Book Title: All The Light We Cannot See
Author: Anthony Doerr
Genre: Historical Fiction
Date Published: May 6th 2014 by Scribner
Number of Pages: 531 (Hardcover)
Synopsis
(From Goodreads) From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. 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, Werner Pfennig, an orphan, grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find that brings them news and stories from places they have never seen or imagined. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments and is enlisted to use his talent to track down the resistance. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another.
Book Review
It’s been a while since I read a historical fiction book, and as expected, my chest is bursting with so many emotions after reading this Pulitzer Prize winner. I was suddenly reminded of the reason why I love reading historical books so much: because despite their heavy subject matter, they mainly tell stories of love, hope, and bravery even in the face of atrocities.
All The Light We Cannot See tugged at my heartstrings. I’m not ashamed to admit that I teared up twice or thrice (or so many times that I lost count) while reading this book.
I absolutely enjoyed reading and getting to know the two central characters—blind French girl named Marie-Laure LeBlanc and German orphan Werner Pfennig. Both so young, but both were not spared from the horrors of war.
I also appreciated that I learned so many things from this book! For someone like me who’s not really a history buff, I think that the story is refreshing account of the German occupation in France.
Writing Style
All The Light We Cannot See is mostly written in third-person limited perspective of Marie-Laure and Werner. Occasionally, Anthony Doerr also included the perspectives of other characters, such as Marie-Laure’s father and great-uncle, which added another layer and context to the whole story.
Doerr’s writing style was absolutely beautiful and poetic without going into “ornate” or purple prose territory. This allows for an easy read, especially for people like me who mostly read Young Adult.
I love how Doerr described things, making it easy to imagine myself in the shoes of the characters. I also enjoyed his writing because it evoked imagery and metaphors.
However, sometimes, I feel exhausted reading the book. I feel like I’m exerting too much effort into reading in between words. But then again, maybe it’s just because of the story structure which I’ll talk more about below.
Plot
All The Light We Cannot See is basically a book about hope and love amidst the horrors of war. It follows two central characters whose stories seem disconnected, at first, but will eventually intertwine with each other.
I love reading both Marie-Laure and Werner’s growth (from children to late teenagers) throughout the years. It might be slow at the beginning, but I personally enjoyed the slice-of-life approach. It allowed me to understand the characters (their motivations, their actions or lack of it, etc.) more. Finally, when their stories starts to interweave, the plot also begin to pick up. I can’t help but fly through the pages quickly!
I think the plot was really clever and carefully crafted! There are some aspects that I wasn’t a fan of in the beginning (story within a story, the Sea of Flames myth that veers toward fantasy, Werner’s military training), but the further I read, the more it all makes sense. I love how the book has so many underlying and meaningful themes!
However, to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t a big fan of the climax and ending. I feel like it was rushed. I spent most of my time looking forward to Marie-Laure and Werner’s meeting but it only comprised of 5 or so chapters. I wished that it was fleshed out a little bit more.
In addition to the ending, I don’t like the story structure. The chapters were so short that you expect them to be easy-to-read and ideal for young, inexperienced readers. But that was not the case, at least for me.
I feel like the short chapters prevented me from fully enjoying this book. At times, it was a struggle to finish because the story often jumped back and forth between different time periods. I always have to backtrack to understand what’s happening to this particular character or storyline because the author keeps cutting in the middle of the action. I also have to put down the book several times because no matter how much I want to finish it as soon as possible, the format hinders me from doing so!
Characters
The characters are, without doubt, the highlight of this book! All of them, with the exception of the antagonist, have complex personalities. This allows me to connect with their stories, or the very least—in the case of Reinhold von Rumpel (antagonist)—understand their predicaments.
Marie-Laure, in particular, is such a well-written character with obvious weaknesses (her blindness and her sheltered life) but she never lets those things define her. Instead, she is a strong character on her own—smart and curious and brave.
The other characters beside her—Papa, great-uncle Etienne LeBlanc, and Madame Manec—were just as endearing. I enjoyed reading their interactions with each other and how their bravery and love were shown instead of told.
Werner is a morally grey character who is struggling to find his own self in a tumultuous time period.. While naturally curious about the sciences and extremely talented in fixing things, he has no choice but to submit to Nazi Germany. I feel sympathy for his character because I know that he can be successful if he was born in another time but alas, that was not the case.
I also liked Werner’s relationship with Jutta (his sister) and Frederick (his friend from military training). However, I was kind of disappointed in the fact that Werner is pretty much an impassive character for the majority of the story.
I was really hoping that he will do something to prevent what happened to Frederick. But he barely did anything to prevent such atrocities from happening throughout the book. Then again, I understand where he’s coming from. It’s really hard to stand up for what is right during that time, especially considering that he is young.
Overall Thoughts
All The Light We Cannot See is a beautiful, haunted, and poignant book. I really enjoyed reading from the perspectives of children and learning the meaning behind the title of the book. There are indeed lights our eyes cannot see—from the radio waves that connects both Marie-Laure and Werner to the untold stories of the individuals our two characters hold dearly to their hearts.
My only main critique would be the story structure. It will definitely take some time to get you hooked you into the main story because the author abruptly cuts in between actions. However, once you take a step back and look at the story as a whole, you’ll find the plot ingenious.
I would definitely re-read it in the future because I know there are so many things that I missed out on!
Book Rating (Summary)
Writing Style: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Characters: 5 stars
Overall Rating: 4 stars
You can also find my book review of All The Light We Cannot See on Goodreads!
Let’s Talk!
Have you read All The Light We Cannot See? Any historical fiction book recommendations?
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