I’m a sucker for World War II era stories, so Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See was an enjoyable read from cover to cover. Using a very creative narration model, Anthony takes the chiastic structure to a whole new level. The book opens in August of 1944 as the Americans lay siege to a small Nazi-occupied town off the coast of Brittany by the name of Saint-Malo. Each chapter is only a few hundred words long, and in an alternating fashion, we see the lives of the two protagonists, Werner and Marie-Laure, unfold from a third person omniscient point of view. After a few dozen pages, we are then sent back in time to witness their childhoods in the same alternating manner. The reader is rapidly oscillating between four different stories at once—the life of Werner up to August 1944, Werner during the siege of Saint-Malo in August 1944, and the same two stories for Marie-Laure.
Throughout the story, it is slowly revealed how the lives of the two protagonists are connected to each other, until they inevitably meet. The main takeaway I have from this historical fiction is the idea that it really is a small world as long as we try to make it so. Chances are, we are connected to each individual we meet in unexpected ways, and the onus is on us to find these connections and strengthen our relationships.
One criticism I do have is that the themes could have been developed better. The two protagonists had to, as Hamlet would say, suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, in the midst of a wartorn continent. I felt these themes were more strongly portrayed in A Thousand Splendid Suns, the first book I read this year (2023). Additionally, the ending didn’t click with me. There was no concrete conclusion, but it also didn’t feel like any loose ends were deliberately left for the reader. Overall, All the Light We Cannot See was an enjoyable, but not necessarily profound, read. Then again, it’s very possible I might be missing something.
IRL Update: I’ve been continuing to do a decent job of finding time before bed each night for reading. I finished this book in just under two weeks, so I’m on track to reach my goal of 20 books by the end of the year (maybe I’ll read some longer and harder ones towards the end just to make it a challenge).