Sam Firke reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Outstanding
5 stars
Beautiful prose, gripping plot, evocative worldbuilding and characters.
paperback
Published Sept. 4, 2014 by Scribner.
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
4 stars
(159 reviews)
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan …
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work
Tania reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
A masterpiece
5 stars
This was so well written. I love Doerr's beautiful descriptive style and the way he interweaves the stories of the characters intricately together.
Minus half a star because it didn't make me shed as many tears as such a powerful story should have. I can't really tell why. Maybe it was just my mood and I may need to reread it sometime and update my rating o 5 stars. Its definitely worth a read and a reread in any case.
Joel A reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Simply extraordinary
5 stars
I was a bit skeptical of the buzz when this came out. It sounded weird. But, turns out it was just as good as the reviews - humane, interesting and thought-provoking.
airdog reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
An honor and great pleasure to have read this book
Strangely enough most reviews I've read said that this book was about WWII. True the events in the book do occur during that war but to me WWII was more like a prop than the subject of the work. Basically we see the the drama through the eyes of two children, a French blind girl (in her case of course it's more "we feel") and a German boy. But in fact it's much more about their respective internal worlds than about the war as such and if only to read how a young 15 years old blind girl first discovers the ocean, it's gigantic might and incredible mildness for the first time by sounds, smells and feelings on her skin is worth the effort (or in my case pleasure).
stupidlamb reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the light we cannot see' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
As most stories are about this horrible time in history its a great but sad fiction about what happened to the ppl on both sides and everything in between. I loved it, however the time jumping back and forth was confusing to me and i lost track on when i was in the story even tho i knew it was a chapter meant to be from future in. It could have been set up better on these parts. But its a great book, one of the better of its kind!
WardenRed reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
None
4 stars
Every outcome has its cause, and every predicament has its solution. Every lock its key.
The first thing I absolutely loved about this book was the prose. The words are beautiful, the imagery is vivid, and the atmosphere created by the writing is tangible. The next is the characterization; both Marie-Laure and Werner felt like real people to me, and the same goes for many other characters, such as Etienne or Jutta.
Where the book suffered a little for me was the story, or rather, the way it was constructed/presented. The combination of different timelines, different POVs, and very short chapters created a feeling that this wasn't a unified story, but rather simply a series of snapshots from different sides of the war, each of them wonderfully written, each of them painting a haunting picture of the way something so enormous and cruel and unfair affects a person. If the …
Every outcome has its cause, and every predicament has its solution. Every lock its key.
The first thing I absolutely loved about this book was the prose. The words are beautiful, the imagery is vivid, and the atmosphere created by the writing is tangible. The next is the characterization; both Marie-Laure and Werner felt like real people to me, and the same goes for many other characters, such as Etienne or Jutta.
Where the book suffered a little for me was the story, or rather, the way it was constructed/presented. The combination of different timelines, different POVs, and very short chapters created a feeling that this wasn't a unified story, but rather simply a series of snapshots from different sides of the war, each of them wonderfully written, each of them painting a haunting picture of the way something so enormous and cruel and unfair affects a person. If the entire book was written that way, I would actually enjoy it for what it would be then. But there is a point where the author tries to pull all the storylines together and focus on the plot, and for me, the way that part turned out to be was, to be honest, unsatisfying. The depth of the character-focused scenes gave way to some very shallow plotting, with events that felt rushed and questions remaining unanswered.
That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy the book, inasmuch as I can honestly apply the word 'enjoy' to a war story. I loved big parts of it. It gave me a lot of feelings and a nightmare, and I've written down so many quotes to re-read later. But I just feel that if all those storylines continued to exist alongside each other without intersecting in any sort of "plotty" ways, the way they have been for most of the novel, the impact would be even stronger.
luddite reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the light we cannot see' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Such exquisite writing.
I'll just post a link to another review which captures everything I want to say about this book: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1889305284
Matthew Royal reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the light we cannot see' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This book is... fiction, so while it may convey some emotion some people felt surviving World War II, it's difficult to know, because Doerr removed the anchor to reality in order to accommodate a too-precious dollop of narrative parallelism.
It's difficult to know, because many people who went through those times wouldn't talk about them. Toward the end, did starvation and stress wear people down into mad vegetables? Did people who compromised their ethics and ideals, in order to survive, truly question their decisions and feel guilt over what they did, like everyone in this book seems to, or did they rationalize it away like a normal person? It's unsatisfying, because it's difficult to know.
