John van der Beek

As a survivor of WW 2 in Holland, I can relate somewhat to the characters in "All the Light We cannot See". I remember as a seven year old boy hidingnin a ditch, and watching the Germans pick up a German family in our town. The two children, ropes aound theit necks were dragged across the laneway and tossed into the truck like two sacks of potatoes. Next came the two parent. Somehow the Germans knew there had to be one more person in this family. I saw the soldiers surround a well in yard. One soldier raised the bucket used to pull up the water: two soldiers pointed their rifles at the mouth of the well. As the bucket was raised the grey head of the old grandmother came into view. What happened next woke me up screaming for months afterwards. Even now, some 77 years later, I can see it happen in front of me. As the grandmother's head came into view above the well it exploded. into a mass of blood and gray matter. What Doerr describes in his book happened every day in occupied Europe.Often we try to put a human face on war: to humanize the actions of the oppressors. Doerr is right: there is nothing human about any war. A great read even though it is disturbing!!!

An honest portrayal of growing old. Some would consider it an emotional dribble I would have done the same fifty years ago but now in my middle eighties I completely sympathize with the Ella and John. When you have been together with your partner for some sixty years, it seems inconceivable that you will be separated sometime. in the future. My mother suffered from Alzheimer's and Sutherland's performance was dead on!