BOOK CLUB NEWS
FEBRUARY 19, 2016
RICHARD BASS, COORDINATOR
Cell: 323-533-3550
[email protected]
All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr
Discussion Leader: Leslie Gardiner
With 43 readers in attendance, Leslie led the discussion with
aplomb. She began by telling us to keep in mind throughout the
discussion the meaning of the title, then proceeded with a little
about the author. Anthony Doerr worked 10 years on the book,
taking a few distractions to write short stories. His research was
meticulous, especially on the radio of the era. All The Light We
Cannot See received the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 2014, the
year it was published. His inspiration for the book began on a train
heading into Penn Station in Manhattan coming from Princeton,
New Jersey. Noticing a man on his cell phone angry that he lost connection going into a tunnel,
Doerr realized that we forget what a miracle is this miniature radio in one’s pocket. He wanted
to conjure up a time when hearing someone’s voice from far away on the radio was a miracle.
For more information on Doerr’s inspirations see
http://www.npr.org/2014/05/25/314566791/world-war-ii-in-a-new-light-empathy-found-insurprising-places.
Leslie posed a wide range of discussion questions. Doerr, a new parent at the time of
writing the book, found that short chapters with space in between suited his schedule of erratic
sleep. He also felt that stopping one narrative to begin another would build momentum. How
did moving back and forth in time work for you? What is the role of the radio? What was the
impact of the radio during the war? Compare it to the internet today. As one of the books
postscript remarks: “It would not have been possible for us take power or to use it in the ways
we have without the radio.” Joseph Goebbels. Discuss the radio as a character. Why did Doerr
create one character as blind? What effect did that have on the reader? How did it engender
sympathy and suspense? How did you feel about Werner? Readers found Werner blind as
well, blind to the morality of what he was serving. What is the effect that both main characters
are young? Where was the horror of the war? What is the role of fear in the reader? Explain
Madame Manec’s boiling frog analogy. Was she speaking about the French or the Germans?
Which character would you like to be? Etienne? Marie-Laure? von Rumple? What is the role of
the jewel? How do you interpret that the jewel was never discovered? Why was the last
chapter added? What do you think of the last chapters? Did you identify with any of the
characters? Discuss the moral choices the characters made and discuss the relevance today.
What is the significance of St Malo as the setting? How do you feel about the conclusion?
About Werner’s death? Finally, what is the meaning of the title?
During the go-around, readers were exuberant in their praise, one reader exclaiming not
to like the book; rather to love, love, love the book. Many readers remarked on Doerr’s
beautiful and profound prose. Others were mesmerized by the suspense, aware of the war’s
devastation of people and places. Others felt tremendous sympathy for the two youngsters,
Marie-Laure and Werner. After the discussion ended, Judith chatted with Scott, the
coordinator of the new book club at the Wellwood Library, and discovered an essay he found
on http://www.themillions.com/2015/01/a-world-made-of-words-on-anthony-doerrs-nounsand-verbs.html in which the author explores how the style mirrors the story; he cites one
sentence at random on page 40: “Cars splash along the streets, and snowmelt drums through
the runnels; she can hear snowflakes tick and patter through the trees.” Notice that there are
no adjectives, only nouns and verbs, and that the sense of hearing is emphasized, just as MarieLaure would experience. The following sentence stresses the sense of smell: “She can smell the
cedars in the Jardin des Plantes a quarter mile away.” On and on went the discussion, all of us
realizing that we could spend many days exploring the characters,style and plot of this awardwinning novel.
Thank you, Leslie, for your expert leadership and for the gift of French pastries from Peninsula
Pastries, who, by the way, imports its flour directly from France. Join us next month one hour
earlier when we will nominate books for next season and discuss The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry,
by Gabrielle Zevin. Kathy Hug will lead the discussion.