“Don’t you want to be alive before you die?”
All the Light We Cannot See was one of the books I was most excited to read this summer. Doerr's book won the Pulitzer for fiction this year, and I had heard only glowing reviews of the book; I wholeheartedly agree. This book is beautiful. The two central stories, of a German boy and a French girl around World War II, build until they start to come together in a way that I won't forget for a long time. It is so many things: a war story, a coming-of-age novel, a narrative about morality and harsh realities.
It was a surprisingly quick read for me, despite being more than 500 pages, with a beautiful and elegant style that doesn't make the often heavy material dense. Doerr does things with words that are simply stunning, constructing a narrative and descriptions that are fully realized. The setting hauntingly transforms from idyllic to war-torn and lonely. The world of this book is sad, grieving, and hurting, but it is also full of hope, thoughtfulness, and human goodness.
As Doerr explained that the deeper meaning of the title is "a suggestion that we spend too much time focused on only a small slice of the spectrum of possibility," this book illuminates a unique story. I highly recommend it; overall, it is haunting and bittersweet story about human connection and ordinary people whose lives are inexplicably linked.
More after the jump!
