All The Light We Cannot See

By Anthony Doerr |

“WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE
From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the beautiful, stunningly ambitious instant New York Times bestseller 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.” … summary by Chapers Indigo

Here’s What Happened at Book Club…

Wasn’t tonight’s book club meeting a complete mindf&^k!! (Let’s say that at least once at every meeting from here on).Yup serious subject matter both with the book and that pesky ancient cyborg thingie but holy crap all that laughing hurt.

Anyway I digress – about the book…
I think most everyone enjoyed this book in various degrees. There was one dissenter but she did concede that her head may not have been in it. Hopefully the post meeting ohms may have helped.

It is a beautifully written story. Some found the mixed up timeline to be distracting but we agreed that the story may not have been as interesting had it been told chronologically. In fact Lisa felt the short chapters and the mixture of past & present were perhaps mean’t to mimic Marie-Laure feeling her way through the miniature city streets.

As with many of the books we’ve read with war as the backdrop there are parts though painful to read (guess which one of us thought Werner losing his access to chocolate was one of those) trigger interesting conversation.

In this case it was Jutta traveling to France and not wanting anyone to know she was German. What must it have been like for many Germans post-WWII to cary the burden, shame & guilt of their country. And how long does it take for history to become just that for later generations, the sting removed.

This was a wonderful first post summer vacation book club meeting. What a weird and wacky group we are. Where else can you learn about the Yellowknife Mall Ball, that Suri really does know EVERYTHING and that 7 is the maximum # of times you can watch Titanic before losing your mind.

Thank you Toddy for picking All The Light We Cannot See and for hosting a great night. Til next time wormies… hopefully it doesn’t clash with any support groups 🙂