Michael Weaver answers “**HUGE SPOILER ALERT** Was anyone else...”

Elizabeth asked this question about All the Light We Cannot See:

**HUGE SPOILER ALERT** Was anyone else as disappointed as I was with Werner's death? I was so mad after reading it. I thought it was pointless and dissatisfying, almost like Doerr was done with him after he and Marie-Laure met, though I'm sure the author thought long and hard about it. Any thoughts?

Michael Weaver I've been processing the ending myself - I was also unsatisfied, because for most of the book, I thought I was being led to expect a happy ending. No…more I've been processing the ending myself - I was also unsatisfied, because for most of the book, I thought I was being led to expect a happy ending. Not in the cheap sense, but it seemed like a refreshingly idealistic story about how love and humanity can triumph in the most dire circumstances. Werner and Marie Laure seem to be presented as a remarkably good match for each other, and the events of their respective lives seem to prepare them for each other. Yes, had they ended up as lovers they would have had plenty of issues to work through, but it would have been conceivable, had the author wanted to write that kind of story.

I do understand why we got a more true-to-life ending instead. It gives us a healthy disillusionment with warfare. In addition to taking the lives of innocents, it brings two people together only to tear them apart. A very important theme, just not the one I thought I was getting. I was also a bit thrown off by the epilogue that brings the storyline up to 2014. To me, it kind of destroyed the immediacy of the rest of the story.

Given that the author wanted this kind of ending, I would have suggested opening the book with a post-war scene with Marie Laure, giving some kind of indication that Werner is no longer around. There would still be plenty of unresolved aspects of the story to make for a compelling read, but I think it would have been a more satisfying story, even with all the tragedy.(less)

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Ariane Your suggestion of opening with a postwar scene is a good one. I think that I would have been less disappointed had the author done that.
May 09, 2024 08:53AM · flag

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All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr (Goodreads Author)

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