Thoughts on Books: All the Light We Cannot See

Title: All the Light We Cannot See

Author: Anthoney Doeer

Page Count: 530

Where I Read It: In 24hours, frantically trying to finish in time for skype bookclub (I finished in time)

Summary: (Adapted from GoodReads)

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.

Thoughts on Book:

Reading this book is like listening to an orchestra, or maybe watching a painting being made. It starts with simple lines, gentle brush strokes- it starts with scattered sketches that seemingly mean nothing till suddenly they are building, swirling, interweaving, and finally coming together to form a larger, more sweeping narrative. It’s fascinating. It’s beautiful.

One of the things that made this novel so distinctive is the structure. The story is made up on short sketches, alternating between Marie-Laure’s and Werner’s lives, with occasional sketches from other characters such as Von Rumpel, the novel’s villain. In addition to this, the narrative switches between the climax of the novel and backstories of characters. This makes the novel fascinating because you are gripped in the action of the climax (where each character’s stories come together), but also intrigued as to figure out how they got there.

Another lovely thing about this novel is the imagery and symbolism. My friends and I really enjoyed discussing the use of light, radio, music, nature, birds, adventure books, and sight. It’s these things- radio, music, adventure books- that tie the characters together. Perhaps my favorite moment comes (tiny spoiler) when clair de lune played over a radio helps Werner find Marie-Laure. It made me think of the way that there was light in different ways for a blind girl. The song, the radio functions as light, which is fitting for a song about light. It also makes me think about the light in Werner. He’s a Nazi, forced into a life he doesn’t believe in, but doesn’t have a choice. But in this same moment, he’s also able to break free of that, to show the light (the humanity) inside of him that is struggling to shine. It’s an awesome moment in the book.

An additional outstanding part of the novel is the way it plays with myth. The novel revolves around this diamond that is part of a legend. Throughout the novel there is always a questions as to whether the diamond actually has some sort of magical powers. Is Marie-Laure just imagining herself into the sort of adventure story she reads about? Or is she actually part of such an adventure herself?

The only drawback to this dazzling book is that is very bleak. This is a WWII novel. Each of the characters start out with particularly difficult lives- Werner is an orphan, Marie-Laure becomes blind during childhood- but their lives continue to become worse across the course of the novel. Often I found myself wondering, “How could things get worse for them now?” Then something even more horrendous would happen. I found myself getting agitated while reading and having stress dreams from how dismal some of the moments of the book are. Even the ending is tinged with sadness, which makes it harder. I would advise reading it not as I did in 24 hours, but with a little more patience. I think that would make the trauma of the book less intense.

In all, it was brilliant. The writing is elegant. The characters are likable. The structure is carefully crafted. It’s just kinda sad, but the beauty of it makes up it.

Pair With: If the German side of the side story interested you, I say pick up The Book Thief by Marcus Zuzack. My friends and I all agreed that it gave us similar vibes. Werner definitely reminded me a lot of Rudy. If you were interested in the French plot lines, especially in fleeing occupied Paris, read Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky. Like this novel, it follows multiple stories of people during WWII- and bonus points because it was actually written during WWII.

Listen Along With: Indigo- Old Wave// Scare Away the Dark- Passenger// Clair de lune- (either the original orchestration or the funky Flight Facilities remix)