All the Light We Cannot See
I picked this up based on the recommendations of Libby and I have to say that even though I finished it, I can’t say I really recommend it. Its a decent length book, and it has a few compelling characters and situations, but overall, the characters themselves don’t really develop. Or I should say, the circumstances of the characters change, and outside of the obvious (the characters grow up, they adapt to their circumstances thrust upon them, they react as one would to obvious discomfort and stuff), they don’t really change. Even with extraordinary circumstances such as one of the main characters going blind, or the other main character being put into the Nazi Army, the base character of the protagonists don’t change much.
The story is about war, but the horrors of the war isn’t really the forefront of the story. there is escape from paris, there is some depiction of lootings, there is the horribleness of the war on wartime recruits in germany, but it is all so written distantly that you feel like the war isn’t really happening on the characters. The author plainly wants you to focus on the characters and their own personal struggles, which is fine, but the backdrop could be almost any conflict since the war isn’t made really personal to them. This shouldn’t be mistaken to say that there is no loss. There clearly is loss, and heartbreak and hope, but the hallmarks of world war 2 aren’t really there. this isn’t really a criticism; not all ww2 books have to be about the holocaust and the use of nuclear weapons in japan.
Perhaps the biggest criticism I do have about the book is how predictable it becomes. You kind of know that the main characters will meet, its just how they will meet that’s the question. When they finally meet, it is so anti-climatic that you feel almost completely let down. I felt the epilogue to be stronger than the meeting of the protagonists, and perhaps that is the way the author wanted it to be.
the prose is quite good, but nothing particularly special in my opinion.
Still, this is an expertly crafted book, I did finish and felt compelled to finish becuase the execution was good. It has good characters, a good setting, but nothing about the book makes me think I will want to reread it years from now.
Solidly 3 stars. you won’t regret reading it, but it won’t do much for you either I think.