All the Light We Cannot See in What's the Name of That Book???

Sep 20, 2018 El rated it really liked it

Shelves: big-effing-books, 21st-centurylit, library-borrow

Last summer, the woman I worked for took a copy of this book with her to the cabin in Canada she and her partner go to each summer. When she came back she told me I should read it, and because I rarely turn down those sorts of recommendations from people I look up to, I finally got around to reading it now. After she no longer works at the university so we can't even talk about it.

While I was reading it, another faculty member came to my office to ask me a question, saw the book sitting on the c Last summer, the woman I worked for took a copy of this book with her to the cabin in Canada she and her partner go to each summer. When she came back she told me I should read it, and because I rarely turn down those sorts of recommendations from people I look up to, I finally got around to reading it now. After she no longer works at the university so we can't even talk about it.

While I was reading it, another faculty member came to my office to ask me a question, saw the book sitting on the corner of my desk, stopped the work-related discussion, and asked me if I was loving this book as much as she loved it when she read it.

Another time, while sitting in the waiting room in my doctor's office, a woman walked past, saw the book on my lap, and asked if I was loving this book as much as she loved it. (I had just fallen on my way into the building and was literally sitting there with my hand up in the air because I scraped the skin off my thumb knuckle and was bleeding rather profusely, but yeah, that's a good time to talk about books!)

All of this to say that I did worry briefly that this might be one of those books that only women like. Hey, it happens, even if I don't like to make gendered remarks of that nature. It happens. I worried it was some love story that would make my stomach hurt. But it isn't and it didn't, so rest your pretty little heads about that.

A bit ago I wrote a review for A.S. Byatt's Possession wherein I went on a bit about how much I wanted to like the big book, and yet how it all dragged for me, in part because I didn't feel there was much driving it forward. (Actually, I didn't say that last part in my review, because I just thought of it now, but better late than never.) This book is similar in that there are different storylines and there's actually not a lot moving it forward it either, but it actually works.

In part, maybe, because the chapters are ridiculously short. Like 1-2 pages. The chapters alternated between Werner, an orphan in Germany, and Marie-Laure, a Parisian girl who loses her eyesight by age six. Their stories run parallel, back and forth, showing us their trials and tribulations. I've heard complaints that they weren't rich enough characters, but for me they were more than alive. I truly enjoyed reading both of their stories.

The only complaint was this whole other bit about a jewel that felt rather out of place and unimportant in the grand scheme of things. And it was impossible for me not to picture Indiana Jones through those scenes, but that may have been because I was watching those movies on TV every time they came on (which was quite frequently while I was reading this book). Again, I love Indiana Jones/National Treasure/The Librarian kinds of stories. But it didn't work very well against this setting of two characters coming of age during the Second World War.

Yes, there was some eye-rolling at some of the turns of phrases. It was a bit purple-prosey for my tastes. But, again, somehow it managed to work for me.

A corner of the night sky, beyond a wall of trees, blooms red. In the lurid, flickering light, he sees that the airplane was not alone, that the sky teems with them, a dozen swooping back and forth, racing in all directions, and in a moment of disorientation, he feels that he's looking not up but down, as though a spotlight has been shined into a wedge of bloodshot water, and the sky has become the sea, and the airplanes are hungry fish, harrying their prey in the dark.
(p91)

Yeah, okay, "a wedge of bloodshot water" doesn't work very well for me either. ...more

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Oct 31, 2014 Philip rated it it was amazing

Shelves: pulitzer, favorites, classics

Some of us approach the world - science and nature; our experiences - analytically. Mathematically. Left-brained, and all. Others, we are told are creative, artistic. Poetic. Right-brained, if there is such a thing.

We can understand All the Light We Cannot See two ways: scientifically, in a chart:

light spectrum chart

Gamma rays, and infrared. X-rays and radio. How little we see. It's almost as if we are blind. Or rather, we are blind to so much.

Or we understand it poetically; metaphorically. Like this book.

We under ...more

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May 18, 2015 Ryan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, 2015, kindle-kobo-ipad, pulitzer, favourites-of-the-10-s

When you keep seeing a cover in people's hands and on social media, you make a mental note. When your brother tells you how much he loved reading it, you get your hands on a copy.

I really fell for this book, mostly for the way it paints what conflict does to the innocent of a war-torn region. As I read about Marie-Laure and Werner, I thought about my nieces and nephews...or the children of my friends. I thought about how much life they have in them and how innocent they are to the ways of the wo ...more

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Nov 04, 2014 Melissa Rochelle rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction, ebook, library, war, read-2015

While some may not like stories that jump back and forth between time/place/people, I do. And this isn't really that complicated, we meet Werner and Marie-Laure as the Allied forces begin bombing Saint-Malo. Both are in precarious positions, Werner in a basement of a hotel and Marie-Laure, who is blind, alone in her six-floor home. Then we jump back in time to pre-war days when both were young, Werner in an orphanage with his sister and Marie-Laure in Paris with her father. The story goes back a ...more

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Jul 01, 2017 Marigold rated it it was amazing

Shelves: literary-fiction, five-stars, france, war-world-war-ii, historical-fiction, pulitzer-prize, obama-recommended-book, gr-awards, fiction-2010-2020

Astoundingly good. Honestly, I sort of put off reading this - even though what I heard about it sounded intriguing - because I thought, really, another novel about the Second World War? And one that I kept hearing was going to make me feel GOOD, instead of unbelievably depressed? I put it on my TBR list & left it there, though I knew some of my friends read & loved it. Lucky for me, my husband bought me a dozen books from my TBR list for my birthday!

