The story in brief.
Marie Laure lives with her father,a locksmith working in the museum of Natural history in Paris.She loses her eyesight when she is six and her father builds a perfect miniature of their neighbourhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home.She has a near-idyllic childhood for a few years when she spends her time with books and people who contribute greatly in teaching her.However this does not last forever and when she is twelve,the Nazis occupy Paris leaving them with no choice other than to flee to the walled city of Saint-Malo where her reclusive great-uncle lives.At the time of fleeing ,her father smuggles the world's most priceless jewel called the 'Sea of Flames' out of the city,on behalf of the museum.Unfortunately a German sergeant major is hot on its trail and will go to any lengths to acquire it.
In a parallel setting ,a young orphan boy Werner lives with his sister in a mining town in Germany.He is enchanted by a crude radio they find and soon becomes an expert at instinctively fixing and operating the instrument.This talent leads to him to gain admittance in the National Political Institutes of education(Schulpenforta), a boarding school for the elite.Werner sees this as the perfect opportunity to leave the mining town he detests.However he soon comes to realise that he has been sucked into a whirlpool at the cost of his intelligence and has to pay a high price.Werner travels through war-ridden zones and finally reaches Saint-Malo where his paths cross with Marie-Laure.
This story is about how their lives intersect in Nazi occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War 2.
My Views:
I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book.This was a page-turner right from the word go.I was completely enraptured with the exemplary lyrical prose and the descriptions which promptly re-created 1940's Germany,Paris and Saint-Malo right infront of my eyes.It managed to conjure up the most vivid images in my mind,first of the beautiful town,then of the carnage.However there was something weighing in my heart as I progressed with the story. This book manages to move the reader on an emotional level.
It was narrated with riveting flash-backs and flash-forwards and it kept me so engaged and involved that I had to fight the urge to turn a few pages ahead to reassure myself that everything was going to be alright.The characters lives kept me intrigued and the pace is fast.However what happy ending was I looking for at the end of a war?
A war leaves no-one undamaged.Werner,Volkheimer,Frederick were all victims of 'Hitler's Germany'.It is true that we as humans have characters that are never really completely black or white,but varying shades of grey.These children were brainwashed by Hitler and left with no option but to participate in his machinations.Not that this excuses whatever they did during the war,but their lives were not their own,as Frederick rightly points out in the story.But you must never sell your soul and not everyone is capable of doing that.It is also very easy to judge others but then you realise that they were just kids caught up in the movement and some probably didnt even completely realise what was going on.Sometimes we are left with no choice or forced to make choices that we normally wouldnt.
Marie Laure was a bright,perceptive young woman and how she finds her way through insurmountable odds was something amazing.I found myself rooting for her all the way.She probably teaches us that there is something greater than the gift of sight.She dreams in color.All the light we cannot see could mean different things to different people but to me it represented the need to keep faith with the help of a light which may not always be visible to our eyes.
My heart went out to both Marie Laure and Werner and also to Frederick,an innocent victim who stood up for what he believed.The relationships portrayed between the various characters is beautiful.This story was heart-breaking and amazing.There are countless passages so beautifully written that choosing one wouldnt be fair to the rest of them.
There was a parallel story running through about the 'Sea Of Flames' and that kept me interested as well without taking away much from the main plot.'That something so small could be so beautiful.Worth so much.Only the strongest people can turn away from feelings like that'----this was the line that stayed with me toward the end when Werner finally does what he did with it.
I thought the ending was very apt.It couldnt have ended any other way.
The 2014 Pulitzer was well deserved.
I loved this book and would not hesitate to read it a second time.Highly Recommended.
I rate it five STARS and the MOON :)
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