All the Light We Cannot See is a book by Anthony Doerr about World War 2 and the stories of these fictional characters in the midst of it. These characters include the blind French girl Marie-Laure LeBlanc, the orphan radio aficionado and Nazi soldier Werner Pfennig, and a few other characters that are hardly ever explored minus their relation to the stories two protagonists. The book can be easily divided into about 5 acts, although the story is not quite linear, which is something I go into depth during the second paragraph. The story has a very strong beginning, a decent middle section, and an ending that ties up all of the plot’s loose ends despite it being quite boring (although I may have just been tired of the book at that point). None of the main characters make decisions that are logically questionable or out of character for them, however this may just be a byproduct of the fact that the main characters (LeBlanc and Pfennig) don’t seem to be in full control of their lives, due to the fact that one of them is seriously disabled and the other is a soldier in one of the most infamously authoritarian (among other things) regimes the world has seen thus far.
The story follows this format of beginning with the climax of the story, and each section of the story afterward is interjected with chapters from what would be this story's climatic section. While beginning a story with its own end is not unheard of nor uncommon, it’s the interjections in between each section that truly wear on the reader. Beginning a story with its own end is a good tactic because it can inform the audience of what will happen to the story's protagonist(s) before these characters are even formally introduced, giving the entire story some sort of feeling of suspense in the reader or audience wondering how the events later on in the story will lead to this one, or alternatively some good old dramatic irony, similar to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. However, constantly interjecting your story with these sections of the climax disrupt the flow of the story, and almost insulting the reader, essentially saying “by the way this is how the book ends in case you forgot already,” every time a section is completed. This method of interjection and nonlinear structure also kills off the story's actual climax and it does not have as much effect as it should on the reader. Overall if I were to rate this book I’ll give it a light to decent 6/10.
This book seems pretty interesting because World War 2 was a very interesting war. I don't know if I would read this book because some of the ratings that people gave it were not that good because the book is to predictable. I usually like War books but I don't know if I would read this book.
ReplyDeleteMy mom read this book recently but the way she described it made me unsure if I wanted to read it or not and it didn't give me much of an idea of what it's actually about. This review clears up the book for me, I don't think I want to read it after reading your review but it does seem interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think this book will be an extremely interesting read. After reading this summary and several others, it seems that "All the light we cannot see" is an interesting story about how war effects the lives of the people. To reference this post in particular, I appreciate how the author of this blog post has been honest and critical of the book. Knowing the pitfalls of the story is helpful when reading, and I am excited to get started!
ReplyDeleteI read this book and liked it. The tactic that the author used was a bit confusing at first, but with time, and the author’s details, I was able to understand and enjoy this book. If I had read your review before deciding to buy this book I would not have gotten. I wish you had enjoyed it more, but I understand your frustrations.
ReplyDeleteReading this novel was an interesting experience. I went into this summer reading project thinking the book was going to be boring, but Anthony Doerrs writing was so new to me. The way he wrote in patterns and the imagery and descriptions he used made the story more flavorful and helped me enjoy the story.
ReplyDeleteThis book is definitely unique. I found at times it was hard to keep track of both storylines playing out at once, I had to remember twice as many characters and important events than I’m used to. However, when the 2 main characters stories finally meet up and align it was incredibly satisfying.
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