This may be my favorite book. Ever. It's amaz Astoundingly good. Honestly, I sort of put off reading this - even though what I heard about it sounded intriguing - because I thought, really, another novel about the Second World War? And one that I kept hearing was going to make me feel GOOD, instead of unbelievably depressed? I put it on my TBR list & left it there, though I knew some of my friends read & loved it. Lucky for me, my husband bought me a dozen books from my TBR list for my birthday!

This may be my favorite book. Ever. It's amazing.

Important characters:
A bad-ass blind teenage girl (Marie-Laure) who can negotiate her way in the streets by counting storm drains; who can carry messages to the resistance, knows how to save drinking water in a bathtub, and can open cans of food with a knife.
Her father, who works at the Natural History Museum in Paris, and teaches her how to negotiate the world by making her count right/left turns and the previously mentioned storm drains; by building her accurate wooden models of Paris and later St. Malo so she can "feel" where the streets and buildings are and know what the buildings "look" like. He opens the world to her by reading and giving her Braille versions of Jules Verne novels, and building small hand-held "puzzles" that she has to learn to solve.
Her uncle, traumatized by what was then called "shell shock" in World War I - but who opens to the world again when he has to take in Marie-Laure & her father after the Nazi occupation of Paris.
The uncle's indomitable housekeeper, who keeps the household running, teaches Marie-Laure how to cook, and runs an old ladies' French Resistance Club on the side.
Werner, a young German boy/young man who grows up with his sister in an orphanage; who becomes fascinated by radio, & learns how to build and repair radios better than almost anyone in Germany. He is recruited into a "Hitler Youth" school and then the Army, where he's assigned to a unit hunting down resisters by spying on their radio communications and tracking their locations.
Von Rumpel, a middle-aged German Sergeant Major dying of cancer, and on the hunt for a famous diamond that is supposed to confer immortality on anyone who owns it. One of the characters above may or may not have the diamond, & Von Rumpel is determined to get it.

How all these characters converge in St. Malo, a French city by the sea and under siege, makes up the story of this novel. Not only is there the drama of brave, noble, intelligent characters trying to survive war, but there's a thrilling hunt for the hidden diamond, & a "last minute" love story of grace and lives being saved.

What is "all the light we cannot see?" It's the light Marie-Laure can't see because she's blind - but she knows it's there (science)! It's the invisible light involved in radio transmissions. And it's the light and heroism and love to be found in people under extraordinary circumstances. In the midst of a horrific bombing campaign, where you might think darkness had won the day, light was still there.

A compelling story, heroic characters, and beautiful writing are all hallmarks of this incredible novel. I have to note that Doerr is also a genius with description of the physical world. I could smell and taste things often, throughout the book! And I could see St. Malo as clearly as I see my own neighborhood. I knew nothing of the true story of St. Malo, so I looked it up after finishing this book. It looks exactly the way I pictured it! And I now feel pretty strongly that I have to go see it.

I agree that (though I was hooked from the start) the book gets off to a slow start. The narrative shifts back and forth in time, which is a little confusing at first, but you soon figure it out. And the stories of Marie-Laure, her family, and Werner and how he comes to be looking for "Resistance Radio" in St. Malo, have to be built so that the final elements of the story make sense. Rather like one of the puzzle boxes that Marie-Laure's father builds, with a "reward" inside - in her case, candy or a trinket - the novel builds on a pile of details that are all relevant to the conclusion.

...more

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Jan 17, 2015 Kathleen rated it it was amazing

The plot of the book is only scratching the surface of this novel. The inner thoughts of the characters are rich in: history, metaphor, angst, science, greed, friendship and of course, love. I found the narrative spark my own thoughts about the situations the characters were in and wonder what I would do in each case.
The characters come alive in all their complexity.
Sorry, I just cannot find the words to describe my enjoyment of this novel. You won't be sorry to have spent the time reading this ...more

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Jan 20, 2016 Selma rated it it was ok

What is it about this awkwardly plot-dominated, cliché-ridden novel that captivates so many?

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Mar 19, 2016 Sarah Funke Donovan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-world-fiction, novel-novel, 2016-books

Beautifully written, with characters you wish you could call friends. Warning: sad ending.

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Dec 03, 2014 martha marked it as gave-up

Recalled by the library. Might return to it someday but it read like YA in a way I wasn't feeling: straightforward moment in time anecdotes with a neat and tidy arc to them that made me feel like I was just skimming along the surface of a story, not really inhabiting the characters' lives. Though to be fair, I only got, maybe 20% in? ...more

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