3.6 out of 4 stars.
A story taking place in France during World War II from the perspectives of a brave blind french girl named Marie-Laure and an intelligent stick figure German named Werner. What seems like the only thread of similarity is they are both so young. Barely 13 years of age. Considering the time period, one would imagine their paths would only cross due to their opposite sides of loyalty by violence and violence only but surprisingly Doerr takes a different route.
When the Nazis occupy France, Marie-Laure and her father leave for their relative’s home in Saint-Malo. In tow with them is a precious stone that supposedly allows the holder to be free from harm but those around them to not be as fortunate.
In a land whose beliefs are so different it might as well be on the other side of the world, Werner is in Germany and is hand plucked to attend a Hitler Youth Camp due to his engineer skills with radios. He is forced to leave his dear sister, Jutta, behind to see if he is able to create a better life for himself. Unfortunately, the more successful he becomes the less happy he is with his actions and who he is becoming.
After what seems like a million pages of text, the reader finally has Werner and Marie-Laure in the same room and what unfolds next, I will leave for you to find out.
As hinted above, this book is extremely long. Of course when speaking of any War there is just so much you can say and so many points and tales that could be described. There are several books that have been written with this type of backdrop. For example, I just finished The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah that also came out last year that takes place in France during WWII. I finished that book being really shaken up and deeply moved. However, in “All The Light We Cannot See” case it seemed like it was much more peaceful in comparison. There was hardly any action. It was as if I was on a glistening soft pond going through the war. I truly believe if Marie-Laure didn’t have the absolute huge challenge of being blind that I would not see as clearly the pain and fear that was embedded into everyone. She was the saving grace for me with this book. Her character was so strong and admirable that I completed this book leaving with something. However, if she was not in it and not so brilliantly created, I would leave feeling cheated of all the roads I went down reading this book with nothing on the other side.
Again, I had just finished The Nightingale before starting this book and loved that so dearly that I am not sure any other war book could stack up at the moment, so maybe it was just timing that I was a little less impressed than everyone else with this book. The writing is done well and I loved how Doerr jumped around from the different perspectives of the characters because it left me feeling like the million pages did go rather quick.
