I read) seemed to be to shock the reader with wretched depictions. No thanks...Book Review: I was surprised
Summary: 3 Stars
I have read much about the book before i've read it myself. Finally i got it and read in one day. And i was surprised - maybe the Polish version was different somehow from English one? First of all, in book i've read, the child is not Gypsy or Jewish. The peasants consider it Gypsy or Jewish, but we don't know anything about it, in fact, we can be quite sure (from the poems it knows) that it is child from Polish intelligentsia. I've read this is anti-Polish book. It is not.
Peasants are not Poles (Just see the names: Makar, Anton, Olga - these are not Polish names). They are peasants from, i think, somewhere from Polesie considering description of landscape. They are not Catholic, they are both Catholic and Orthodox.
It is too cruel, i was tired by the end of the book by endless horrors, but it does show how evil can be as virus, as young kid became as cruel as those who were bullying it before.
Anyway, i just couldn't stop reading it - even when shrugging sometimes with description of Germans or Russians (only positive characters in the book). Just can't understand other people reviews. I guess they read different book.