I started this book about a month before my book club meeting, picked it up, put it down, then got into it about two weeks later. Once I got into it, I had a hard time putting it back down. I finished it at midnight the night before the meeting.
I’ve discovered some things about me and my style of reading. This is just a start. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot more as I continue to read more novels and fewer academic books.
First of all, I love historic fiction. I don’t know that I ever knew that for a fact, but I love reading all the human interest stories surrounded by true historic events. Second, it takes me a while to get into a book. Call it procrastination, or feeling tired, or dread, I don’t know. But, if it’s a good book, I do get into it and then I have a hard time letting it go until I finish. I do enjoy true stories, so perhaps the truth of the history is what draws me in.
This month’s book was All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr. He won a Pulitzer Prize (2015 Fiction Prize) the year after it was published. I was curious to find out why, and I was not disappointed.
enjoying my book (and the baby birds that just left the nest).
I tried to explain the plot to Tim, but this book is so full of intricate details, defining it is a massive challenge. What can I say? Read it!
Basically it’s a story of a boy and a girl who experience the atrocities of war, and the intersection of their stories. The book tells us about a blind Marie-Laure’s experience from the French side, as well as Werner’s front line witness on the German side. Werner was a child prodigy, fixing broken radios from a young age, then he is called to enter the war with others who would share in participating as students and military personnel in Heitler’s Reich. Marie-Laure learned to make use of her other senses at a young age, opening puzzle boxes within minutes, smelling her way around town, and recalling her steps by counting drains. Their family members are also followed, and the chapters rotate between various people and locations. This kept me on my toes.
There is much history told within the pages of this book. I feel like I understand more about the war, the important role played by the radio and trigonometry (math comes in handy in real life at times), German’s propaganda, the attack on Paris, the sad demise of the city of Saint-Malo, and how war impacts everyone to some degree or another (to name a few). I felt attached to the blind girl with freckles, whose father created small replicas of her town so she could find her way around when she ventured outdoors. I loved reading some French phrases, and actually understanding them!
The father’s puzzle boxes reminded me of the puzzle box my mother brought home to me from Guatemala, when I was a little girl. She was there on an extended mission trip after a major earthquake shook their world. I meant to take it to the meeting to show my fellow book clubbers, but I forgot to pick it up as I was walking out the door. Perhaps I can create a video to show you what it looks like, as well as the treasures found inside. It’s an antique now!
I liked the relatively short chapters, which helped the pages flip a bit faster. It’s quite a story. I enjoyed seeing the resilience and perseverance of those who experienced trauma and war crimes. The storyteller drew me in with his beautifully written phrases, exquisite attention to detail, and storyline. As I carried the book with me to doctor’s appointments and other errands, I heard more than once, “That’s a great book!”
I rated it a 9.0, with one point deducted primarily due to the ending. Club members also rated it strong, with some ratings increasing from 8.0 to 9.0 after our discussion.
Spoiler Alert! Skip this paragraph if you plan to read the book. I was a bit disappointed by the ending. I was hoping for a Hallmark ending, and that didn’t happen. A few people’s ending were left unclear, as the characters in the book were unable to find family members and friends. Werner and Marie-Laure do meet, and he saves her life more than once, but they only meet in person for less than a day. He seems to have fallen in love with her before they met, but when they leave the country in separate ways, he becomes ill and wanders into a mine field. I was really hoping they could stay together until the end of the book. It’s fiction after all. Why didn’t the author end it that way? I guess war is like that. Not a lot of happy endings.
À la prochaine…hasta la próxima vez…until next time!