All the Light We Cannot See discussion

[Sandy, Moderator Emeritus]

This is the discussion thread for the Fall 2014 Group Read All the Light We Cannot See. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

[Andy]

I guess I get to be first so here is my contribution:For me the most impressive part of this book was the author's attention to detail. One of the main protagonists is a teenager who has been blind since she was six years old. Doerr's description of how she copes with life in a seeing world is fascinating. Her father helps by creating a dollhouse size version of her neighborhood which allows her to find her way around alone. How she travels from her home to the bakery in this small French village by counting the drains on the side of the road demonstrates rapt attention to seemingly insignificant pieces of real estate.
There is, of course, a much bigger story in this excellent novel, but that should be discovered by each reader for himself

[♞ Pat]

I read this book for the Spring challenge, and I thought it was excellent. Lots of times, books that skip from one point of view to another are disjointed and chaotic, making the plot hard to follow. This book does not suffer from that - the whole story flowed seamlessly, I thought, from one story line to the other.

Honestly, I was sorry to see it end. And the ending was so tragically sad!

[mstan]

I'm pretty disappointed in this book. It felt both bland and bloated to me. Doerr's attempt to introduce some greyness to the good vs. evil divide in WWII seemed a cliché in itself (I don't need to be told several times that Werner looked to his sister as a moral compass), and all the details about the war read like a dispassionate report. There were moments of beauty, but mostly, I thought the narrative too self-conscious and clinical. I was particularly annoyed by the fact that each very short chapter was given a title - this editorial decision made it seem as though the reader has to be told what the chapter's about, or what to think. The pace of the story was choppy and yet felt tedious at the same time. I couldn't immerse myself fully in this world, nor quite grasp what Doerr added to the literature on this important world event - in the end I rated it two stars.

[Cynthia]

CYNBAXTER:
I wanted to wait to access this group discussion until after I finished the book - I wanted to read it with only my own thoughts bouncing around my head, unclouded by other comments - and I mean no offense - just wanted to reach my own conclusions.
I have a special edition that includes an interview from the author who spoke of his methodology for this book. In 2004, he started with "a girl reading to a boy who was trapped" - then developed outward from there. And for us a decade later as privileged readers, we retraced those steps back to it's core.
I sincerely loved this book - there were times where my whole world centered only on the pages before me, oblivious to anything else. Since this is for the Fall Reading Challenge, I carried this book with me everywhere in my tote and read whenever and wherever I could. At the salon, while my hair was sandwiched between layers of foil, I wore pince-nez readers so that I could continue to read and not mess up the frames of my bi-focals. For awhile, with these tiny lenses perched on the end of my nose, only a small bit at a time came into focus and I was easily able to imagine Marie-Laure's dwindling visual world while her other senses were waiting to blossom.
Ultimately, I feel this story is completely captivating and enchanting, with just enough myth to step over into fairy-tale territory. I wish I could enjoy this lovely "book-hangover" for just a little while longer, but many more wait to be discovered.
This is Anthony Doerr's 5th novel...I will definitely read his earlier works.

[Shannon SA]

Shannon South Africa
I wanted to love this book but I was disappointed. The short chapters jumping from character to character and time to time made it disjointed for me. I felt I didn't get the chance to know the characters deeply enough to really care about them, and it felt too drawn-out. The "mystery" bit didn't grab me either. I thought the descriptions of place were very well done -I could quite easily picture the various settings.

[Dlmrose, Moderator Emeritus]

I liked the short chapters and alternating stories. I thought the structure and the precise language gave the book a sense of inevitability-- that the characters were on a collision course.
I think the structure also helped create a distance that kept the story from becoming too sentimental. It reminded me of the intricate model of the city- compact, detailed, with twists and turns and hidden aspects.

