Page 19 - Boca Exposure - January '24

Boca Exposure, Page 19
Book Review

All The Light We Cannot See Marie-Laure But it is now the late 1930s, and the Nazi war machine has
Leblanc is a young begun to roll across Europe. For 10-year-old Marie-Laure
By Nils A. Shapiro French girl who, in and her father, the imminent invasion of France means that
A funny thing happened 1934, loses her sight they must leave Paris and try to hide at her Uncle Etienne’s
to me on my way to my from congenital house in the quieter coastal town of Saint-Malo. Before he
computer this morning. I cataracts at the age of 6. leaves, Monsieur Leblanc makes a secret arrangement with
had planned to write a film With her mother having the museum. They have agreed that one of the museum’s
review about one of the died earlier, her very most valuable objects, a priceless diamond the size of a
season’s most important loving father – a master robin’s egg known as the “Sea of Flames” because of the
and long-awaited motion locksmith at the Paris red sparkle at its heart, must not fall into the hands of the
pictures: the film adaptation Museum of Natural Nazis. In addition to the real diamond there are three almost
of Anthony Doerr’s 2014 History – uses all his identical fakes. The real diamond is said to be cursed: The
award-winning World knowledge and skills one who owns it will have eternal life, but all around him
War II novel, All the Light to help Marie-Laure will suffer tragedy. Four of the museum’s managers will each
We Cannot See, which is become as educated take one of the stones, but none of them will know who has
currently streaming as a four-part series on Netflix. and self-sufficient as the real diamond.
But I have decided instead to repeat here the very same possible. He introduces As the Nazis invade France and approach Paris her
book review that I wrote in August 2015 – more than eight her to the museum’s many collections, buys her books father escapes with Marie-Laure to Saint-Malo, a walled
years ago – for a reason you will understand by the time in Braille and carves a remarkable miniature, wooden citadel on the French coast. While there he carves another
you have finished reading the following column. scale model of every street and building in their Paris wooden scale model of this small town, complete with
neighborhood so that she can memorize it in order to make every street and building ... and in the replica of the house
***** her way around alone, if necessary. On walks together she in which they live he has hidden something very valuable.
counts the steps: so many steps left to the corner ... turn right Their experiences in Saint-Malo during the occupation and
The review this month is by way of a thank-you to my so many steps to the bakery ... turn right so many steps to through the Allied invasion of 1944 and into 1945 take up
daughters, Brett and Hillary, who sent this novel to me and the grocer ... and so on. approximately half of the book.
insisted I read it, even though they know that my tastes Werner Pfennig is a year older than Marie-Laure. An Meanwhile, young Werner’s increasing expertise in
usually run more to nonfiction, and that its 530 pages are orphan, at the age of 7 he lives with his younger sister, radio technology comes to the attention of the Nazis
more than the 350 or so that I usually set as my maximum Jutta, at a home for children 300 miles from Paris in a coal and he is taken from the children’s home, away from his
because of the limited amount of evening and weekend time mining town near Essen, Germany. His father, like so many sister, and sent to a military school. At first relieved to
I have to devote to my monthly “deadline” book reviews. others, was a victim of a coal mining disaster, and when he be freed from a future in the coal mines, he soon finds
Having just turned the last page a moment ago, I can grows older the future that he and those like him must look himself being drilled in a system that demands brutality
readily understand why author Anthony Doerr’s latest novel forward to will be descending into that same pit. Except for and violence against everything and everyone, including
was honored with the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the one fortunate difference that is discovered quite by accident: friends and family if need be, in the name of loyalty to
2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, was It seems that Werner, for reasons that he himself cannot the fuehrer and Germany! It is a system that he tries
shortlisted for the National Book Award, and was named as explain, has a natural gift. One day when he is 8 he finds an to keep up with – in part out of fear, and because he
one of the year’s 10 best books by The New York Times. old radio, and the music and magic that fill his ears opens up doesn’t want to be sent back to the mines – but he is
Of course, I needed no reminder that my daughters are a whole new world to the boy. Then when the radio breaks torn apart in the process because, unlike the others, he
as wise, thoughtful and generous as they are beautiful. and the sounds suddenly stop, Werner carefully examines is essentially decent. And what he faces now is a future
All the Light We Cannot See is the story of two very all of the wires and other parts, wanting desperately to have as dark and bottomless in its own way as any coal mine.
different people, the separate circumstances in which it work again. Finally he figures it out, his natural aptitude What ultimately saves him is his skill with radios, which
they experience one of history’s most devastating events, enabling a first basic understanding of radio engineering that is highly valuable to the Nazis.
and how their lives eventually intersect in a dramatic and will prove to be his passport out of that coal mining town
profound way. and into an entirely different future. Book Review on page 20