All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony DoerrMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
**SOME SPOILERS**
Working at a bookstore, I have been hearing good things and bad things about this book. Either you love it, or you hate it. (Always seems to be the case with literature that wins high prizes!) In my case - I loved it. The extremely short chapters and switching perspectives seem to have thrown some people off, and they felt disconnected, but I love that technique, and it is also a perfect technique to employ when you're speaking about any of the wars. Life was disconnected, and this is a way to communicate that. Every time I read it, I knew I had to set aside at least an hour if more, as I could not put it down once I started. Admittedly, I am a little addicted to war literature, especially when dealing with the second world war. These human stories are fascinating and important to me. I also loved the complete opposites, between Marie-Laure (the occupied) and Werner (the occupier). Not all Germans were bad, which is often a feature of what I read, but this did it exceptionally well. Werner broke my heart and the ending broke my heart a little bit! I also loved the radio transmissions - it emphasized the danger of those times even more than descriptions of battles or the camps would have.
I also loved how we got to see the French people being occupied. Studying history and somewhat concentrating in this time period in my studies, I learned a lot about the French occupation and history, but it's not a well-known period. People always think of the Jewish people and the Germans. (They definitely should, of course - the Jewish history is fraught and this is no different.) But people forget that the French were heavily occupied, and it was terrifying. The French people had no control over their government's decisions to surrender, and they had to live. (Might be a reason why I also love INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS from Quentin Tarantino.) It was good to see this, and especially good to see this happening in a place other than Paris.
I really liked this and would definitely recommend it to anyone who has the slightest interest in World War II. It doesn't focus much at all on Hitler; it's more about the people's experience, and the young boys (the very young boys) who were shoved into his ranks, and the varying perspectives. A fascinating character for me is also the Sergeant Major von Rumpel; his treks were so interesting and his reaction to the environment as he sickened were as well.
Recommended, and I can certainly see where the Pulitzer came from.
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