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All the Light We Cannot See
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August Group Read -- All the Light We Cannot See
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Aug 04, 2015 07:47AM
Please discuss August's book here. This book has marvelous reviews and it's been on my to-read list for ages. I hope we enjoy it! War stories don't usually interest me that much but this one sounds exceptional.
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I'm so delighted by this selection. I bought the kindle version of this book ages ago after hearing about it on NPR but never got around to reading it. Now it seems fated that I read it this month.
FYI in the Houston Texas area: the Museum of Fine Arts Houston is giving "book club" tours of certain pieces of art in their collection based on "All the Light We Cannot See" through the end of August. There are tours scheduled for the public so you can just show up and join the tour, no extra charge. If you are in a book club, you can schedule a separate tour for your group. Great way to sample the collection and enjoy a book discussion too.
I really enjoyed this book. The quick chapter changes kept pulling me forward (much like self-striping sock yarn keeps me interested), although as tension mounted in certain sections, that would slow me back down.I'm not normally a fan of alternating POV, but I thought it worked exceptionally well here.
I'm listening to the audio of this book and I agree. Ordinarily it might be confusing, listening to short chapters with the view constantly changing, but the reader uses somewhat long pauses to accentuate the changes and it works well. As in *pause* *chapter title* *pause*
I'm loving the book so far.
I'm loving the book so far.
I gave up on the audio but ordered the book and it should be here any day. I couldn't navigate Overdrive; I had to put my tablet down too many times and found it nearly impossible to find my way to where I left off. I kept wrestling with it as it put itself into fast-forward, and so on. I am really enjoying the book and will all the more so when I can page back and forth at will. I've become very engaged with both characters.
It took me a while to get through this book. I was frustrated with it and felt that the story was told through the eyes of the least interesting characters, and that so many characters were obvious plot devices. I can credit this book with making me recall Code Name Verity with more fondness than I felt when I first read that book.
I just read this book and have mixed feelings about it. Kathryn, I also listened to the audio and found it very confusing at first, but then things went more smoothly.My favorite character was Werner - I really liked the parts where he is listening to the radio with his sister and develops an interest in science. That's where the story started getting interesting to me.
In the audio version I didn't realize at first that not only the characters were changing but also the year. The author chose to move forward and back in time. I found the time shifts difficult to follow and didn't feel that they added much to the story. I felt no real connection to most of the characters. Even the chapter about the Russians was told so clinically that I felt almost no emotional reaction. It's an interesting concept that just never drew me in.
Having just finished this book, I'm overwhelmed. It wasn't a book that I loved so much, I immediately wanted to pick it back up and start over.
While reading, the back-and-forth in time and between the two main characters made it difficult. I almost wanted to read it twice, both times ever other chapter, and maybe even put them in chronological order.
However...having finished it...I get it. It's like watching someone paint a picture with oils, which takes a very long time. First, the sketch, then spots of color all over the place, not until the painting is finished do you have that aha moment. It's all come together nicely...
Doerr is an artist. I would like to read his other books.
He portrayed the times and their impact on children who lived through them well. I feel like I entered the childworlds of Werner, Jetta, Marie. They grew up before they were adults, like Marie says.
But in the end, the sadness overcame me. Humans can be so cruel. How lives were destroyed, as well as beauty in so many forms...and how it continues today. How we've hardened ourselves to the inevitability of perpetual war.
Doerr may at times write clinically, but also he writes incredibly poetically. Where once a family baked bread in an oven hundreds of years old, where something as commonplace as a hotel is also like a museum...yes buildings have been rebuilt and life goes on but now the trees are all the same age, etc. History was destroyed. Lineages are scattered and broken...
But Marie is the saving grace. She sees all the light we cannot see. She sees that the dead are reborn in the flowers and the grass and the trees.
There was a sentence that I didn't understand near the end, it seem inconsequential yet it sent me on an internet search until I came to a page that told Helen Keller's story, and how she became a mystic.
