false 256566 31 The simplest thing would be to describe <I>Everything Is Illuminated</I>, Jonathan Safran Foer's accomplished debut, as a novel about the Holocaust. It is, but that really fails to do justice to the sheer ambition of this book. The main story is a grimly familiar one. A young Jewish American--who just happens to be called Jonathan Safran Foer--travels to the Ukraine in the hope of finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He is aided in his search by Alex Perchov, a naïve Ukrainian translator, Alex's grandfather (also called Alex), and a flatulent mongrel dog named Sammy Davis Jr. Jr. On their journey through Eastern Europe's obliterated landscape they unearth facts about the Nazi atrocities and the extent of Ukrainian complicity that have implications for Perchov as well as Safran Foer. This narrative is not, however, recounted from (the character) Jonathan Safran Foer's perspective. It is relayed through a series of letters that Alex sends to Foer. These are written in the kind of broken Russo-English normally reserved for Bond villains or Latka from <I>Taxi</I>. Interspersed between these letters are fragments of a novel by Safran Foer--a wonderfully imagined, almost magical realist, account of life in the shtetl before the Nazis destroyed it. These are in turn commented on by Alex, creating an additional metafictional angle to the tale. <p> If all this sounds a little daunting, don't be put off; Safran Foer is an extremely funny as well as intelligent writer who combines some of the best Jewish folk yarns since Isaac Bashevis Singer with a quite heartbreaking meditation on love, friendship, and loss. <I>--Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk</I> 886727 book 2002 Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel total:21691|5:6967|4:7895|3:4590|2:1583|1:656| 21691 84007 30796 2397 4 27 true false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Aug 30 13:50:21 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 03 08:22:33 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 29 false false Sun Sep 13 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Nov 10 12:07:43 -0800 2008 Sun Sep 13 20:39:24 -0700 2009 Sometimes reading makes me so angry

Dammit.

I’m a freaking mess. I realize this and I accept it.

Ugh.

Why, Jonathan Safran Foer? Why? Why do you do this to me? And why the hell are you so young? I know that some call you gimmicky and think that you a...more...]]> 2 18 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Wed Jan 23 07:35:23 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 07:35:23 -0800 2008
My, what a clever novel!

In any case, that, I imagine, is what Jonathan Safran Foer kept saying as he was writing this. And really, much about it is clever. The comparisons to A Clockwork Orange are completely unwarrant...more...]]> 5 14 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 06 08:48:32 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 27 13:57:24 -0700 2007
[One] The book can be described has having three parts. Sort of. Sections of it are written by Alex. You should know that Alex is Ukrainian and speaks English as a second language. It is ver...more...]]> 2 10 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Apr 18 23:42:09 -0700 2007 Tue Jul 10 23:46:13 -0700 2007
So this book. Yeah, it starts off good enough...it's quite humorous in places,...more...]]> 5 6 false true Wed Sep 24 11:16:18 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 02 08:39:38 -0700 2009 1
Throughout the novel, Jonathan is referred to as the "hero"...more...]]> 2 6 false false Tue Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 10:32:30 -0700 2008 Sat May 03 11:27:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 5 false true Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat May 17 19:57:33 -0700 2008 Sat May 17 20:45:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 4 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 11:36:54 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 20:36:41 -0700 2008
If Everything Is Illuminated had to be categorized onto one shelf, I'd assign it a spot alongside other books about the holocaust. Or maybe about love. No, it's about friendship. Scratch that...it's really about lonelin...more...]]> 3 4 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Mar 04 12:14:20 -0800 2008 Sat Jun 14 07:49:01 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 4 true false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Feb 21 11:13:29 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 21 11:25:35 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 5 false false Mon Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jan 21 13:57:53 -0800 2008 Fri Sep 12 07:20:34 -0700 2008 1
To me, there are two main parts, or aspects, of a book. One is the story, and the other is the way it is wr...more...]]> 3 6 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Thu Jan 17 13:32:41 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 17 14:32:42 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 6 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jul 13 09:36:20 -0700 2007 Fri Jul 13 09:41:48 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 6 false false Mon May 28 09:55:44 -0700 2007 Mon May 28 17:52:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 6 false false Thu Jul 19 12:42:15 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 19 14:07:58 -0700 2007 more...]]> 1 4 false false Wed Feb 28 08:59:54 -0800 2007 Wed Feb 28 09:06:05 -0800 2007
I felt like he was constantly saying, "ooh, aren't i smart, isn't that clever? do you like that?" he was too close to his material somehow.

I also felt compelled after reading this to do some writing of my own. ...more...]]> 4 3 false false Sat Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 14:14:12 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 14:14:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 3 false false Thu Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jul 12 03:40:26 -0700 2007 Thu Jul 12 03:49:26 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Dec 17 05:29:59 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 17 05:37:49 -0800 2007 more...]]>