[Lacy]

Contains spoilers:
All the Light We Cannot See is definitely one of my favorites so far this year. I loved the pacing, the back and forth between Werner, Marie-Laure, and the others, and the trajectory through time. I’ve read few books with blind characters and, although I’m not blind myself, I feel like Doer did a fabulous job portraying the world through Marie-Laure’s senses. The cityscapes created by her father were magical and a testament to his love and devotion to her. His disappearance so accurately represented the loss felt by families during the war. Marie-Laure’s relationship with her great uncle Etienne was touching. Through her courage, Etienne was able to be courageous again.
Werner also spoke to me as an intelligent boy with little hope of a future. He was able to flex his mental muscles for the Nazis, but he wasn’t able to grow beyond a child. I could feel the potential of all the children (and adults) wasted away in the war machine. I appreciate the realistic, non-sentimental flavor of the novel. I was content with the ending – Marie-Laure as an old woman, sharing a moment with her grandson.

[Terra]

Definitely the shortest-feeling 500+ page book I've read in a while. The chapters were so short, yet beautifully written, I always wanted to move on to the next (and the next...). I didn't even really care for the central story about the cursed/magical diamond, but enjoyed Doerr's writing a great deal and wanted to see how the characters lives would intersect.

I can't get a mental picture of the place with the snails. Is it a "room" with no floor? How does seawater get into it?

Another thing puzzled me I hope someone else can clarify: I thought the voice that Jutta and Werner listened to as children was that of Marie-Laure's grandfather. She told Werner as much, or so I thought. But when he heard the great uncle reading numbers from the loaf of bread, he was said to have recognized the voice immediately from his childhood? How would he recognize Etienne's voice if it had been the grandfather he heard as a child?

[EShay]

I am about a third of the way through the book, and unlike others, I dislike the length of the chapters. I wished they were longer because it makes the stories more disjointed to me. On the other hand, popping between stories gives me the more frantic feel, like how it would be to actually expereince a war maybe?

I do love the two main characters. I find them compelling and relatable. I'm excited to finish their stories.

[Emily]

I'm slogging through this--in part because I love Marie-Lure but am not really connecting to Werner's story. The short, pithy back-and-forth chapters work as a stylistic experiment but would be more effective if I was equally gripped by both narratives.

[Rebecca]

This was one of the last books I read on my vacation and although I had been looking forward to it (this was set in one of my favorite periods of history to read about), I found myself bored with the story. The short chapters were clearly leading towards their eventual meeting, but I wanted more of one and less of the other. The writing itself was very tight and offered much to the reader in understanding the setting, time, place and the position of the character but the movement between chapters was jarring at times. I appreciated the writing and would try other work from this author but this particular book didn't speak to me like I hoped it would.

[Kathy McC]

Rebecca wrote: "This was one of the last books I read on my vacation and although I had been looking forward to it (this was set in one of my favorite periods of history to read about), I found myself bored with t..."

This review is spot on. This was my reaction to this novel.

[Amy]

Amy FL

After all of the glowing reviews and high ratings for this book, I expected to be blown away. Instead, I concur with Rebecca. I have read numerous books on the holocaust, but I just couldn't get into this one. The jumping back and forth between characters and time periods was particularly annoying when listening to the audio version. Overall this book was too long and choppy.

[Pamela]

Pamela3265

I expected to love this book, but had difficulty getting into it. After the first 100 pages, I switched to the audiobook hoping that would help, but it didn't. I think the biggest problem for me was jumping between points of view and time periods. I also felt highly disappointed that once Werner and Marie-Laure finally met, they were only together for one day. All that lead up for very little pay off. I agree with Amy FL; this book was too long and choppy.

[Connie]

I liked the way we first are looking at the war from the viewpoint of the children who have no idea of the horrible events that will come later in a war. Then, the story keeps building. The book constantly alternates between Marie Laure's and Werner's storylines in short chapters, and also moves back and forth in time occasionally. I found it distracting at first, but I quickly got used to the quick change to the other storyline. The book is obviously well-researched and it covers a wide range of topics, but the little details are expertly worked into the story. There is never a page of information dumping. The superstitious story about a precious gem with a curse, missing from the National Museum of Natural History where Marie Laure's father works, adds a bit of magic to the book.

