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Loading... All the Light We Cannot See (2014)by Anthony Doerr
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I was just so overwhelmed and taken by "The Book Thief" that any other book in this space, no matter how creative, how unique, even if it is a different story, but in the same era, it takes 2nd place to that book. However, all that being said, on it's own the book is wonderfully written, has terrific characters, but I felt that the ending was drawn out, that the book well, lasted too long. Not that I would change the ending, but I think it should have been "tightened up." I loved this book. An imaginative painting of a world at war. Opened the door to some new ways of seeing. I didn't want it to end, and yet I was driven to see how it ended. Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of World War II is a superb reading experience. Told (mostly) from the points of view of three people - a blind French girl, a very young German soldier, and a dying older German soldier on a quest - the book is written in brief chapters of alternating viewpoints, in present tense. Doerr's prose is exquisite and his ability to reveal the depths of wildly disparate characters makes them vivid. Though not remotely a genre novel or a melodrama, ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE has the intensity and suspense of a thriller, yet the poetry and color of a work of great literature. Which is what this book is. Doerr tells a story containing the sweep of the entire second World War, but without battles or strategy. Rather he reveals the inner lives of its characters, all unknown to each other, as the war draws the threads of their lives together into a single dramatic knot. This is a wonderful novel. I stand corrected. When I started this I was too dismissive. While I stand by my characterization of it as a "beach book" (in the sense that it is very long and very easy to read), it is also a much better book than that phrase usually connotes. The writing is truly quite excellent, Doerr is a master at evoking moods and sensations and feelings and his characters are extremely well-drawn. On top of that, he has constructed an elegant and meticulously shaped story. I enjoyed it quite a bit more than I expected and, though I think some of the praise is overdone, I also believe that it is well worth the time to read it.
What really makes a book of the summer is when we surprise ourselves. It’s not just about being fascinated by a book. It’s about being fascinated by the fact that we’re fascinated. The odds: 2-1 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr Pros: Blind daughter of a locksmith meets reluctant Nazi engineering whiz! What more do you want? Cons: Complex, lyrical historical fiction may not have the necessary mass appeal. “All the Light We Cannot See” is more than a thriller and less than great literature. As such, it is what the English would call “a good read.” Maybe Doerr could write great literature if he really tried. I would be happy if he did. I’m not sure I will read a better novel this year than Anthony Doerr’s “All the Light We Cannot See.” By the time the narrative finds Marie-Laure and Werner in the same German-occupied village in Brittany, a reader’s skepticism has been absolutely flattened by this novel’s ability to show that the improbable doesn’t just occur, it is the grace that allows us to survive the probable. Werner’s experience at the school is only one of the many trials through which Mr. Doerr puts his characters in this surprisingly fresh and enveloping book. What’s unexpected about its impact is that the novel does not regard Europeans’ wartime experience in a new way. Instead, Mr. Doerr’s nuanced approach concentrates on the choices his characters make and on the souls that have been lost, both living and dead. Is contained inIs abridged inHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a student's study guideAll The Light We Cannot See: A Novel By Anthony Doerr | Unofficial Summary & Analysis by Razerfin Books Anthony Doerr's All The Light We Cannot See: Study Notes for Common Module: Texts and Human Experiences 2019-2023 HSC by Bruce Pattinson AwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
"From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, a stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Marie Laure lives with her father in Paris within walking distance of the Museum of Natural History where he works as the master of the locks (there are thousands of locks in the museum). When she is six, she goes blind, and her father builds her a model of their neighborhood, every house, every manhole, so she can memorize it with her fingers and navigate the real streets with her feet and cane. When the Germans occupy Paris, father and daughter flee to Saint-Malo on the Brittany coast, where Marie-Laure's agoraphobic great uncle lives in a tall, narrow house by the sea wall. In another world in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner, grows up with his younger sister, Jutta, both enchanted by a crude radio Werner finds. He becomes a master at building and fixing radios, a talent that wins him a place at an elite and brutal military academy and, ultimately, makes him a highly specialized tracker of the Resistance. Werner travels through the heart of Hitler Youth to the far-flung outskirts of Russia, and finally into Saint-Malo, where his path converges with Marie-Laure. Doerr's gorgeous combination of soaring imagination with observation is electric. Deftly interweaving the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, Doerr illuminates the ways, against all odds, people try to be good to one another. Ten years in the writing, All the Light We Cannot See is his most ambitious and dazzling work"-- No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.6Literature English (North America) American fiction 21st CenturyLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Hmmm. I must have written the abovet about another book. Portions of this book could fit that description, but a significant amount felt quite manipulative, which made the whole much less than the sum of its parts. ( )