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This is a very, very sad book. It was hard to read but excellently written. I sort of recommend it but not if you're looking for something happy to read.
Why do award-winning books have to always be so depressing?
Bodo reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I would have given it 4 stars if the author had stopped 50 pages before the actual ending of the book. He had a perfect ending and ruined it 😢.
Kathleen reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the light we cannot see' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Wowzers. Really beautiful writing. I’ll definitely be rereading this one.
Pentapod reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This is a beautifully written book. If you enjoy reading for the sheer pleasure of beautiful prose, you'll love this book. Doerr's descriptions are beautiful and poetic and thoughtful, especially as he describes the world from blind Marie-Laure's point of view.
Aside from the beautiful writing though, the actual story didn't fully grip me. I liked it, I just didn't love it. In addition, the constant shifting of time frame was just annoying. The book primarily follows two main characters, both children: Werner, a German boy who lives in an orphanage with his sister and is fascinated with electronics and engineering, and Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who lives with her locksmith father in Paris and later in the small town of Saint-Malo when they flee from the bombing to stay with her great-uncle. You could consider a third "character" to be the rare diamond called the Sea of Fire, …
This is a beautifully written book. If you enjoy reading for the sheer pleasure of beautiful prose, you'll love this book. Doerr's descriptions are beautiful and poetic and thoughtful, especially as he describes the world from blind Marie-Laure's point of view.
Aside from the beautiful writing though, the actual story didn't fully grip me. I liked it, I just didn't love it. In addition, the constant shifting of time frame was just annoying. The book primarily follows two main characters, both children: Werner, a German boy who lives in an orphanage with his sister and is fascinated with electronics and engineering, and Marie-Laure, a blind French girl who lives with her locksmith father in Paris and later in the small town of Saint-Malo when they flee from the bombing to stay with her great-uncle. You could consider a third "character" to be the rare diamond called the Sea of Fire, which has been hidden in the museum where Marie-Laure's father works and which the Germans are trying to track down. There's a legend the stone is cursed so that only evil will befall the loved ones person who has it. Marie-Laure and her family are involved in trying to hide the stone and are brought into danger because of it.
Werner enters the Hitler Youth and soon is called into active service despite being too young, due to his talent with electronics. He's told to find a way to triangulate on radio signals being sent by the resistance so the radios (and their operators) can be destroyed. Although he himself doesn't do the killing, he travels around with a small team causing the deaths of hundreds of radio operators. Eventually his path crosses with Marie-Laure's because her great-uncle is helping the resistance send radio messages to allied forces. He ends up "saving her life three times," as she counts it. She gives him a small model house her father made that eventually allows Werner's sister to track down Marie-Laure long after the war ends so we get a partial closure on the story.
Anyway. Things I didn't like: the author makes EXCESSIVE use of jumping back and forth in time. One minute you're reading about Marie-Laure at the end of the war, the next before the war. One minute Werner is in Saint-Malo being bombed by allied forces, the next minute he's a child listening to a radio broadcast by Marie-Laure's grandfather that teaches him the basics of science. And on to several steps in between also. I don't mind some flash-forwards or flash-backs when it makes sense but I really can't see any reason so many were needed here and in such a confusing arrangement. Second thing I didn't like: there just seemed a lot left unresolved at the end, and a lot that could have been done with the story but wasn't. When Werner's sister and Marie-Laure do meet, they exchange almost no information and separate without either of them really learning much the other person knows. Marie-Laure's father's ultimate fate seems oddly unresolved and pointless. Werner's ultimate fate also seems oddly abrupt and pointless. And the diamond's ending is also vague. Perhaps the point here is that war and death are pointless, and that's a valid point to make in a book, but it doesn't seem to be made with conviction either, just kind of feels as if both their stories trail off vaguely without driving any point home. And the beautiful diamond that's supposedly cursed but which nobody can bear to let go once they see it -- surely the blind Marie-Laure is the obvious choice here to dispose of the cursed gem into the sea, since she can't see it to be dazzled by it. And she kind of tries, but it seems almost an afterthought, and then the details are never explained. Felt like something more could be made out of that part of the story.
In the end I found it somewhat interesting and beautiful prose, but I didn't really feel attached to any of the characters and the number of unanswered questions at the end didn't make for a satisfying ending. I can't remember having read a story about WWII and not shedding a single tear but this one was a first, there's just no emotion in there. The writing felt beautiful but impersonal.