The presence or absence of sensory perceptions is at the heart of the story with Marie Laure coping with blindness, Werner involved in listening to radio communication, and the citizens of both countries feeling cold and hungry. Anthony Doerr puts his lyrical gifts to work in beautiful sensual descriptions. Marie Laure and Werner were sympathetic and courageous, two bright lights set against the background of a brutal war.

[Sarah]

I picked this up on my kindle a while ago after reading a review and upon finishing it I loved it.

I like the world that was created with the focus being the paths the two children traveled and especially the lengths that Marie-Laure' father went to support her disability in a time when this wasn't all of the case.

[Jill Renee]

I've heard nothing but rave reviews about this book and while I did find it very beautiful, I did find it difficult to get into. The concept, storyline and characters were well-developed and reminded me a little bit of "The Book Thief" in a lot of ways.

The two stories of Marie and Werner were captivating and I definitely identified with Marie's actions and reactions to losing her sight.

All in all though for me it just came down to pacing. I'm very interested in reading any other novels from him though.

[Rachel]

I actually listened to this one on audio and I think a lot of the issues that others have mentioned were balanced by the audio format: the short chapters made it great on my train rides every day, the language really shines rather than feeling overly flowery, the whole idea of the book - a girl reading to a boy - came through in the audio. Overall, I really loved this book, but I don't know that I would've enjoyed it so much in print.

One of the things that I think would've come through better in print was tracking the diamond. I'm sure there are pieces I missed and not being able to flip back in the book made it difficult to understand the path of the diamond. Other than that, though, I definitely enjoyed this.

[Elizabeth]

When I first picked up this book I was afraid I wouldn't like it, because usually very short chapters seem forced to me and I end up disliking the book intensely. Especially if it's more than a couple hundred pages. However, the short chapters were one of the things I liked best about this novel. I almost never felt like Doerr was forcing it or not giving me enough. So that was a very nice surprise.

My only real issue with this book (which I really liked and ended up trying to explain to my friends at a bar - they did not understand me at all) was that it started to drag a little bit for me at about 65 percent through. Everything seemed set up but like nothing was happening. As soon as I got through that though I was back to being in love.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and have recommended it to a few people already.

[Patricia]

Such differing opinions on this book. I'm in the camp who truly enjoyed it. I thought it was beautifully written, I liked the contrasting characters' viewpoints, and was kept in suspense wondering how the story would culminate. 5 stars for me.

[Coralie]

I mostly enjoyed the book but the bits about the diamond just didn't quite work for me.

[Meg]

MEGSCL. I finished this book last night and I really liked it! 4 stars from me.
A French girl, a German boy, 1944 - I was expecting another star-crossed war time romance. But it never stooped to that cliche. I loved all the little details - the town, the shells, the books, the birds, the radio.
The short choppy style was unique. At first I found it entrancing, then I found it annoying and distracting. But eventually I settled into it, either because I got used to it or because I fell into the characters and the story and forgot about it. The short chapters switching back and forth between narrators made the book seem to just fly past - very quick to read and very gripping.

[Colette]

ColetteG

All The Light We Cannot See Group Read 20.10

For me this book just didn't live up to the hype. Better by far than Sarah's Key, but I hated that book and better than The Paris Architect but I felt the author was just in love with what he wrote and really didn't tie things in well. I also hated the gem. I do not think the father would have sacrificed himself or put his blind daughter in jeopardy for the gem. If he felt her holding onto it would somehow save her life, it really didn't fit his character. Werner never seemed to fit in the book well and how he is rounded up and put in all at the end didn't work for me either.

[[deleted user]]

mstan wrote: "I'm pretty disappointed in this book. It felt both bland and bloated to me. Doerr's attempt to introduce some greyness to the good vs. evil divide in WWII seemed a cliché in itself (I don't need to..."

I have to agree with this about All the Light We Cannot See . Also, I would not recommend listening to this on audible, which is the way I chose to experience the book. I found I frequently would drift off, even though the narrator was quite sufficient. It probably took me many more hours to "listen" to this book than is stated on the recording because I frequently had to rewind. Parts of the book were quite absorbing and evocative, but others felt disengaged. Normally, I love subtlety a great deal in novels, and this should have probably allowed me to overcome the disparateness of the stories. However, I'm also a dealing with a bit of WWII-novel/movie-fatigue.

