From the Bookshelf of Challenge Corner…

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

Start date: May 1, 2022

Finish date: May 31, 2022

Discussion: Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

Sep 12, 2018 Lee rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction

This is a moment when I would really really like a half star option as this one falls under the 2.5 stars for me.

All the Light We Cannot See takes us on a journey about how WWII has affected two individuals Werner and Marie-Laure. We witness how their lives were before, during and after the war.

I struggled with this novel I think for a few reasons. One, it continually flips perspectives. With the chapters as small as they are, it quickly began to annoy me. You could start getting involved in w ...more

9 likes · Like · see review

Feb 05, 2018 Jamie (TheRebelliousReader) rated it really liked it

Shelves: all-of-the-feels, adult, 4-stars, 2018, historical, stand-alone, from-my-shelf

“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.”

4 stars. Not gonna lie, I was so on the fence with this for the first half of the book. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to end up liking this but this definitely one of those books where you have to push through to get to the good stuff.

The first almost 200 pages of this book was S L O W. Slow, slow, slow, slow, ~~slow~~. I kept reading because the writing is amazing and scenic and it is very easy to just fall into the s ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

May 04, 2017 Maddie rated it really liked it

I'm so surprised by how quickly I read this book! I started it 3 days ago, but I didn't read one of those days, so technically only 2 days ago XD The short chapters really helped with the speed, but it was so interesting! To be honest, I don't know how the story made up 530 pages. It really didn't feel like it. Even though the time jumps were confusing at times, they also really helped develop the story. For once, I love how (view spoiler) ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Feb 16, 2017 Claire rated it liked it · review of another edition

Mixed feelings about the book. I liked the story, but found the book sometimes too long winded. It's written nicely and it is a nice read, but I have some difficulties to understand the hype about it.
The author thanks former authors at the end, among which Curzio Malaparte. I can only say the Malaparte's book is a monument compared to this ( in my opinion) ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Dec 01, 2017 Michelle rated it it was ok

Shelves: historical-fiction, world-war-2

I thought with all the rave reviews of this book and it also being historical fiction set during WW2, I too also thought I would love this book. That is not the case. Yes it's written well, I can't argue with that, but that's it. Pretty on the outside, but nothing underneath. Personally I thought the story could have been told in 200 fewer pages than it was. From what I understood I thought that Werner and Marie's story were going to come together sooner than they did and would have a much bigge ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 02, 2020 Priya rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-in-2020, author-name-alphabet-soup, alphabet-soup-2020, go-big-2020, popsugar-reading-challenge-2020, 52-books-in-52-weeks-2020

When you turn the last page of a book and wish it had not ended, when you close the book and remember all the beautiful lines it contained and want to read them again and again, you know you have found an extraordinary book!
Mindful of the fact that award winners are often too abstract for my liking and further convinced of this truth by the very technical descriptions in the book in the first few pages, I wondered if I should carry on. But I am so glad I did.
The prose is so so lyrical, so simple When you turn the last page of a book and wish it had not ended, when you close the book and remember all the beautiful lines it contained and want to read them again and again, you know you have found an extraordinary book!
Mindful of the fact that award winners are often too abstract for my liking and further convinced of this truth by the very technical descriptions in the book in the first few pages, I wondered if I should carry on. But I am so glad I did.
The prose is so so lyrical, so simple that I marveled how the author managed to convey such poignancy and evoke such strong feelings in such an easy manner.
The story is of Marie Laure,a French girl blinded at 6 years of age, who is forced out of her home and into the town of Saint Malo during the German occupation of Paris.
With her father gone without information, she is left in the care of her grand uncle Etienne,an eccentric, sometimes lost individual who has not stepped out of his six storey house in years, the same house that Marie now lives in with him.
This is also the story of a German youth, Werner Pfennig, who, as a child in Berlin, learnt the concepts of light, electricity and other scientific terms from a radio broadcast that came from far away across the sea. This knowledge makes him adept at electronics and saves him from a dreadful life working in the mines that killed his father. It also brings him to the notice of the Hitler youth and puts him in the centre of the war, first in a politically motivated educational institution where he continually witnesses brainwashing of his fellow students as well as abject violence and cruelty, and then as part of a war unit trying to intercept transmissions.
Moving back and forth between the beginning of the war and the waning months in 1944, Marie Laure and Werner are on a course that is leading them to each other, to a mingling of their stories in one crucial moment.
Whether it is Marie Laure pondering over the fact that the city outside is starting to resemble its scale model that her father made for her to learn to navigate it, because of people being sucked out of it by the war, or Werner reflecting over the untruth that humans perpetrate by thinking they are in control of their lives when war can take everything from them in a fraction of a second whichever side they may be on, this is a commentary on the futility of armed conflict.
It portrays the desire of the ordinary people on both sides of the conflict to just live their lives without fear. It also shows the steely courage of the very same people that just naturally enables them to do what they must.
Most of all, it brings out the goodness inherent in people and the purity of their actions driven only by this virtue.
A really compelling read and I am glad I started the year with this book that will stay with me for a long time. ...more

1 like · Like · see review