<p>What else are you all reading? I’m looking through Amazon and can’t find anything I’m in the mood to read. I liked this, I was okay on Orphan Train…what have you moved onto next?</p>
<p>Norwegian at Night–before this one–expected not to like it but did, even more than this.</p>
<p>I’m reading My Brilliant Friend off the best books thread - and my husband just finished The Boys in the Boat and says it’s one of the best books he’s ever read. </p>
<p>If anyone is looking for a little more analysis of All the Light We Cannot See, here are two good reviews (from The Washington Post and The New York Times):</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr/2014/05/05/c2deec58-cf14-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr/2014/05/05/c2deec58-cf14-11e3-a6b1-45c4dffb85a6_story.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/books/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr.html?_r=0”>http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/29/books/all-the-light-we-cannot-see-by-anthony-doerr.html?_r=0</a></p>
<p>The end of the New York Times review mentions the format of the book. I really liked the extremely short chapters–maybe because it made the out-of-sequence narrative less difficult to follow (or maybe just because I have a short attention span 
).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is what’s up next for me (the latest CC Book Club choice).</p>
<p>eyemamom, you might find something here: <a href=“Best Books of 2014 : NPR”>Best Books of 2014 : NPR. It’s fun to browse through all the different categories.</p>
<p>That statement from Doerr is incredibly obnoxious! I can handle his or anyone else’s supposed lyricism without extra white space to help me recuperate, thanks. I enjoyed the book, but now am left with a sour taste in my mouth. What an ego, and what contempt for American readers!</p>
<p>I saw it more as humility than arrogance – Doerr’s acknowledgement that the reader might not be all that keen on his writing style, preferring it in small doses. He elaborates in another interview:</p>
<p>
</a></p>
<p>I think Doerr hoped the structure would make the book a more pleasurable read. Whatever his reasons, it worked for me. I definitely found myself happily falling victim to the “I’ll read just one more chapter…” syndrome.</p>
<p>I liked the format as well. I could read a chapter or two at night without losing the rhythm of the story. I usually don’t like having to keep track of time frames and characters, it made it easier for me. </p>
<p>I finished this book last week and enjoyed it. I liked reading the two very different perspectives of the war and found both stories fascinating. One of the details I loved was how the music playing over the radio was calming and comforting to people on both sides of the war. It brought peace on an individual basis. I also loved that Werner eventually found the science transmission from Marie-Laure’s grandfather. It did bring his life some closure and purpose.</p>
<p>Glad this thread was started. Just finished the book.
Was shocked to find out that an American wrote this book, and even more stunned that Doerr was born in 1973.</p>
<p>This is fascinating NPR article about Doerr’s motivation for writing the book, and how it became a ww2 novel, set in Saint Malo.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.npr.org/2014/05/25/314566791/world-war-ii-in-a-new-light-empathy-found-in-surprising-places”>http://www.npr.org/2014/05/25/314566791/world-war-ii-in-a-new-light-empathy-found-in-surprising-places</a></p>
<p>SJCM, thanks for the interesting interview. At one point, Anthony Doerr says that he tried to show how Werner’s education at the hands of the Nazi elite led him to make “some difficult—and poor—choices,” and the interviewer concurs that “a generation of boys was taught to turn off their humanity.”</p>
<p>To me, the susceptibility of Werner and his peers to the influence of their Nazi instructors was one of the most chilling aspects of the novel. Whereas I thought the unremittingly evil Von Rumpel was a rather one-sided Nazi stereotype, I found Doerr’s depiction of the evolution (or actually devolution) of good people to be effective and disturbing.</p>
That was a good interview. I found it interesting that Doerr found Werner’s character after seeing a photo of a 15 year old German soldier.
Doerr did a great job telling Werner’s story, allowing us to see the steps toward evil. Werner was another victim of Hitler and Nazi Germany.
I was glad to see a sympathetic portrait of German citizens. My mother-in-law grew up in Nazi Germany and her family had some harrowing experiences at the hands of both German soldiers and the invading Russian army.
When reading Amazon reviews of All the Light We Cannot See, I noticed that one reader criticized the book for not explicitly mentioning the Holocaust. But it’s constantly there between the lines—the disappearance of Frau Stresemann, the piles of purloined jewelry that Von Rumpel examines, the eugenics instruction foisted on the boys, etc. Perhaps the fact that it is never spelled out reflects the experience of some citizens and soldiers (on both sides, and especially in outlying areas) who were focusing on their own struggle to survive and had only the vaguest concept (until after the war) of the horrific plans that Hitler was implementing.
The Museum of Tolerance of The Simon Wiesenthal Center has a good, clear Q&A about the Holocaust—“36 Questions About the Holocaust”: http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=394663
Mary13 good point. Doerr depicted the horrors of " war", of any “war” more than of the horrors of the Holocaust.
