All The Light We Cannot See

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? The mind holds more light than than can be seen by the eyes.

I chanced upon this book by Anthony Doer purely by chance, and that too through the visual medium at first. I was scrolling through Netflix and found a limited series that drew my attention, "All The Light We Cannot See". So I thought let me go through and if it works out I will finish it off in one go. As it turned out this was possibly the best four hours I must have spent in my entire life.?

All The Light

Doerr's Pultizer and Carnegie Medal winning book has been loosely?adapted into this series. There are at best 5 characters around which the book revolves. The visually challenged Marie, her father Daniel, her Grand Uncle Etienne, Etienne's sister Sophie, German technician Pfennig and the German army guy Von Rumpel. The story is set in the last two years of WW II, the German occupation of France, the bombing of Paris that results in pushing out the blind Marie and her father, the keeper of keys in the National Museum in Paris to the Northern French town of Saint Mailo. The picturesque Mailo is host to Etienne and his wife, both of whom are a part of the French resistance. Etienne, an old man suffering from PTSD is known as the Professor who uses the SW frequency 13.20 to broadcast coded messages on radio waves that are meant for the Resistance. The backdrop to Etienne's broadcast is the famous piano composition of Claude Debussy called the Claire De Lune. Using a hidden transmitter Marie too reads out passages from Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea", interspersed with coded messages directed at the resistance.?

The Resistance, uses clandestine means of conveying the location of German forces and such information using engravings on the wooden panels inside Marie's apartment, through pieces of paper at the local bakery and so on. Doerr spent ten years in France writing this book, which is a lyrical compisition that moves rapidly between the past and the present. Each character is given small chapters that intersperse with each other.?

Daniel

Damiel, Marie's father is the keeper of the keys at the National Museum in Paris. When the German forces over-run the city, he is assigned the task of hiding the treasures and moving them out of Paris. He is able to hide everything except a Diamond known as the Sea of Flames, that is believed to possess the power to give immortality to the owner but at the same time the provider of immense misfortune to every one else around the stone. Daniel keeps the Diamond, in a false belief that it would provide immortality to his blind daughter Marie, while keeping the misfortune to himself.

Marie

Daniel's daughter Marie loses her mother at birth. And then she starts to lose her eye sight, till she become blind by the Age of 6. The producers at Netflix wanted a visually impaired gril to play the lead role and they audtioned thousands of girls for the part, till they finally found Aria Mia Lamberti, an American visually challenged girl to play that role. By George, Aria provides a stuoendous performance.?

Etienne

The Professor as he is known, a war veteran who has retired to St. Mailo, the Northernmost coast of France plays his role as the broadcaster aiding and abetting the Resistance. His radio broadcasts would punctually air at 9.00 PM in the night, and would be listened to by a very large audience of youngsters that are against the German occupation. This broadcast is heard equally by the French and Germans. While the coded messages are helping the Allied Forces to hit German positions very accurately, at the same time the German authorities are tracking the broadcasts and trying to hone in on the hidden transmitters.

Pfennig

Werner Pfenning a German orphan has immense mathematical skills, but he is spotted by a General who takes him home to fix his wife's Radio. On successfully fixing the set, the German sees potential in the young lad and has him transferred to Hitler's national school for the gifted. The boy grows up to be a fine Radio Engineer, who is then deputed to the Third Reich and entrusted with the job of finding hidden transmitters. Pfennig finds Marie and Etienne's radio transmitter but he has immense respect for the Professor, and inspite of finding the location he continuously misleads the Germans.?

Rumpel

The Germans have entrusted Army officer Rumpel to acquire all French treasures and move them to the fold of Hitler. He finds them all, but he cannot find the Diamond. Since Rumpel is suffering from an incurable disease he actually wants to trace the Diamond and thereby secure immortality for himself.?

Like I stated above, the story continuosly moves between past and present. So, when Paris falls Daniel arranges to escape the city with his daughter. As would be normal, a handicapped person would have frequenent spells of depression. But as a father of a visually challenged girl it is but natural to encourage the child to go through life with courage. Hence the quote, "there is more Light inside Our Minds than the eye would ever see". An idea and thought purveyed by Nietsche. The father-daughter duo are able to escape Paris and reach St. Mailo where they now stay with the Professor and his housekeeper Sophie. Daniel is able to move the Diamond with him. Soon the family realises that the Germans will trace Daniel and put the Resistance in jeopardy. Daniel goes back to Paris, in search of a new identity but is caught by the Germans and is never seen again. While living in Paris and in St. Mailo he has devised a method of counting the steps and making exact replicas of the two cities, such that his blind daughter can move around un-aided. While leaving Mailo he hides the Diamond inside the wooden model he has carved out for his daughter.

Towards the end, Sophie passes away and the Professor is shot dead. Aided by Pfennig the Germans reach the radio trasmitter hidden in Marie's residence. Quite literally she is saved by the Diamond. As soon as the Germans have runover Mailo, the Americans arrive as liberators. Marie who has by now befriended Pfenning urges him to surrender and become a POW. The German officer seeking the Diamond dies, shot by Marie. Finally, Marie goes to the coastline and throws the Diamond into the Ocean. That is where the Sea of Flames belongs ultimately and is the repository of all misfortunes.?

I found the whole story very symbolic and moving in parts. Aria, for those aware of Western music means an opening sequence of an Opera or a complete but opening part of a soloist. The background score of the Professor's broadcast, "Clair De Lune" literally means the Moonlight and is so apt for it's usage in the Mini Series. Debussy, for those aware, was a contemporary of Wagner and perhaps the greatest composer of France. So his composition is so very apt for usage. Pfennig, Rumpel, the Diamond are those who represent two faces of Fortune and Misfortune, the return of the Diamond to the Sea also implies that nothing is really immortal on Earth. All in all a superb rendition and well worth the time spent.