Page 18 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - January '24

Page 18, Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens
Book Review

All The Light We Cannot See the sounds suddenly stop, Russia and then retreats across Europe into France and, finally,
Werner carefully examines Saint-Malo – takes up most of the other half of the book. One
By Nils A. Shapiro all of the wires and other of Werner’s most important assignments is to determine the
A funny thing happened parts, wanting desperately location of radio broadcasts, especially those being sent by
to me on my way to my to have it work again. Finally the Resistance to Allied forces with messages about German
computer this morning. I he figures it out, his natural military placements, so that the transmitters and their senders
had planned to write a film aptitude enabling a first can be wiped out.
review about one of the basic understanding of radio In Saint-Malo, those broadcasts are coming from the house
season’s most important engineering that will prove where now 16-year-old Marie-Laure lives with her uncle,
and long-awaited motion to be his passport out of that Etienne.
pictures: the film adaptation coal mining town and into an While Marie-Laure and Werner are the two main characters,
of Anthony Doerr’s 2014 entirely different future. there are others as well. One of them is Sergeant-Major
award-winning World War But it is now the late Reinhold von Rumpel, who has been assigned by the Nazis
II novel, All the Light We 1930s, and the Nazi war to scour Europe in search of the greatest treasures in all
Cannot See, which is currently streaming as a four-part series machine has begun to roll forms of art. Hitler plans to create at the end of the war the
on Netflix. across Europe. For 10-year-old Marie-Laure and her father largest museum ever built, to house all of the art stolen from
But I have decided instead to repeat here the very same the imminent invasion of France means that they must the various conquered nations. Von Rumpel has heard of the
book review that I wrote in August 2015 – more than eight leave Paris and try to hide at her uncle, Etienne’s, house in legendary diamond at the Paris Museum of Natural History.
years ago – for a reason you will understand by the time you the quieter coastal town of Saint-Malo. Before he leaves, He has another, desperate reason for his search: von Rumpel
have finished reading the following column. Monsieur Leblanc makes a secret arrangement with the is gravely ill, and if the curse surrounding the Sea of Flames
museum. They have agreed that one of the museum’s most diamond is true he will not succumb to his illness but will live
***** valuable objects, a priceless diamond the size of a robin’s egg forever.
known as the “Sea of Flames” because of the red sparkle at its What makes this novel so remarkable is not only the story,
The review this month is by way of a thank-you to my heart, must not fall into the hands of the Nazis. In addition to which is beautiful and memorable in itself, but the unique
daughters, Brett and Hillary, who sent this novel to me and the real diamond there are three almost identical fakes. The style in which the author decided to tell it. It is a story that
insisted I read it, even though they know that my tastes real diamond is said to be cursed: The one who owns it will spans a period of 80 years, from 1934 to 2014, but is not told
usually run more to nonfiction, and that its 530 pages are have eternal life, but all around him will suffer tragedy. Four as a straight chronological narrative. Instead, in chapters of
more than the 350 or so that I usually set as my maximum of the museum’s managers will each take one of the stones, mostly two and three pages, sometimes of only a page, we
because of the limited amount of evenings and weekends time but none of them will know who has the real diamond. are transported quickly from 1944 to 1945 and back again to
I have to devote to my monthly “deadline” book reviews. As the Nazis invade France and approach Paris her father 1944 or to the late 1930s ... and from one character’s life to
Having just turned the last page a moment ago, I can escapes with Marie-Laure to Saint-Malo, a walled citadel on the another’s. It all moves so smoothly that, each time I began to
readily understand why author Anthony Doerr’s latest novel French coast. While there he carves another wooden scale model read, before I had a moment to look up I had already turned
was honored with the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the of this small town, complete with every street and building ... at least 60 or 70 pages.
2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, was and in the replica of the house in which they live he has hidden In the end, after all the horrors and tragedy of war, what
shortlisted for the National Book Award, and was named as something very valuable. Their experiences in Saint-Malo survives is the uplifting, indomitable good that cannot be
one of the year’s 10 best books by The New York Times. during the occupation and through the Allied invasion of 1944 extinguished in some of humanity.
Of course, I needed no reminder that my daughters are as and into 1945 take up approximately half of the book. All the Light We Cannot See will most assuredly be made
wise, thoughtful and generous as they are beautiful. Meanwhile, young Werner’s increasing expertise in radio into a motion picture. You owe it to yourself to read the book
All the Light We Cannot See is the story of two very different technology comes to the attention of the Nazis and he is first. Nothing will compare to this original story. I have thought
people, the separate circumstances in which they experience taken from the children’s home, away from his sister, and about it and cannot imagine who could play the four roles of
one of history’s most devastating events, and how their lives sent to a military school. At first relieved to be freed from a Marie-Laure and Werner as their young and teenage characters.
eventually intersect in a dramatic and profound way. future in the coal mines, he soon finds himself being drilled The one thing I do know is that I hope my daughters will permit
Marie-Laure Leblanc is a young French girl who, in 1934, in a system that demands brutality and violence against me to take them to the film as soon as it comes to the theatre.
loses her sight from congenital cataracts at the age of 6. With everything and everyone, including friends and family if need
her mother having died earlier, her very loving father – a be, in the name of loyalty to the fuehrer and Germany! It is a *****
master locksmith at the Paris Museum of Natural History – system that he tries to keep up with – in part out of fear, and
uses all his knowledge and skills to help Marie-Laure become because he doesn’t want to be sent back to the mines – but All I can say now is, “I told you so.” Way back then, the
as educated and self-sufficient as possible. He introduces her he is torn apart in the process because, unlike the others, he book eventually stayed on the national bestseller lists for
to the museum’s many collections, buys her books in Braille is essentially decent. And what he faces now is a future as more than 200 weeks! And the much-heralded new film
and carves a remarkable miniature, wooden scale model of dark and bottomless in its own way as any coal mine. What version – on TV screens rather than theatres – has received
every street and building in their Paris neighborhood so that ultimately saves him is his skill with radios, which is highly mixed reactions from critics and preview audiences, most
she can memorize it in order to make her way around alone, valuable to the Nazis. notably because the screenwriters made so many changes
if necessary. On walks together she counts the steps: so many Werner’s story – witnessing the contradiction between that The Hollywood Reporter wrote, “By the third episode
steps left to the corner ... turn right so many steps to the bakery Nazi propaganda of their army’s great victories even as the the plot barely resembled the novel.” If you didn’t take my
... turn right so many steps to the grocer ... and so on. devastation and corpses pile up around him while he serves in recommendation the first time, do it now. Read the book.
Werner Pfennig is a year older than Marie-Laure. An
orphan, at the age of 7 he lives with his younger sister,
Jutta, at a home for children 300 miles from Paris in a coal
mining town near Essen, Germany. His father, like so many Susan Has Moved To A
others, was a victim of a coal mining disaster, and when he
grows older the future that he and those like him must look
forward to will be descending into that same pit. Except for New Location!
one fortunate difference that is discovered quite by accident:
It seems that Werner, for reasons that he himself cannot
explain, has a natural gift. One day when he is 8 he finds an Androcles Hair Salon
old radio, and the music and magic that fill his ears opens up a
whole new world to the boy. Then when the radio breaks and 4031 Hood Rd., Suite C-108
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