Mind Games in Light and Darkness
Anthony Doerr’s
Pulitzer prize winning All the Light we
Cannot See is a niftily crafted WWII tale which is an exuberant celebration
of innocence amidst the ravages of war while simultaneously managing the
excoriation of a corrupt civilization that makes killers out of children. It is
not without niggling flaws that include occasionally overblown prose and an
indulgent pace but the characters are so engaging and the story itself is so
enthralling that all will be forgiven by the time the reader devours the last
sentence.
The plot follows the lives of a
blind French girl, Marie – Laure and an orphaned German boy, Werner, with a
gift for science and an uncanny understanding of the intricate workings of
radios, against a timeline set before, during and after the German occupation
of France. The former is forced to flee Paris with her father, a locksmith and
keeper of keys at the Museum D’Histoire Naturelle to his Uncle Etienne’s home
in Saint Malo. He is in possession of the fabled Sea of Flames, a rare diamond
with a bloody history which has been in the museum for 200 years. A Sergeant
Major of the third Reich is hot on their heels in pursuit of the diamond which
supposedly carries a curse.
Werner’s talent for fixing things
gets him noticed and he is packed off to a National School to learn how best he
may serve the war effort. All too soon, his brilliance is employed in tracking
radio transmissions across Russia and Central Europe, while fellow soldiers
rack up an appalling body count. Eventually, the war takes him to Saint Malo
and the blind girl with whom he had forged a magical connection, long before
either was aware of it, in the forlorn hope that he might somehow recapture the
best part of him that had been leached out by forces beyond his control.
The rich material has been assembled
with great care into crisp, concise chapters designed to hold the attention of
the reader. Doerr zigzags his way through various points in the narrative
building suspense in parts and killing it in others with both approaches
achieving similar degrees of gut – wrenching potency. His careful exploration
of the factors that led to ordinary German citizens becoming the instruments of
so much horror is without judgement and thereby, effective.
Doerr’s balances with consummate
skill on the knife edge as he portrays the angels and demons that war seems to
churn out. For every kind old lady who opens the door of her heart and larder
to the needy and making sure she does her part to aid the resistance there is a
blackguard who will sell his soul and rat out innocent neighbours in order to
curry favour with the oppressors. Portions involving the schooling of Nazi
youth, who are brutally honed into unthinking and ruthless killing machines to
be used in service of the fatherland, constitutes a powerful portion of this
tale.
Is there anything else that can be
said this remarkable book? It made me care deeply about some of the characters,
one in particular. I prayed for them all to make it through the bombing of
Saint – Malo as well as the malign forces aligned against them and wept
unashamedly when my favourite did not survive. Doerr’s devastating portrayal of
what the war did to dreamers is heartbreaking in the extreme but also a
towering testament to all that is good in human nature which will always carry
the promise of redemption.
