Review: All the Light We Cannot See

 All the Light We Cannot See 

Anthony Doerr, 2017

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I waited 33 weeks for this book on the library hold list after loving the complexity of Cloud Cuckoo Land, the first book I read this calendar year. It floored me and I could do nothing but read it until I read it so fast I had regrets about not savoring it more. 

But when I finally got its predecessor in early August, it just sat. I couldn’t bear to start it. With so many sad moments that last handful of years, I haven’t had it in me to read or watch sad things; when I realized this was a World War II novel, I froze. I had rushed the hold without reading anything about the book (although I’m sure I read  raves from blog friends when they read it) and all those months of waiting became weeks of a standoff - and an overdue book!! <gasp> - while life lifed and I tried to find the mental curiosity to just start reading it. 

Ridiculous? Possibly. Overdramatic? Definitely. But, with the start of school, my daughter hitting double digits, a health crisis for my mom, an abandoned vacation… the idea of reading deep feels when my daily life was all feels is what I’ve avoided in recent years and a big part of why I’ve had reading novels breaks the past decade or so. 

The overdue book anxiety got me, though, and it was a “pick it up and get it done or give it back and wait 30+ more weeks” moment. So, I dove in and read the whole thing in 24 hours. 

Did it make me sad? Oh, yes. My heart. 

Did it bring me oh so much joy? What a story! The crisscrossing plots. The puzzles across media. The mistakes and the sea and horrors and lists - it was just incredibly alive and I’m so glad I got over myself and read it. 

Summary from bookshop.org:

Marie-Laure lives with her father in Paris near the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of its thousands of locks. When she is six, Marie-Laure goes blind and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home. When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris, and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure's reclusive great uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum's most valuable and dangerous jewel.

In a mining town in Germany, the orphan Werner grows up with his younger sister, enchanted by a crude radio they find. Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing these crucial new instruments, a talent that wins him a place at a brutal academy for Hitler Youth, then a special assignment to track the Resistance. More and more aware of the human cost of his intelligence, Werner travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure's converge.

Now, the question that’s left is will I watch the miniseries this November? The cast looks stacked (Mark Ruffalo, High Laurie) and I’m incredibly glad that they looked for a Marie-Laure who was blind or low vision - and found a New England actress for it. I’m always off the camp book first, watch second; but, I can’t imagine any movie/mini series/show could live up to this book. 

Do you have any weird roadblocks to reading certain books or genres? Do you watch film/tv adaptions of favorite books?