Caging Skies - Christine Leunens
Published by Vintage/Penguin Random House New Zealand: NZ, 2019 (2008).
This novel is primarily known as the book that inspired Taika Waititi's Oscar winning film Jojo Rabbit. It is also fairly well known that the book is quite different from the movie, particularly in tone. Waititi's films generally have a light-hearted quirky humour to them, even when dealing with weighty themes, and the adaptation Jojo Rabbit also makes the choice of including "imaginary Hitler" as a major character, something that does not happen in the book. The closest we get to anything like that is when the main character, Johannes Betzler, is wrestling with his 'non-Nazi' thoughts, and narrates: "If it's true I'd tried to get the young woman off my mind, by that time I was also trying to get Adolf Hitler off it. His constant reproach about my shortcomings irked me: my incapability, indecorum, infidelity, all starting with in and ejecting me out of his good opinion. Whenever I came across a picture of him in a magazine, father figure that he was, my insides contracted and I quickly turned the page." (pages 77-78)
Instead of this, the book has a much heavier feel, at times quite disturbing in its emotional and psychological themes. The 'best friend' figure - in the movie a main source of comic relief - is killed off in chapter four, and Johannes becomes far less sympathetic as he grows beyond the age that Jojo remains in the film.
The general beats of the book (and movie) are that Johannes is a boy growing up in Nazi-occupied Austria who becomes indoctrinated by the Hitler Youth programmes. He becomes more antagonistic to his parents (book Johannes still has his father around, as well as an elderly grandmother to care for), is injured and thus unable to continue training as a soldier (book Johannes has far worse wounds than film Jojo) and then discovers that a Jewish girl - Elsa - has been hidden by his parents. He must wrestle with his Nazi ideology, along with his burgeoning feelings towards this 'intruder' in his life.
So far so similar.
The biggest change that the film makes is in reducing a major plot plot of the book down to a very short section: Johannes lying to Elsa about who won the war. Film Jojo lies to Elsa in order to keep her around, but very soon admits his lie and Elsa is able to forgive him. Book Johannes continues to lie to Elsa for four years after the war has ended, going to increasingly desperate lengths to conceal the truth and provide for someone that only he is allowed to know he is providing for. The relationship between Johannes and Elsa thus goes to a far darker place than in the film, with both individuals abusing the other in numerous ways. Throughout it all Johannes keeps the delusion going that he is somehow not the villain of the piece, and justifies his actions to himself and the reader. Elsa is portrayed as moody and fickle, at times the greater villain to Johannes' thinking. Even when the truth finally comes out Johannes refuses to see himself as having done anything unforgivable, choosing to wait around in case Elsa chooses to return to him. It is a tragic and disturbing portrayal of self-delusion, and gives the book a much heavier conclusion than the film.
With such changes the book and the film should be seen as separate works with similar beats, rather than straight adaptations of one another. Fans of the film won't necessarily enjoy the book; although it is well written, I'm not sure that I would read it again either. Yes, it contains what seems a fairly realistic portrayal of an abusive relationship and the dangers of self-delusion, but perhaps you could discuss the same themes using a slightly more light-hearted, quirky, Waititi-esque medium and not feel so weighed down at the end of it. Depends what you want to feed yourself with.
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