Helen and Geoff's Amazing Adventures

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All The Light We Cannot See

All The Light We Cannot See

by | Jun 8, 2016 | Book reviews

All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. A very good book. Set in Paris, Saint Malo, Germany and Russia, it follows the lives of a few main characters just before, during and after WW2. The main story culminates with the fire-bombing of St Malo in August 1945. The main characters are a blind girl (who survives the terrifying fire-bombing), her father and great-uncle; a very young German soldier (radio-tracking private), his sister and his giant sergeant; a large diamond; and a German sergeant major who is tracking it.

The story is very well crafted, interweaving threads in very short chapters from before the war with equally short chapters of the bombing. We get to appreciate the restricted life and terror of blind Marie-Laure and extraordinary love and care given her by her locksmith father; her agrophobic radio wizard great-uncle (shell-shocked from WW1); the conform or die education of orphan (also radio wiz) German Werner and his sister Jutta; the hopelessness and mindless violence of the German army; the systematic and determined brain-washing of Germany leading up to and during WW2 (to question is to die); the violence towards anyone different in German education; the bravery of a very few in the French resistance of St Malo. And yet, through all this violence and hopelessness, we have a few gentle people attempting to hold onto beauty and remain their own self.

I think that Doerr captures extremely well the mix of violence, love, beauty and gentleness. A contrast between the mindless violence of Germans and the love and caring of several people for Marie-Laure. For me, this book is almost the equivalent of ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’, though with civilians in the mix and a blind one at that. Some (maybe the majority) join in the mindless violence without a second thought; others strive to get through each day as well as they can – not bravery, just coping.

Doerr maintains a very nice line of tension throughout the book, with a constant threat of death hanging over everyone from the war and from the curse of the diamond. Interleaving the timeline of the story helps keep the tension.

Three chapters at the end bring the book to the modern day. I still do not know how Germany went from the brain-washed goose-stepping, slaughtering, fuerer worshipping nation of WW2 to the Germany of today. A switch is switched?

It is worth exploring the title ‘All The Light We Cannot See’: the blind girl is obvious (she does not see light); radio plays a large part in the story – a form of light that we cannot see; the young German who is smashed up during training because he says ‘no’ and will never see the light of his birds again; after WWI her uncle locks himself inside his house – yet emerges to deliver messages for the French Resistance; the true diamond reflects light in certain way. Also enlightenment and darkness are also themes.

Shield Shrimp

When it rains across Australia’s vast inland region, temporary pools crop up all over the arid ground, giving life to a strange desert crustacean known as the shield shrimp (Triops australiensis).

Named after the formidable carapace that shields its head and upper body, T. australiensis can grow up to 7.6 cm long, and it uses its long, segmented tail and mass of 60 or so legs to propel itself through shallow water.

It also breathes through these legs – its sub-class Branchiopoda means ‘gill-legged’ – and in the females these legs bear ovisacs for carrying their tiny eggs.

Several pix in the Photo Gallery and a movie.

Acacia peuce

A rare and endangered plant. The tree grows up to 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 ft) high, with short horizontal branches and pendulous branchlets covered in needle-like phyllodes adapted for the arid dry climate. It has a distinctive habit more similar to a sheoak or a conifer.

Although speculated to have been widespread across central Australia during wetter climates 400,000 years ago, the population is now mostly restricted to three sites, separated by the encroaching Simpson Desert. In the Northern Territory, the species is restricted to the Mac Clark (Acacia peuce) Conservation Reserve which is surrounded by a pastoral lease, Andado Station. The other two sites are near Boulia and Birdsville in Queensland. The tree is found in open arid plains that usually receive less than 150 millimetres (5.9 in) of rain per annum. They grow on shallow sand aprons overlaying gibber or clay slopes and plains and between longitudinal dunes or on alluvial flats between ephemeral watercourses.

 

Owen Springs Reserve on Hugh River

Owen Springs was a station on the Hugh River. The Hugh River flows into the Finke (when it actually flows). Both cut through the Western MacDonnell Ranges. The image above shows Owen Springs Reserve as a dot at lower right. The river it is next to is the Hugh. Hermannsburg, our next town, is near middle left edge. Hermannsburg is almost on the Finke River. You can see both Hugh and Finke Rivers cutting through sections of MacDonnell Ranges.

Palm Valley

Palm Valley is within the Finke Gorge National Park southwest of Alice Springs. Palm Valley has a smallish population of Red Cabbage Palms (Livistona mariae). The nearest related species is 850 kilometres away in Katherine NT. The average rainfall for Palm Valley is just 200 mm per year. Small pockets of semi-permanent spring-fed pools allow the unique flora and fauna (desert fish, shield shrimps tadpoles and frogs) to survive.

It had been assumed that the cabbage palms were remnants of a prehistoric time when the climate supported tropical rainforest in what is now the arid inland of Australia. Genetic analysis published in 2012 determined that Livistona mariae at Palm Valley is actually the same species as Livistona rigida from samples collected near Katherine and Mount Isa, both around 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) away. It is now thought that aboriginal people brought the palms to here from Mataranka.

Mound Springs

Mound Springs occur around the Western edge of the Great Artesian Basin and represent a natural discharge of Artesian water that was captured many hundreds of kilometers away from rain falling along the Great Dividing Range and New Guinea. This article provides details. Dalhousie is an excellent example of a mound spring.

Great Artesian Basin map Great Artesian Basin diagram