[Lagullande]

I finished this book about an hour ago so these are just a couple of my immediate thoughts. (I like to decide my ratings immediately, based on gut reaction, and I've given this 4 stars.)

Firstly, I was grateful and impressed that the author managed to convey some of the awfulness of war on both sides, but without overdoing the graphic detail. I've read a few books recently containing torture scenes and I've had enough.

And secondly, although this book is sympathetic to a character who is member of the German army (Werner), I wondered how the reactions of any German readers might differ to those from countries who fought on the Allied side. (I really hope I'm not offending anyone by mentioning that; it's just that I often wonder how our reaction to books and films set during wars is affected by the popular narrative we have grown up with, and whether it differs as a consequence.)

[Colette]

Lagulland:

I had sympathy for Werner. The citizens of Germany were desperately poor after the war reparations laid out at the finish of WWI. They were looking for a savior. Many saw the evil but did not know how to get around it, they too wanted to live. We can easily say Hitler and Goering were pure evil, but their were many soldiers just drafted, trying to keep their families safe. It is not easy to rise up against evil, it sneaks up on you in false promises and well worded charismatic speeches. A friend immigrated here as a young boy after the war. His father served on the Eastern Front and then escaped a Russian a Prison Camp. His mother survived at the end but was raped by Russian troops. They were starving when Hitler came to power, he promised them so much, they don't disagree they fell into the hope of a better life. They do regret all the truths that were gradually learned and were sickened by them. They paid a high price. So of course we should feel sympathy for a Werner, trying to stay alive and keep his sister alive. For those who live and learn there should always be forgiveness. Good point, but I can't say the book did much for me because personalities didn't match actions in many characters.

[Lagullande]

Hi Colette. Thanks for your response. Don't get me wrong - I was sympathetic towards Werner too, and some of his compatriots also. After all, there was/is no monopoly on right and wrong during most conflicts. I shudder to think how terrible it would be to have to make choices in the awful situations in which many ordinary citizens found/find themselves. I am grateful indeed that living in my country and time does not currently require that.

I was just voicing out loud (admittedly, not very articulately) a vague "wondering" I had about the impact of our national histories on our response to certain stories. This was perhaps not the right book to do that with.

[Colette]

Lagulland, I would agree with you. It tried to tell two stories but failed to intertwine them well. I do't think it does justice to those who suffered at the hands of the Nazi war machine, those that tried to fight it, those that went along with it and why, too complex of issues to have revolve around a gem that in the end sits in the sea. It also was trying to tell the tale of all the lost treasures during the war. Trying to cover way to much ground. Thanks for the back and forth.

[EShay]

EShay

I agree with Colette, I do not think Marie-Laure's father would have left them for the gem. Why not just get rid of it? I was disappointed with the end of Werner's story, but then I thought, it was abrupt like his death. I would have liked to know more about Jutta's story between Werner leaving and then end of the war. In the end, though I did not like the short chapters, I enjoyed the novel. I'm glad it didn't fall in line with the normal "happy ending" tropes that we expect.

[[deleted user]]

Colette wrote: "Lagulland, I would agree with you. It tried to tell two stories but failed to intertwine them well. I do't think it does justice to those who suffered at the hands of the Nazi war machine, those th..."

I agree completely with this. The meeting of the two (seemingly?) main characters is rushed...too near the end. Werner's death wasn't necessarily a poor plot point, but I think I would have felt more emotionally moved by it, if there had been a bit more interaction between he and Marie-Laure.

[Sandy, Moderator Emeritus]

I enjoyed this tremendously - I was intensely involved in the book, didn't want to stop reading. I wasn't sure at first about the many alternating stories - with so many viewpoints and two timelines, at first it annoyed me - I'd want to see what happened next to whichever character, then get switched. As I went along, though, I began to like this, because I felt that each Werner's and Marie-Laure's stories complemented each other.

I was a bit afraid that it was going to wind up with their meeting, falling in love, etc., etc., and much as I don't want to see people die, I think the ending that actually happened was a better one.

