THE READING IS FINISHED

Three days ago, right at midnight, I completed reading those 530 pages of All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The story begins with World War II in progress and concludes in the year 2014. The little blind girl has become a blind grandmother but one with a doctorate in a specialized scientific field. One of the outstanding features of the novel is the blind girl's mastering the ability to get about alone on streets in her town, and even to shop regularly at a bakery for a loaf of bread in which a note of paper is hidden, enough evidence to get her killed if caught. But she is never caught with such a note.

This Marie-Laure loves the sea and much that comes from the sea, not only numerous seashells, but also the sea's sounds, smells, touch, and even taste. The author has done an excellent job in detailing scientific minutiae, particularly about the sea and the colors Marie-Laure imagines in the night sky. I once asked Doerr how he knew all the scientific facts in his other books. He said he didn't know them, but when he comes across an interesting scientific fact he jots it down  even right into the story he may be writing at the time. Clever idea!

But war is not the most important thread in this story, seeming far away for the main characters  in France and in Germany, as well as for the reader. Werner, the German boy with elite military training, does not know what is going on in the war scene elsewhere. The word Hitler is never mentioned and Fuhrer (umlaut that u, for I cannot produce it on this blogger site) is misspelled, for all nouns in German are always capitalized.

Of interest to many are the interspersed references to radios and transmitters, etc., too technical for me to discuss here. But the result of amateur broadcasts is the climax of the story, followed by anticlimax that may break your heart, if it is a tender heart like mine. I must not tell you more than this about the plot, for you must experience the delights and defeats for yourself.

The novel captures great beauty, especially through the senses of Marie-Laure whose eyes can only imagine the beauty. The reader longs to give her shoes that fit her feet; food and water to nourish her; and news of family. But most of all, the gift of sight. By 2014, some medical breakthrough might have succeeded.