All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr, Book Review, Fiction, SephiPiderWitch

All the Light We Cannot See – Anthony Doerr

All The Light We Cannot SeeAll the Light We Cannot See is a novel that words such as “breathtaking”, “lyrical”, “mesmerizing” are inadequate.  The story is set between Germany and Nazi occupied France.  Maurie-Laure is a young blind girl that lives with her father who works for the museum where a legendary diamond is kept hidden under 13 locks to protect from the curse that surrounds it.  Maurie-Laure’s father builds her a perfect replica of her town so she can learn to navigate it, gives her puzzle boxes with presents inside, training her mind to be deft and analytical and her spirit to be independent, observant and resourceful.  They have to flee their home town when it is invaded and flee to the home of her eccentric uncle and his housekeeper where they find refuge in his huge mansion. Werner is a young orphaned German boy who can fix any radio put before him.  He listens weekly to a broadcast from an unknown area that teaches him much of what he knows and he soaks it all up like a sponge.  He should be slated to work in the mines with the rest of the children in his town, but is recognized for his gift with electronics and sent to the German youth schools, a brutal place where he is slowly brought into the Nazi way of “selection.” The story itself is not overwhelmingly original.  Stories about Germany and invaded countries during WWII could feel whole rooms of libraries and a large percentage being devoted to the merging of the lives of two characters from opposite sides of the war.  What sets this novel apart is the way it is prepared.  For just as chicken is one of the more common meats that people eat, it is in the preparation and presentation that determine if it is a simple dull fare or a gourmet feast for the senses.  “All The Light We Cannot See” is a gourmet fare of the highest caliber. With his deft prose, we are given brief glimpses into the windows of his characters and he takes us into their minds to become one with them, flitting between them and tasting, smelling, breathing and being this capsule of moments of their lives.  Too many stories of the Occupation period focus entirely on the horror of that time.  And Anthony doesn’t ignore that horror.  For one cannot fully tell a story of then without including it.  But, he does so without the anger, without dwelling on the savagery.  By simply weaving fragments into the story, you are never far from the reminder of the stark stripping of what life was like, the cruelty that can take over even the gentlest of souls, you feel even stronger the triumph, the beauty, the incredible strength of the human heart and spirit to survive.  And not just survive, but to also be able to find moments to live, to savor, to laugh. It is not a happy story.  Nor is it a sad one.  It is a real story that is a mixture of both.  It is full of humanness, compassion, cruelty and an unfiltered view of the stripping of color of the world that way brings in its wake.  It is a story told in dream fragments, thoughts, wishes, fears and perceptions.  It is slow and melodic and breathtakingly intricate, often bringing you to tears as well as filling your chest with hope and joy. I bow deeply to the word painting of this master artist.  I will keep my eye open for my own copy of this book, as this was a library book, for the words are ones I want to be able to re-savor again and again. I shall look for the rest of his body of work and pray that he has many, many, many more tales in his soul that need to come out and be shared with the world.  The tapestry he has created in the pages make the jewel within them pale by comparison. SephiPiderWitch 01/21/2015
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