From the Bookshelf of Diversity in All Forms!…

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Start date: November 1, 2016

Finish date: November 30, 2016

Discussion: Monthly Group Reads

Why we're reading this: Novembers topic/theme is disabilities/abilities.
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What Members Thought

Mar 25, 2016 Judy Lindow rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult-fiction

One obvious thing I didn't mention, in hindsight, is that the title of the book is pretty much the "key message" of the work. The analogy that our love, fear, suffering, joy and other feelings are like radio waves - are all invisible; that both, bring us together, help us communicate and with them we do powerful things. Good and bad are done with powerful technology and with our amazing brains and human energy. Through the book it begs to ask, what we could be, if we only see "all the light" and One obvious thing I didn't mention, in hindsight, is that the title of the book is pretty much the "key message" of the work. The analogy that our love, fear, suffering, joy and other feelings are like radio waves - are all invisible; that both, bring us together, help us communicate and with them we do powerful things. Good and bad are done with powerful technology and with our amazing brains and human energy. Through the book it begs to ask, what we could be, if we only see "all the light" and conversely, what we might have done if we had.

Doer was very good at painting pictures and accidentally on purpose the main characters are good at visualization and likely empaths. There are several narratives going on; all in the context of the chaos of war … there is a lot of suffering … the story really shows us how everyone is a victim in war: the killed, the killer, the boys, the Jews, the Germans, the French, the girls. It also presents vivid scenarios of the violence, cruelties, and how fast and easily they can escalate. The contrasting points of view in the historical context of world war 2 and the radio technology being used at that time are interesting and metaphoric. It's also nice to read a book with some SAT vocabulary (haha).

(spoiler)
Let me say this about keys. My father just died at 89 … there was a lot of chaos and discovery towards the end of life. He left me 89 keys - discovered in the days between his fall and his dying. Having a key is in someways more exhilarating than having the contents. Yes, the contents had meaning and a story to him, but prior to finding what a key opened it's possibilities were endless ("what you might have been").

I was relieved to see that others had the same question (where is the diamond?) at the end. I went back to read the pages where she leaves the house (in the ocean), the key (with W), and then M finds the key. I think the diamond is in the grotto. The more significant question is why W chose to keep the house rather than the diamond. And this is where the author in some ways leaves it to the reader, as he suggests when characters question why the ending to the novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is unclear. ...more

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