Siddhartha Golu reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
"Open your eyes and see what you can with them, before they close forever"
What a journey! What an incredible, heartbreaking, beautiful and bittersweet journey! Poetry disguised as prose - the phrase that comes to mind while reading this book. Strangely, I felt the same while reading The Book Thief, another beautiful story set in those grim years of World War II. What is it about wars that is so fascinating to authors - maybe the atrocities that are committed, the inevitable doom that casts its shadow over both the perpetrators and the victims, or maybe how despite living in the worst of times imaginable to them, people manage to survive but however brave they are, war leaves a black hole in their hearts that can never be filled.
All the characters are incredibly well-written, especially Marie-Laure LeBlanc, who I think is probably the most beautiful character ever written. The …
"Open your eyes and see what you can with them, before they close forever"
What a journey! What an incredible, heartbreaking, beautiful and bittersweet journey! Poetry disguised as prose - the phrase that comes to mind while reading this book. Strangely, I felt the same while reading The Book Thief, another beautiful story set in those grim years of World War II. What is it about wars that is so fascinating to authors - maybe the atrocities that are committed, the inevitable doom that casts its shadow over both the perpetrators and the victims, or maybe how despite living in the worst of times imaginable to them, people manage to survive but however brave they are, war leaves a black hole in their hearts that can never be filled.
All the characters are incredibly well-written, especially Marie-Laure LeBlanc, who I think is probably the most beautiful character ever written. The disruptive non-linear narration only adds to the beauty where chapters flow into one another forming a giant interwoven web of stories that manage to shake you from the core.
I'll leave you all with a quote from the book -
“You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history. We act in our own self-interest. Of course we do. Name me a person or a nation who does not. The trick is figuring out where your interests are.”
lokroma reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
Way overrated. Writing is average, and, in my view, the author does not hit hard enough with his subject. Too elegiac. Still, it's good to put the occupation of France in the public eye, and since it made the bestseller lists at least people will consider it.
Cheri reviewed All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Review of 'All the Light We Cannot See' on 'Storygraph'
5 stars
I didn't know what to expect when I started All the Light We Cannot See. Right away, I was concerned that there were going to be too many characters and I wouldn't be able to fully connect with any of them enough to keep me engaged in what is a pretty long book. What happened, instead, is that, to varying degrees, I cared about them all.
Once the characters were introduced, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how they were all connected. It didn't take long, however, for me to stop thinking so much about that and become completely engrossed in their individual situations. When I did start to unravel the connections, I wasn't disappointed. Twice I could feel my eyes widen with the realization and I wished I had someone close by that I could share it with.
This is a beautifully written, thought-provoking book. …
I didn't know what to expect when I started All the Light We Cannot See. Right away, I was concerned that there were going to be too many characters and I wouldn't be able to fully connect with any of them enough to keep me engaged in what is a pretty long book. What happened, instead, is that, to varying degrees, I cared about them all.
Once the characters were introduced, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how they were all connected. It didn't take long, however, for me to stop thinking so much about that and become completely engrossed in their individual situations. When I did start to unravel the connections, I wasn't disappointed. Twice I could feel my eyes widen with the realization and I wished I had someone close by that I could share it with.
This is a beautifully written, thought-provoking book. There were many passages that forced me to stop and re-read them because the prose was just that gorgeous. Some of the metaphors demanded that extra attention. The author's descriptions allowed me to be fully present with the characters. I haven’t been this moved by a writer’s style in a long time.
My only regret is that I didn't have more time to read it in much larger chunks. Having to listen to only a few chapters at a time for most of the book made it harder to stay connected to the characters. But even with that obstacle, I still fell in love with Werner and Marie-Laure. Hell, I even felt that I understood the "bad guy", Von Rumpel.
Part of me wishes the book would have ended well before it actually did, but another part is glad to have had some closure - not a lot of closure, but some.
I know I'm late to the party here but if anyone out there is still on the fence about diving in, don't wait any longer. I can definitely see myself reading this one again. There aren't many mainstream novels that I reread but I'm certain I missed details on my first time through.
I received a copy of the book from the publisher via NetGalley. Once I realized I'd wouldn't have time to read it with my eyes, I picked up the audio version and am happy I did. To hear the French and German pronounced helped to keep me immersed in the story. Besides the fact that the narrator did a great job.
