All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

So this book is a little outside the norm for me, but it is on my list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, and it just so happens to be the book picked for January/February in my book club, Up, Up & Away. And, to be honest, it does interest me as I do like learning about the WWII era. However, what I did not expect was to love the book as much as I did and even before finishing it, I had recommended it to two people, which is usually a big no-no for me because what if the ending sucks and then I recommended a horrible book. Luckily, this book did not disappoint.

(Source: Kelsey Darling)

All the Light We Cannot See follows two children in the years leading up to and during World War II. One is a young boy, Werner Pfennig, who is an orphan living with his sister, Jutta, in a mining town in Germany. Werner has an interest in radios, in learning in general, and it is this and his stunningly white blonde hair that makes him of interest to the German Riech. Marie-Laure lives in Paris with her father, who is the locksmith for the Museum of Natural History. When Paris is invaded, she and her father flee to Saint-Malo where her great uncle, Etienne, lives. By complete chance, Werner and Marie-Laure's lives intertwine, just barely, but largely impacts both of them.

I know that I will never be able to completely understand what the people went through during WWII, but it is books like this that make it feel, at least while I am reading the pages of the book, that I was there. And that is what this book does. I like that it starts out in the years before the war, when people thought that the kids imitating Hitler were just playing games and not to be taken seriously.

"In Zollverein, in the spring of Werner's tenth year, the two oldest boys at Children's House-thirteen-year-old Hans Schilzer and fourteen-year-old Herribert Pomsel-shoulder secondhand knapsacks and goose-step into the woods. When they come back, they are members of the Hitler Youth.

They carry slingshots, fashion spears, rehearse ambushes from behind snowbanks. They join a bristling gang of miners' sons who sit in the market square, sleeves rolled up, shorts hiked to their hips. 'Good evening,' they cry at passersby. 'Or heil Hitler, if you prefer!'

They give each other matching haircuts and wrestle in the parlor and brag about the rifle training they're preparing for, the gliders they'll fly, the tank turrets they'll operate. Our flag represents the new era, chant Hans and Herribert, our flag leads us to eternity. At meals they chide younger children for admiring anything foreign: a British car advertisement, a French picture book.

Their salutes are comical; their outfits verge on ridiculous." (p. 42)

I feel that a lot of people, especially younger people, forget or do not understand that Hitler did not rise to power overnight. And there were things he did in the beginning that seemed beneficial and helpful. He slowly misguided people into believing that Jews, gypsies, gays, prostitutes, the poor, and others were people to be feared, called out, hidden away, killed. If Hitler had said that right from the start, he would not have had the same power he had when he was at his strongest. The book shows how it slowly took over the minds and attitudes. It also shows how not everyone in Germany believed it. Jutta and Frau Elena were not so easily convinced of the new ways, and Jutta questioned many things she saw and the way people behaved. And poor, sweet Frederick, who just wanted to learn about birds, but knew that by joining Hitler's army, he was protecting his family, was forever maimed because he refused to throw water on a prisoner of war. 

(Source: Giphy)

What is brilliant in Marie-Laure's story is that you not only learn what it would have been like living as a blind person in the 1930s and 40s, but also what it was like not knowing what happened to your loved one. Daniel, her father, has done everything for her to make life as easy as possible, knowing that he will not always be around to help her. When they lived in Paris, he built a miniature scale model of the city and trained her to count storm drains and other markings so that she could find her way around town without him. And when they moved to Saint-Malo, he did the same thing. It was taking the measurements of the buildings that would eventually lead to a neighbor turning in a lead on him, but it was worth it in his eyes. When he left to return to Paris for a short trip, it did not seem possible that he would not return to her. And when the war ended, she and Etienne constantly searched lists of prisoners released, eventually having to accept the fact that he did not make it out of a camp. Part of me kept hoping that maybe, just maybe, he made it. While I know that is the most realistic outcome, it is also the most heartbreaking.

It was also heartbreaking how Werner and Jutta left things, never getting to reunite. While they did not end on a fight, or anything horrible like that, he never got to tell her that she had been right and that she could see behind the disguises and bullshit out there, and see the truth of what was happening. He died not knowing if she was safe, or even where she was. Again, I know this was the more realistic ending, but it is no less saddening.

(Source: Giphy)

I do like how Werner and Marie-Laure's lives always had some intermingling. As a child, Werner and Jutta would listen to a radio he had put back together, and hear a broadcast of a Frenchman who taught them things. What were the chances that all those years later, he would save that Frenchman's grand niece from death and get her safely out of the city? Those recording Etienne played saved Werner, and inspired him to learn. Without them, he might not have ended up in the German army, in Saint-Malo looking for illegal radios. It goes to show that you never know how you might touch someone's life.

I can understand why this book is on the list of 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime. The writing is brilliant and beautiful and poetic. The characters have depth; as they learn and change, so do you. It shows you so many different points of view and ways of life and histories that have been lost. This is a book that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Rating: 10/10

Author: Anthony Doerr

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

Dates Read: February 7-13, 2019