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

Sep 20, 2018 El rated it really liked it

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

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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Nov 10, 2014 Nadine in NY Jones rated it it was ok

Shelves: everyone-loved-it-except-me, lotsa-buzz, beach-cover, era-world-war-2, fiction, only-reading-because-of-the-buzz, historical-fiction, literary-schmiterary, pulitzer-winner

This keeps showing up in Best of lists for 2014, it won both Goodreads Choice and the Pulitzer, and nearly won the National Book Award, so I had to read it.

I thought I would enjoy this. I expected it to be meaningful, thoughtful, lyrical, illuminating, maybe even thought-provoking, perhaps life-changing. In the end, I was just disappointed. Perhaps I expected too much? This was an easy read, but it was not easy to stay awake while reading. Although it is set during WWII, and people are shot, and This keeps showing up in Best of lists for 2014, it won both Goodreads Choice and the Pulitzer, and nearly won the National Book Award, so I had to read it.

I thought I would enjoy this. I expected it to be meaningful, thoughtful, lyrical, illuminating, maybe even thought-provoking, perhaps life-changing. In the end, I was just disappointed. Perhaps I expected too much? This was an easy read, but it was not easy to stay awake while reading. Although it is set during WWII, and people are shot, and bombed, and imprisoned, and starved, nothing much really happens, it’s a lot of waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

This is a character-driven story, and my real problem was that I didn’t care about any of the characters. I’m not really sure why I didn’t care about them, they seem charming enough, but the only one I ever felt truly engaged with and sympathetic towards was Volkheimer. Werner and Marie-Laure were just so completely GOOD, and passive, and uninteresting - there was no complexity to them – there was no conflict there, no decisions to be made, they simply floated through tragedy, did what they were told, and did their best to stay alive and remain as unaware as possible of the horrors around them. This is a perfectly fine coping strategy for children during war time, I’m sure, but it’s not very good for creating characters that Nadine will care about.

I think the short one-or-two page chapters yanking us back and forth between POVs just didn’t work for me. We’re with Werner! We’re with Marie-Laure! We’re with Werner! We’re with Marie-Laure! We’re with that other guy! We’re back with Werner! Enough! It never let me get invested in anyone. If it is going to be slow and deep and mythical, I’d like to stay with one POV for a few pages at least. I was also really annoyed by the jumps back and forth in time; I didn’t see what this added to the story at all, it only frustrated me. In each section, I had to step out of the story and realign myself, remembering what had happened, what had not happened, and where they all were.

In the end that is what killed the book for me: I was just frustrated with the structure. It wasn’t cohesive. And – perversely – I’m angry that I don’t see what everyone else sees in this book about what you cannot see. Why didn’t I find this story to be touching and moving? Why didn’t I care about the characters? What am I NOT seeing?

Also, with all of that slow build-up leading to an inevitable conflict, I felt deflated by the ending. I read all those pages for THAT? That is not where I thought this was going. I also wasn’t sure if I liked the last parts moving into the present time, I can’t decide if that added to the story.

I was also frustrated by the distraction of the gem, it added a touch of mysticism that weakened the story because it was never developed further than a wisp of a suggestion of a mystery. I wanted either a lot more about that, or nothing at all. Major von Rumpel (or whatever his name was)hunting for the gem just annoyed me. The way this story was structured, his narrative was necessary to the narratives of Werner and Marie-Laure, but this book could have easily been restructured to remove that necessity.

I recommend two other books set during WWII with strong characters relationships which were far superior to this one: Code Name Verity and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

To make a perhaps ludicrous leap into analogy: this book is like someone who decided to make a beef dish in the crock pot, but couldn’t decide between classic beef stew or beef stroganoff or barbecue beef, and so they added a little bit of each ingredient, and ended up with not a lot of anything.

This marks three times now this year that I have read a prize-winning book and been underwhelmed. Starting to wonder if I should just avoid prize-winners!
...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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Dec 28, 2014 Ruth Soz rated it it was amazing

Shelves: novels

Jack's mom had a flat in Saint-Malo for several years, and I was lucky enough to spend a week there with Jack the year after we were married. It was beautiful, charming and enchanting, and I loved our stay there. The author did a wonderful job of transporting me back to Saint-Malo, and of weaving the stories of the characters together. The writing was the kind that helps you get lost in the story and I was swept up for every heartbreaking and heartwarming moment. ...more

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