I agree, it was always there lurking in the undercurrent, but only because we know about it. Future generations could read this book, and not be as sympathetic to the nightmare of Ww2.
In the last scene Marie reflects:
**“Every hour, she thinks,someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world” **
It’s true the ww2 veterans are dwindling in huge numbers, and Doerr seems concerned about " not forgetting" but really he left out so much.
The book depressed me. Haunted me for a couple of days.
I loved the book and will likely read it again. I listened to the audiobook and the narrator is excellent. I tend to listen to my books at bedtime in the dark and the visualization was so intense that it kept me up night after night. I typically fall asleep after listening for about 30 minutes. On the Audible website, Doerr was asked which book he most enjoyed listening to this year and he recommended We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves. I took his advice and really enjoyed it.
Regarding the key, I thought of it more symbolic meaning.
Marie’s father, “key maker”, a keeper of the vast keys at the museum , which were, for Marie a blind person, the *wonders of the world. *
The “keys” at the museum, opened up Marie’s future, her life’s work, her passion.
Wasn’t Etinnes’s Broadcast, “key” for Jutta and Werner, opening up doors to a world, unimaginable and life changing for them. The magic of radio waves carrying music and knowledge to far away lands- wondrous!
And, finally, was the"key", symbolic of Werner’s true moment of bravery,of overcoming the " inhumanity" of war.
Werner saved Marie. His love for his sister transferred from Jutta to Marie, just as his love for Jutta made him empathetic to the young girl from the playground murdered in the closet.
So it was a beautiful moment to have Jutta, present Marie, so many decades later, not the stone, but something more symbolic of who Werner was.
Catera45, I agree this book can be reread. I’m looking back now to the Chapter “!sea of Flames” and it has more meaning now that I know the outcome of the gem. I’m so glad Doerr didn’t write the chapter, of the stone being dropped into the sea- ala the ending of Titanic.ugh.
So we are to assume, the gem, rests back to the natural world, as described in chapter “Sea of wonder”-"
The real mystery, the real wonder is how it was formed. The miracle is not the immense monetary value, but how the world created this beautiful thing.
For mary13 regarding Doerr’s depiction of Von Rumpel- from http://www.powells.com/blog/interviews/anthony-doerr-the-powells-com-interview-by-jill/
Jill: Von Rumpel’s character is a strange and interesting one. He becomes the third voice in addition to the two children’s voices. He’s pretty much acting on his own after a point. He wants the Sea of Flames for himself. To me, he became almost a more mythical creature. He even references mythology when he’s initially questioning the people at the museum about the jewel.
Doerr: He was the easiest to write because his motivations were clear all along to me. I think he was a narrative force for tension. It’s unfair to brand him as singularly evil, but he was my gesture towards the types of Nazis that you’re much more used to seeing. I was so nervous about trying to make Werner sympathetic that I had to balance him with a German that contemporary readers are more familiar with. That’s how I thought of him.
I get that he feels a little more mythic; he’s like a monster coming for Marie, really, in the house. He’s just a force of terror for her. That’s why he’s there.
I don’t think every book has to be THE go to guide for ww2 and the holocaust. It made me think there were probably younger kids in Germany who heard rumors but didn’t piece things together that were happening. I could see how the average citizen felt completely powerless to do anything. You could definitely read the subtext without it needing to be said in my opinion.
I was young during the vietnam war. My parents never left the tv on. In hindsight I was very insulated, living my own life playing hopscotch and riding my bike and didn’t really know at any deeper level that we were at war.
I didn’t read Von Rumpel as the typical Nazi. His quest was not for Hiltler, it was for his own self interest. He wanted the stone because he hoped it would keep him alive. He used his role as a German soldier to power his quest. He was definitely the ruthless and horrible monster of the story.
My first thought when Marie gave Werner the key was that she was giving him a sanctuary, a safe place to hide.
With the stone out there somewhere, there could be a sequel.
SJCM, I liked your analysis of the key as metaphor. I think the ambiguity of the key is one of the story’s strengths.
The description about the forming of the Sea of Flames puts the story into a sort of bittersweet perspective, with Werner and Marie-Laure’s story being just a blip in the life of the earth over billions of years.
I think Doerr underestimated the reader’s ability to handle a character with more complexity. That said, having Von Rumpel be a relentless monster did heighten the suspense of the story. (And sadly, such monsters do exist, as much as I would like to believe they don’t.)
This is true. My mother-in-law once told us that Hitler Youth was simply gym class as far as the children were concerned. She was very young and had no idea what was actually going on until the war came knocking on her door (literally–her father was taken away in the night and conscripted into the German army after being publicly critical of Hitler).