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Manufacturer: Anthony Doerr
Brand: Historical Fiction
Brew: Audiobook/Paperback
Steeping Time: 16 hours 2 minutes/530 pages
Tea Service: Personal Choice
Strength:

Synopsis: 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.

Sometimes you read a book so perfect you wonder why anyone else would ever write another book in that genre.

It’s been done. The perfect story exists. Why tempt fate? To me, that perfectly sums up All the Light We Cannot See.

I’ve tried to read All the Light We Cannot See twice before. I started with the audiobook, and after three hours in, decided I couldn’t take the narrator anymore. I bought a physical copy and started over, and I was so glad I did. There were so many details that I’d missed with the audio version, and I found that the physical book was much easier to digest. The chapters are incredibly short, usually two to five pages, so bite-sized portions were easy to sneak in. But life got busy, and I put the book down. Two years later, I finally picked it back up again. And, in the manner of life getting busy, a year later, here I am finally writing this review.

I am kicking myself now for not sticking with All the Light We Cannot See when I first picked up the physical copy. I missed out on two whole years I could have been loving this story. Take my advice. If you have even the slightest interest in All the Light We Cannot See, go pick it up right now. Don’t cheat yourself out of another day of life without this story. Trust me.

All the Light We Cannot See is a masterpiece.

I don’t say that lightly. Historical fiction, especially WWII era, is my favorite genre. I have a deep love and attachment to the history of the time. All the Light We Cannot See is one of the most beautiful homages to those who lived through those horrible war years that I’ve ever read. It isn’t an easy read. It isn’t a happy read. But it is raw and incredibly real. Countless times throughout this book, I had to close the pages and sit with what I’d just read. Absorb it. Let it sink in so I could process it. At the end of the day, we’re all just people. Regular people trying to get by. To survive. And sometimes that’s the most beautiful part of life. It’s not glamorous. It’s not a walk in the park. But it is what moves the soul.

The main characters of the book are relatable and they come across as very real. Uncle Etienne’s raw brokenness struck me to my core, and I quickly developed a soft spot for him. It’s easy to forget that so many of those who lived through the Second World War had already experienced the first one. The lucky ones survived unscathed. Those not so lucky suffered physically, and others suffered mentally. Uncle Etienne fell into the latter category.

Etienne was so affected by WWI that he became a recluse, a shut-in who never left his house. Some days are better than others, but he suffers daily. Watching his arc throughout the story was my favorite part of the book.

There were many characters that I held close to my heart, and I worried for them as they ventured out into the world of underground sabotage. In the grander scale of the war, most people forget how many fought back in this way. We forget how many defied the thumb trying to hold them down. How many of them succeeded. How many of them died in their fight for freedom. I’m so glad that this aspect was included in the story.

I enjoyed the dual perspectives of Marie-Laure and Werner, and I loved the structure of the story itself. We get a lot of small chapters, POV switches, and time jumps. These, in conjunction with the story, kept me glued to the pages. I’d often set the book down only to pick it up again a few minutes later, unable to stay away.

Marie- Laure and Werner both show us the paths from innocence to adulthood.

The structure of the book lets us grow up with both of these characters. We get to see first hand the struggles that they face. Marie-Laure has to relearn her entire world as she loses her eyesight. Werner navigates life in an orphanage, trying to do his best for his sister while his world is overcome by Nazi rule. Marie-Laure and Werner start the war as innocent children hoping and dreaming for the lives ahead of them. Like millions of other children during this time, they are both forced to grow up far too fast, trying to survive in a world neither of them wanted.

They both elicited sympathy from me in different ways. I found myself wishing I could pluck them from the pages and put them somewhere safe and wholly different from the places they found themselves in. Personally, I found them easy to connect with and understand. I enjoyed both of their storylines and the many similarities and differences between the two. Many pieces of their lives show how similar we all really are.

The writing is beautiful. Hauntingly so.

It captured me instanty, and never let me go. The words flowed off the page and conjured images so vivid that it’s hard to remember that I haven’t actually been to these places or seen these things. The writing makes the pace seem lightning fast in some areas, but it slows in the right places, letting the reader linger where necessary. The story moved like water, ever flowing with ease.

If you enjoy WWII historical fiction, the microcosms of the bigger picture, and the strength of human will, All the Light We Cannot See is for you. It’s a large book, but it’s worth the read.

Have you read All the Light We Cannot See? Leave a comment and let me know what you thought about it! Want to read it for yourself? Click here to get a copy of your own.
Cheers,
Lydia

SPOILERS AHEAD

The ending of the novel wasn’t quite what I wanted, but it was more accurate, and I can appreciate that. Glancing into the lives of so many characters twenty-odd years after the war is a reminder of two things. First, life marches on. Tragedy and heartbreak doesn’t stop it. And second, those tragedies never leave a person. It sticks with them, etched into their souls, always just under the surface.

As far as the Netflix series goes, there were many changes I didn’t mind, and others I really disliked. Usually, I’m very good about separating books and their film or TV adaptations. They are two different works of art. As an actress, I understand why many changes are made, why certain things are cut, and so on. For instance, it wouldn’t have been nearly as entertaining to watch if they had kept the entirety of Werner’s scenes in complete darkness. I thought the changes made there were quite interesting, and while different, I could accept those.

The one change that bothered me the most was Etienne. I truly feel like they robbed him of what he had to overcome in many ways. I wish we could have seen more of Etienne’s struggles in the show because knowing how far he came is what makes his character incredible.

Overall, I enjoyed the show. It gave me certain things I wanted while changing other things I loved. In the give and take of it all, I still loved the story it told. The novel is still my favorite, but I can appreciate the mini-series for what it is and the limitations they had in certain areas.