Book Review - All The Light We Cannot See

Blog #1: Book Review of All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

 

Dearest Reader,

Welcome to my first book review.

I just finished reading the 2014 novel All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Let me just say: this is an excellent book.

The quality of the writing is what I appreciate the most about this novel. It's an impressionistic and compact style that occasionally stretches out in surprising ways. Drop a verb from the sentence––why not? The author gets away with this easily because there's a lot of intimacy and trust in the writing. Outright poetic, you could even say. 

One of the main characters is a blind girl. When you think about it, it must’ve been very difficult for the author to render her perspective, because none of her experience is visual. But Doerr skillfully gets you into her head using various techniques, such as internal dialogue, touch, sound, taste, memory, etc. A sample:

p. 384 (hardback): "The very thought of her lips against water––the tip of her nose touching its surface––summons up a biological craving beyond anything she has experienced. In her mind she falls into a lake; water fills her ears and mouth; her throat opens. One sip and she could think more clearly. She waits for her father's voice in her head to raise an objection, but none comes."

The plot, to me, is very good. It winds around a French girl and a German boy in the years of WWII. Two separate trajectories that are clearly going to intersect by the end, but you're not sure how. There's good intrigue and suspense, and some action, and an unspooling history of struggle. I won’t give away any more than that.

So, a perfect book? It’s close, but a few comments from this humble reader. For one, the chapters are very short, many in the range of 2-3 pages––so short that they cut away just as you’re getting into the scene. Two, the settings jump back and forth in time and space, as it (mostly) toggles between the French girl and the German boy––which is well done, but the net effect is there’s a lost opportunity to really dig into the worlds of each, simply because one is yanked back and forth a bit too much.

 

Net recommendation: Yes, yes, yes, don’t delay, read this book if you haven’t already. It’s the first Anthony Doerr I’ve read, but I’m planning on seeking out his other novels.

 

Peace,

 

Eliot J.

July 31, 2021

 

Title: All The Light We Cannot See

By: Anthony Doerr

Pages: 530

Copyright: 2014

Published by: Scribner – A Division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

ISBN: 978-1-4767-4658-6

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