Book review - Louis Sachar, Holes

Ari · Anmeldungsdatum: 30.01.2006 Beiträge: 6 Wohnort: Wilhelmshaven

Hello everybody Augenzwinkern

I've tried to write a book review about "Holes" but I'm quite unsure if I chose the correct tenses and vocabularies. I would be happy if you could read it and tell me what I can improve. I'm sorry that it is this long!

About holes

„Holes“, written by Louis Sachar, takes place in a camp in Green Lake. This camp is similar to the well-known boot camps where young Americans are sent instead of being imprisoned when having broken the law.

The author tries to give the reader an impression of the conditions by concentrating on Stanley Yelnats who was sentenced because he stole a pair of sneakers. Although he wasn’t violating the law before he had to choose between prison and a camp. As he decided to join the camp Stanley wasn’t aware of willing be forced to dig every day a big hole in a desert. This is the philosophy of the boot camps in general, if you break the prisoner’s will he will be rehabilitated. Of course, the statistic confirms this theory but Sachar teaches us to pay attention to the incidents in one of these camps.

The rules in the camp were pretty easy. You had to dig one hole per day, five feet deep and five feet wide. If you found anything but dirt you had to report it immediately and if it was valuable enough you wouldn’t have to dig during that day anymore.

One day Stanley found a lipstick tube. The leader of the boys in the camp noticed that and wanted to have the tube so he would have gotten the day off. Stanley gave it to him. After the leader reported he found a tube in his hole the boys had to dig more than usual in the area of the suspected location. This indicates that they are not just digging to turn a bad boy into a good boy. Soon, also Stanley realized that they were looking for something instead of digging to ´ build character ´. It, whatever it was, hadn’t been found yet.

Stanley got to know another boy in the camp, Hector Zeroni who is an orphan. Hector is called “Zero” because no one of the other boys knew his real name. Zero hadn’t learnt to read and write so he asked Stanley who wrote a letter to his mother to teach him. After Zero offered to dig part of Stanley’s hole so that he wouldn’t be too exhausted Stanley agreed. They met every day to learn and their relationship improved during the story. But the other boys didn’t like to see Zero digging Stanley’s hole. There was a fight in which one boy strangled Stanley. Stanley wasn’t able to defend himself so Zero came to the rescue and knocked the assaulter out. Then Zero ran away straight into the desert.

Knowing there was no town around Stanley followed Zero after four days to bring him back to camp. As he found him, Zero was weak and didn’t want to return. Apart from dirt and the camp there was a mountain looking like a big fist with a raised thumb. Stanley remembered that his ancestor had survived in the desert for three weeks because he ´ found refuge on God’s thumb ´, that’s what the man repeated continuous when he was found. This makes Stanley believe that the mountain is the big thumb. Else they got no where to stay the two of them climbed the mountain. After a little while Zero passed out that’s why Stanley had to carry him up. Reaching the top he discovered water and onions and Zero recovered. Then they were talking so many secrets come clear. It seems as if they became friends.

Since they broke out of camp they realized for the first time what had happened. What they were supposed to dig out at camp maybe still was buried near the place where the lipstick had really been. They decided to find this place to dig one last hole…

After all the events we get a clear impression - in this camp the boys are being used for the greed of the owner of the camp. Sachar wants us to open our eyes to these bad conditions. In addition, he shows that friendship is helpful to stand difficult situations and what is much more important – nothing on earth despite the people being involved can destroy the sympathy between two humans, even the tensions in the camp can’t.
The title “Holes” has different meanings. It describes what the boys had to do, digging holes. Furthermore, it criticises the American judgement. This kind of camp mustn’t exist; no one should suffer and be forced to be ´ a good boy ´. Sachar is talking about holes being in the legal system.

At last, I have to say that I enjoyed reading the book. It is different from usual novels, it is gripping and it is about a serious topic. All in all, it is full of suspense and secrets.

Good bye Wink