I really could have done without the diamond story, though. For me, it didn't add much and it was a distraction.

I recently read Skeletons at the Feast, another WWII book told primarily from the perspective of Germans near the end of the war, and the similarities/differences were interesting.

[Sandy, Moderator Emeritus]

Interesting excerpts from NPR interview w/ Doerr - http://www.npr.org/2014/05/25/3145667...

[Connie]

Thanks for sharing the article, Sandy. It's always fascinating to find out what inspired an author.

[KSMary]

This book took me a long time to finish. While I didn't hate it, the pace did drag for me so I really had to make myself pick it up and finish it today.

I think for me it was the jumping between so many story lines. I really like how he developed Marie Laure's character and world.

[Emily]

I really liked this book. I understand the problems that others had with it, but I actually liked the short chapters and fast pacing, going back and forth between the two characters. I had been meaning to read this book for a while now - I had actually got my hands on an ARC, but wasn't able to get to it before it was published - and I'm glad that this was chosen for the Group Reads because it made me push it to the front of my queue.

I really liked the way that Marie-Laure's story was told - I felt that it was really beautifully descriptive. I didn't love Warner's story at first - I kept wanting to get back to Marie-Laure - but when it got to his time at the school it started to get more interesting for me.

Answering Terra's questions - I'm not sure if anyone did yet - picture it as a cave with a door in the back and the mouth of the cave slightly closed and facing the ocean. There is a bottom, but when the tide comes in to the shore, it fills up the bottom of the cave. Because it's facing the ocean, you can only access it from the door in the back, unless you swim in from the ocean. At low tide, you would be able to walk around in the cave, but at high tide, the floor of the cave would fill with water. Hope that helps! As to your other question, about the voice on the recording... I was just as confused about that one as you were. A mistake on the author's part, perhaps? Or maybe they just had very similar voices, being brothers.

[Emily]

I found this to be beautifully written, and I appreciated the attention to detail that the author gave to Marie-Laure's piece of the story. Ultimately, I was more drawn into her story than Werner's, and I was sad to discover that (view spoiler)[they only met for one day. I also felt that the ending felt rushed and abrupt. (hide spoiler)]

[Lindsey]

I felt pretty neutral about this book. I just couldn't really get into it. I didn't feel much for any of the characters, but I didn't dislike them either. It wasn't boring, but it wasn't all that interesting either.

As others have said, the crossing of Marie-Laure's and Werner's paths was very anti-climactic. I guess I expected to be much more moved by a book taking place in Europe during this time period. The Book Thief is the most recent one I've read. I was much more engrossed in that one.

I listened to the audiobook of this, and the narrator wasn't particularly great, so whenever I don't love an audiobook of a book that's supposed to be really good, I always wonder if I would have felt differently if I read the actual book. Unfortunately, there are just way too many other books I would want to read before ever re-reading this (I rarely re-read anything).

[Darlene]

It took me a while to get into this book. I felt lost in the beginning. I couldn't seem to figure out what exactly was going on. I stuck with it though because I had heard so many good things about the book and I am really glad I did.
The story of Werner showed me a different side of the war: the children that were German citizens who were brought into this war and indoctrinated by evil. I was most moved by Frederick's story; however. Heartbreaking.

[Pat]

Posted by Peakles.

I loved this book and thought it was beautifully written with lovely, descriptive sentences. I also liked the parallel stories written in alternating, short chapters. While reading, I was thinking that it wouldn't have been believable for Marie-Laure and Werner to end up together, but found myself wishing that the man on the train (man with prosthetic leg) would turn out to be Werner after all.

[Laura]

While I enjoyed his writing, I didn't care for the short chapters. I like to spend time getting to know the characters and that is hard to do when you are switching lives every two to three pages.

Overall, the book was just ok for me.

[Sue]

This was just OK for me. I think the concept was interesting, but as someone who listened to it rather than read a print copy, I found it somewhat disjointed.

I was very disappointed that Marie-Laure and Werner had such limited interaction after the first two-thirds of the book seemed to be building up to them having a long-lasting relationship.