A very UNRELIABLE narrator.

“I’m very idealist, but I knew I couldn’t walk that far, so I took a cab” (p.147). Although it is hard not to like Oskar and feel his pain for his extraordinary loss, it becomes extremely difficult that a nine-year-old would talk like that. As we discussed in class, I think it is true that the author created a really “cute” book and a very likeable character despite the subject matter; however, for me it is not easy to buy the premise that a “precocious” child would have that kind of language. There are many instances of Oskar’s sophisticated talk, but somehow, I feel this term of “idealist” is a complicated one for kids including very smart and “precocious” kids.

I think this book is either extremely likeable or just plain unbelievable. In other words, you either like it or not. Personally this book is like my paradox. I live in a conflict because I can’t make up my mind. I don’t know if I like it or not. One one hand, I like the author’s creativity and on the other hand it has a very unreliable narrator.

 There are so many words, phrases and situations that would illustrate my point that Oskar is “cute” but a very unreliable narrator. To make sure I was reaching to the right conclusion, I asked some kids that look like “GEEKS”, what an idealist means. “I never heard that term in my school or from my friends,” they said. Then, I look for instances in the book where Oskar would act like a normal kid. There are plenty of situations where Oskar acts like a normal kid, “the next morning I told Mom that I couldn’t go to school, because I was too sick” (p38). This certainly is a case of a kid who lies when he/she does not want to school.

Hence, the only thing that is clear about this book is that it has the potential to go both ways: either people love it or hate it. In my case it is more complicated because I don’t know if I like it. But I can’t say that I hate it either -especially feeling the pain of a young protagonist like Oskar who became a victim of extremism and hate.