All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

I read mixed reviews about this book. People seem to either love or hate it. I loved it. I loved the writing, the short chapters, like impressions taken out of a person's life, flashbacks written in a way I could almost see them. (Sheets of paper tumble down the rows of cots, and in Werner’s chest comes a quickening. He sees Frau Elena kneel beside the coal stove and bank up the fire. Children in their beds. Baby Jutta sleeps in her cradle. His father lights a lamp, steps into an elevator, and disappears. The voice of Volkheimer: What you could be.) I loved the author's unusual choice of words to describe ordinary things like the sound of fire: the sound of dried roses being crushed in a fist; or the swimming of flies. I know flies don't swim, they fly or swarm, but for me swimming of flies implies slow or dazed movement. I imagined that's how the soldiers must have been feeling: dazed and nightmarish. What I loved the most was the ability of the author to convince me to read on, even though I don't like reading novels set during the Second World War. For me it was a powerful read, each word seems to be leaden with meaning, waiting to be thought over, digested, torn apart.

There are two storylines. There is Marie-Laure, a blind girl living in France before and during the Second World War. In Germany there's Werner's story, going on at the same time. Marie-Laure's life revolves around The Museum of National History, where her father Daniel LeBlanc works. She's learning to live after her sight is gone, and reads Jules Verne's 20.000 Leagues Under the Sea. After the beginning of the war, Marie-Laure and her father leave Paris for Saint-Malo, a town on the coast, where uncle Etienne lives. This is where she gets acquainted with the resistance and a big radio in the attic. Werner likes radios, wants to be a radio engineer and study in Berlin. Unfortunately he is an orphan, living in coal mining town, destined to work in a mine as soon as he turns fifteen. All he wants in life in to escape Zollverein and his father's destiny when one day he left for work in the mine and never returned. Werner gets his wish, but as always, everything has its price. There's also the third story, the one of The Sea Of Flames, a stone, a diamond, promising immortality to whoever owns it. The diamond brings sergeant major von Rumpel into the novel, a seriously ill German officer traveling across Europe, looking for treasures for the Füherer's Museum. 

What I thought of the most when I was reading this book was the ability of distinguishing right from wrong and all it brings along. Werner's sister Jutta says: Is it right to do something only because everyone else is doing it? He admires her ability to tell right from wrong, but at the same time a weaker part of him resents it. Thinking the way she thinks doesn't keep her safe. She writes letters the school censor blocks out almost completely. By her not being safe, Werner isn't safe. His friend Frederik believes that we don't have choices, we don't own our lives. I think Werner knows the difference between right and wrong, he just never acts on it. Up till the end when his only choice is like atonement for all the instances he failed to prevent wrong. Marie-Laure says: When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave, But it is not bravery, I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don't you do the same? He says: Not in years. But today. Today maybe I did.  

War is a whore. She never dies, just dons a new frock and reappears somewhere else on Earth. History keeps repeating itself. What is it? Wheel of fortune? Eternal return? History is decided by the victors who act in their own self-interest. I'll stop now and conclude with the words form the novel: Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever.

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O tej knjigi sem brala različne odzive. Ljudem je všeč ali pa ni. Meni je bila ... zelo. Všeč mi je stil pisanja, kratka poglavja, ki so kot vtisi iz življenja, všeč so mi spomini, ki so opisani tako, da se jih predstavljam kot da bi gledala film. Všeč mi je kako avtor izbira nenavadne besede, s katerimi opiše navadne stvari, na primer da je zvok ognja tak kot da bi v pesti stisnili suhe vrtnice ali kako muhe plavajo nad mizami. Ja, vem, muhe ne plavajo, ampak letijo. Plavanje muh ima zame čisto drugačen pomen. Ko muhe plavajo, se predstavljam, da se to odvija počasi, omotično. Tako nekako so se morali počutiti vojaki, omotično, kot v nočni mori. Najbolj mi je bilo všeč to, da me je Doerr z vsakim poglavjem prepričal, da berem naprej, čeprav večinoma ne maram brati knjig, ki se dogajajo med drugo svetovno vojno. Knjiga je bila zame precej močna, vsaka beseda se mi je zdela polna pomena, ki čaka, da o njem razmislim, ga prebavim in ga razsujem. 

V knjigi beremo dve zgodbi, ki se v poglavjih med seboj izmenjujeta. Marie-Laure je slepa deklica, ki živi v Franciji pred in med drugo svetovno vojno. V Nemčiji v istem času živi Werner. Življenje Marie-Laure se vreti okoli Prirodoslovnega muzeja, kjer dela njen oče Daniel LeBlanc. Spopada se z vsakodnevnim življenjem potem, ko je izgubila vid in bere 20.000 milj pod morjem Julesa Verna. Kmalu po začetku vojne z očetom zapustita Pariz in odideta v Saint-Malo, mestece na obali, kjer živi Danielov stric Etienne. Tam se Marie-Laure seznani z odporniškim gibanjem in velikim radiom na podstrešju. Wernerja zanima radio, želi si postati radio inženir in študirati v Berlinu. Na žalost živi v sirotišnici v rudarskem kraju, takoj ko bo dopolnil petnajst let pa ga čaka delo v rudniku. Vse kar si želi je, da bi zbežal iz Zollvereina in očetove usode, ko je nekega dne odšel na delo v rudnik in se ni več vrnil. Wernerju se izpolni želja, vendar ima, kot vedno, vse svojo ceno. Poleg njunih zgodb beremo tudi zgodbo o Morju ognja, kamnu, diamantu, ki ponuja nesmrtnost tistemu, ki ga ima. Diamant v roman prinese resno bolnega nemškega častnika von Rumpla, ki potuje po Evropi iz zbira zaklade za Hitlerjev muzej. 

Med branjem mi je najbolj dala misliti sposobnost ločevanja dobrega od zlega in vse kar to prinese s seboj. Wernerjeva sestra Jutta se sprašuje ali je prav, da počnemo nekaj samo zato, ker to počnejo vsi drugi. Werner to njeno lastnost občuduje, čeprav ji jo šibkejši del njega zameri. Tako razmišljanje ne zagotavlja varnosti. Jutta piše pisma, ki jih cenzor na Wernerjevi šoli skoraj popolnoma prečrta. Če Jutta ni varna, tudi Werner ni. Njegov sošolec Frederik meni, da nimamo pravice do izbire, da si ne lastimo svojih življenj. Mislim, da Werner pozna razliko med dobrim in zlim, le da nikoli ne ravna tako. No, razen na koncu, ko je njegova odločitev podobna pokori za vsa grozodejstva, ki jih ni preprečil, odklonil. Ko se pogovarjata, Marie-Laure pravi, da ni pogumna, da se samo zjutraj zbudi in živi svoje življenje. Werner ugotovi, da do takrat tega najbrž nikoli ni storil. Tistega dne pa morda je.

Vojna je kurba. V resnici nikoli ne umre, samo drugo obleko si obleče in se pojavi drugje na svetu. Zgodovina se ponavlja kot ... kaj? Kolo sreče? Večno vračanje? Zgodovino pišejo zmagovalci, skladno s svojimi interesi. Najbolje, da na tem mestu neham in zaključim z mislijo iz knjige: Glejte z lastnimi očmi, vse kar lahko, dokler se ne zaprejo za vedno.