All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel

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.

"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.”

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.