The sentence was describing Marie's daughter, saying that she was self-possessed like most children of blind people. I'm still not sure why that is, or exactly what it means, but reading about Keller gave me even more insight into Marie and ultimately into what makes us human. I needed this after finishing what was for me such an incredibly sad, discouraging book. Like Marie's grandson who is "killed" while playing the video game but says, "It's ok, I can just start over", Marie has just kept on living.
We each are like a pebble, dropped into a pool. Our combined ripples are what shape our world. While speaking with Jetta at the end of the book, Marie thought of Werner: "He made such a faint presence. It was like being in the room with a feather. But his soul glowed with some fundamental kindness, didn't it?"
She saw his light, though she couldn't see. Our lives are all like that, light as a feather and then they're gone. Hopefully, our souls glow with kindness as well and we are able to see.
While reading, the back-and-forth in time and between the two main characters made it difficult. I almost wanted to read it twice, both times ever other chapter, and maybe even put them in chronological order.
However...having finished it...I get it. It's like watching someone paint a picture with oils, which takes a very long time. First, the sketch, then spots of color all over the place, not until the painting is finished do you have that aha moment. It's all come together nicely...
Doerr is an artist. I would like to read his other books.
He portrayed the times and their impact on children who lived through them well. I feel like I entered the childworlds of Werner, Jetta, Marie. They grew up before they were adults, like Marie says.
But in the end, the sadness overcame me. Humans can be so cruel. How lives were destroyed, as well as beauty in so many forms...and how it continues today. How we've hardened ourselves to the inevitability of perpetual war.
Doerr may at times write clinically, but also he writes incredibly poetically. Where once a family baked bread in an oven hundreds of years old, where something as commonplace as a hotel is also like a museum...yes buildings have been rebuilt and life goes on but now the trees are all the same age, etc. History was destroyed. Lineages are scattered and broken...
But Marie is the saving grace. She sees all the light we cannot see. She sees that the dead are reborn in the flowers and the grass and the trees.
There was a sentence that I didn't understand near the end, it seem inconsequential yet it sent me on an internet search until I came to a page that told Helen Keller's story, and how she became a mystic.
The sentence was describing Marie's daughter, saying that she was self-possessed like most children of blind people. I'm still not sure why that is, or exactly what it means, but reading about Keller gave me even more insight into Marie and ultimately into what makes us human. I needed this after finishing what was for me such an incredibly sad, discouraging book. Like Marie's grandson who is "killed" while playing the video game but says, "It's ok, I can just start over", Marie has just kept on living.
We each are like a pebble, dropped into a pool. Our combined ripples are what shape our world. While speaking with Jetta at the end of the book, Marie thought of Werner: "He made such a faint presence. It was like being in the room with a feather. But his soul glowed with some fundamental kindness, didn't it?"
She saw his light, though she couldn't see. Our lives are all like that, light as a feather and then they're gone. Hopefully, our souls glow with kindness as well and we are able to see.
Kathryn - You always put so much thought into your reviews. I appreciate it even when I haven't read a given book. Thank you.
Isabel wrote: "Kathryn - You always put so much thought into your reviews. I appreciate it even when I haven't read a given book. Thank you."
This book really impacted me. Thank you for your kind words.
This book really impacted me. Thank you for your kind words.
Great review Kathryn!
My review is up! I gave it 3 stars:Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.
The Beginning: At dusk they pour from the sky
World War 2: A blind girl in Paris flees with her farther to live with her uncle. In a orphanage in Germany, a young boy listens to the radio with his sister and develops a passionate interest in science. His passion and skills leads him to join Hitler Jugend. Slowly their stories are entwined – through the radio and through war.
This story reeks of bestseller. It reeks of some day becoming a big award-winning movie. And it is a good and touching story. There’s nothing wrong with it, it just didn’t rock my world like many other novels on the Second World War has (like Stones from the River and The Book Thief). And then there’s this bit about a jewel that adds a strange magical touch to the story. It seemed to me misplaced and totally unnecessary. Or maybe I just missed the point.
The writing was beautiful. But I think I made a mistake listening to this one on audio. The changing point of views made it confusing at times, especially at the very beginning. It took me about 2 hours to figure out the who, where, why, and even longer to feel a connection to the characters.
My blog: The Bookworm's Closet
