Even though historical fiction is not my first choice, with
so many book club recommendations I had to see what the hype was about.
Set just before and during WW2, the story revolves around
two central characters, each with their own heart-breaking and endearing story
that ties itself into the overall picture. Marie -Laure is a young lady who
lost her sight as a child, and lives with her father, a custodian of a museum. To
try and give her more freedom in the outside world, he recreates their
neighbourhood in miniature so that she can learn and memorise it all with her
fingers. Werner is a young orphan who is technically gifted, and is drafted
into the German army to track down the French Resistance, leaving behind a
younger sister. As the years go by and
the many facets of war, whether victor or victim, are endured, their stories intertwine
for a fleeting moment. A part of each of
their lives is shared, and with this,understanding, hope and forgiveness.
The book has me torn-did I enjoy it or not? I still don't
know. And I guess since the author has now made me think and question, he has
achieved something. As I paged through the beginning, I was put off by the
amount of chapters-this generally means that they are short and the story then tends
to jump around a lot. It did indeed turn out to be the case-there is a lot of
character and time movement between chapters, which can sometimes be confusing,
especially since the text is written in present tense. It took me ages to get
into the rhythm of the book as the writing style was very slow for me. While
there were excessive descriptive texts of scenery which added a great deal to
the overall story, the verbosity made my mind tend to wander off. Not as much
was spent on developing enough of the main characters. I felt that so much time
was used on the build up, that much of the imagery was not necessary. In saying
that however, the pace of the story served a great purpose in portraying the
bleakness and the futility of war and its consequences. The sideline story of
the diamond put a different spin on things-it taps into what people believed
was important enough at the time to hide, or seek. What resonated long after I
finished the book, was the portrayal of a life I could never understand. How
family can be taken away and imprisoned on the whim of another, how young
children can be so indoctrinated that human dignity is ignored and what so many
cherish as fundamental individual rights can be denied.
The meeting between the central characters seemed
contrived-it felt like a chance in a million where every tiny conceivable
problem that could have happened did not. But I guess who can say for certain
in a situation like that? The majority of the secondary characters were well
written-they had their places in the story and added to the progression where
necessary.
I felt that the ending was rushed-that the story was
completed to try and tie up loose ends-by doing this many questions were
actually left unanswered. So again I
find myself ambivalent as to whether or not I enjoyed the book. All I can say
is try it and see whether or not the small details play in your mind long after
it is over, as they have in mine.
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