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A review by pagesof_autumn
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
5.0
4,5 stars! The ,5 remaining because of something that absolutely got me at the end and which I'm still upset over. You'll have to read it to understand, though.
Simply put; this story mesmerized me from the get-go. I'm not even gonna sit here and try to explain how or why. Please, just read this novel. You won't regret it.
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Edit: Okay, I feel like I should explain a little.
First of all, the writing in this book is amazing. The prose really has a superior quality. If I could go back and read it for the first time again, I'd try to resist and savor it more. Not read through it in two days because I couldn't put it down. I loved how every location got its very distinct atmosphere simply by the level of detail Doerr provided. Paris, St. Malo, Zollverein, ... etc. they all have a very different, singular feel to them. Even more details go into the houses where the main characters live, the museum in Paris or the Nazi school in Germany. You can almost taste the salt of the sea in the air or feel the ashes of burnt cokes on your skin.
Secondly, I loved both of the main characters' inquisitive and curious nature. Both of them start out with their own setbacks in life, but both of them have something worth living for and a dream they're willing to go the extra mile for. Not in small regard thanks to the people around them. I also love to follow their parallel storylines throughout different moments in time and how you can see the war starting around them and eventually taking over and shaping their lives. From small children to young adults (teenagers) who have been through and seen too much to ever fully believe in innocence again.
I really enjoyed the historical setting and the feeling of detail that went into the military side of the story. Doerr doesn't shy away from the atrocities of war, on either side, but it doesn't become grim or gratuitous. It's simply there, in a way I feel is very realistic to what people actually witnessed back in the day. Very little gore, just facts that get mentioned along the way. My personal interest in WW2 will always be with the civilians, not the soldiers and I like how this novel shows their lives changing. Very subtly in the beginning, becoming more and more pronounced over the years until they reach full-blown occupation and then liberation.
Mind you, I'm talking about those who were considered to be civilians at the time. This is not a WW2 story that talks of Jewish people, Sinti or any of the other groups of people that were considered less and ended up in extermination camps. These are the people that got to stay in their homes, for a while anyway. The people that "lived" a "normal life" throughout the war.
We also get to see very clearly how there is hardly any good and evil to speak of. There is just serving your country, following orders, sitting through air-raids in a shelter and hoping you'll make it through another night. Every single person is just that, flaws and all.
Now ... The ending is its own kind of subtle and it won't satisfy everyone. It didn't fully satisfy me either, but I can appreciate the twist. Maybe more than anything, the symbolism this novel brings to the table beats another cliché happy ending. Because let's face it, the war didn't leave a whole lot of happy endings. On either side. The fact we'll never know about some people's fate is sadly very accurate indeed. The fact that not everyone makes it back home is very true. The fact that the Allied forces behaved like the very same beasts the Germans had, is also known.
Simply put; this story mesmerized me from the get-go. I'm not even gonna sit here and try to explain how or why. Please, just read this novel. You won't regret it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Edit: Okay, I feel like I should explain a little.
First of all, the writing in this book is amazing. The prose really has a superior quality. If I could go back and read it for the first time again, I'd try to resist and savor it more. Not read through it in two days because I couldn't put it down. I loved how every location got its very distinct atmosphere simply by the level of detail Doerr provided. Paris, St. Malo, Zollverein, ... etc. they all have a very different, singular feel to them. Even more details go into the houses where the main characters live, the museum in Paris or the Nazi school in Germany. You can almost taste the salt of the sea in the air or feel the ashes of burnt cokes on your skin.
Secondly, I loved both of the main characters' inquisitive and curious nature. Both of them start out with their own setbacks in life, but both of them have something worth living for and a dream they're willing to go the extra mile for. Not in small regard thanks to the people around them. I also love to follow their parallel storylines throughout different moments in time and how you can see the war starting around them and eventually taking over and shaping their lives. From small children to young adults (teenagers) who have been through and seen too much to ever fully believe in innocence again.
I really enjoyed the historical setting and the feeling of detail that went into the military side of the story. Doerr doesn't shy away from the atrocities of war, on either side, but it doesn't become grim or gratuitous. It's simply there, in a way I feel is very realistic to what people actually witnessed back in the day. Very little gore, just facts that get mentioned along the way. My personal interest in WW2 will always be with the civilians, not the soldiers and I like how this novel shows their lives changing. Very subtly in the beginning, becoming more and more pronounced over the years until they reach full-blown occupation and then liberation.
Mind you, I'm talking about those who were considered to be civilians at the time. This is not a WW2 story that talks of Jewish people, Sinti or any of the other groups of people that were considered less and ended up in extermination camps. These are the people that got to stay in their homes, for a while anyway. The people that "lived" a "normal life" throughout the war.
We also get to see very clearly how there is hardly any good and evil to speak of. There is just serving your country, following orders, sitting through air-raids in a shelter and hoping you'll make it through another night. Every single person is just that, flaws and all.
Now ... The ending is its own kind of subtle and it won't satisfy everyone. It didn't fully satisfy me either, but I can appreciate the twist. Maybe more than anything, the symbolism this novel brings to the table beats another cliché happy ending. Because let's face it, the war didn't leave a whole lot of happy endings. On either side. The fact we'll never know about some people's fate is sadly very accurate indeed. The fact that not everyone makes it back home is very true. The fact that the Allied forces behaved like the very same beasts the Germans had, is also known.