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Everything Is Illuminated

3.89 of 5 stars 3.89 · rating details · 84,072 ratings · 5,047 reviews

Humor and pathos are deftly woven together in this remarkable novel that has won sweeping critical acclaim. USA Today calls Everything Is Illuminated "a hilarious yet heartbreaking tale of family and discovery." Jonathan is a Jewish college student searching Europe for the one person he believes can explain his roots. Alex, a lover of all things American and unsurpassed bu...more

Audio CD, 75 pages

Published November 15th 2004 by Recorded Books (first published May 30th 2002)

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Sep 13, 2009 Kim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-authors, contemporary, mmix

~~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 are just a phosphoresce in the pannikin (yes, I, too, have access to Thesaurus.com) but I just…just…spleen them. They can read their Anderson and their Coetzee and leave us dreamers alone. I am ‘Team Foer’; others be damned. (I still wish you weren’t so f...more

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Nov 14, 2009 Matthieu rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Matthieu by: K.

After a while, you get so old,

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Sep 03, 2007 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I watched the movie of this first and loved it. It was basically a movie about cultural misunderstanding and how people can be cruel without really knowing it. It is a story about what happens when you put an American and someone born out of the Soviet era in the same room and try to make them explain to one another why the other one thinks the way they do. In a word: hilarious.

After reading the book, I still like the movie, but it seems obvious to me that the filmmakers missed the point entirel...more I watched the movie of this first and loved it. It was basically a movie about cultural misunderstanding and how people can be cruel without really knowing it. It is a story about what happens when you put an American and someone born out of the Soviet era in the same room and try to make them explain to one another why the other one thinks the way they do. In a word: hilarious.

After reading the book, I still like the movie, but it seems obvious to me that the filmmakers missed the point entirely. The book, while still a hilarious exploration of an American immersed in post-Soviet culture, is so much deeper and weirder.

The story is (sort of) about the author, Jonathan Safran Foer. He is an aspiring writer in his early 20s who travels to Ukraine to try to find the small Jewish village of Trachimbrod where his grandfather grew up and to find the woman who helped him escape the Nazis during the war. He speaks no Ukrainian or Russian, and his only maps of the area are 60 years old, so he enlists the help of Alexander, an Odessa native of about the same age, his blind grandfather, who acts as their driver (if you have read any modern Russian literature you will understand not to question this kind of thing) and their deranged seeing-eye bitch Sammy Davis Junior, Junior.

Half of the story (the half on which the movie is based) is ostensibly written by Alex. He write in English with an accent, in that (I assume) it was written, then rewritten by looking up every third word in the thesaurus and replacing it with the least appropriate synonym. This section is a humorous, touching, narrative touching on the nature of friendship, grief and regret, among other things. It is accessible and easy to understand.

The other half (which is entirely ignored by the movie) is written by Jonathan, and covers the history of the village from the day it got its name in 1791 until its destruction by the Nazis in 1941, following the exploits of his ancestors. All of these sections have a very surreal quality. They jump around in time, different eras have glimpses into the past and future. Everything that happens is completely bizarre and makes no sense. It explores much more difficult topics, such as the nature of life, love, and art, and is in general much more philosophical and harder to get your head around.

These sections are split by letters from Alexander to Jonathan commenting on Jonathan's sections and introducing his own next section.

The weird thing about this book is that, at least for me, it gets frustrating to read the author's crazy attempts at philosophy. He wanders around so much, it seems like he is trying to write a little mini-story for every emotion he's every experienced in his entire life. Normally, I would discard a book like this and say, "Well, it's a young author's overeager first attempt, and he tried to cover too much." However, there are so many parts in Alex's letters and narrative where these things are addressed (once Jonathan says something like, "I want to be a writer, but I'm not good yet.") and Alex asks a lot of questions like Why do you write like this? and Why did you have the characters do that? The incoherence of it all becomes a part of the greater logic of the novel, which in turn provides an answer to the question, "Why did Jewish people stay in Poland and Ukraine when they knew the Nazis were coming?" This books answer, I imagine, would be, "Because nothing anyone did in the village's 150 year history made sense, why should they have done the sensible thing in 1941?"

The book is hilarious, moving and disturbing among other things. I can't help but be annoyed by its weird narrative and pointless philosophical musings, but given that it bathes itself in its own strangeness, it raises itself up and becomes a pretty awesome book.(less)

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Dec 04, 2009 Bram rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Everything Is Illuminated is one of the most focused books I’ve read. It doesn’t meander inappropriately, and there’s almost no excess. Seriously, this book’s got less fat than Christian Bale in The Machinist. It's either in full-on comedy mode, full-on fanciful mode, full-on drama mode, or some well-balanced combination of the three. Foer spent years editing the novel from his initial college thesis draft, and it shows—in a good way. There's no lag, and given some of the other books I was readi...more Everything Is Illuminated is one of the most focused books I’ve read. It doesn’t meander inappropriately, and there’s almost no excess. Seriously, this book’s got less fat than Christian Bale in The Machinist. It's either in full-on comedy mode, full-on fanciful mode, full-on drama mode, or some well-balanced combination of the three. Foer spent years editing the novel from his initial college thesis draft, and it shows—in a good way. There's no lag, and given some of the other books I was reading at the time (e.g. The Recognitions), this leanness and pacing were very welcome.

Moreover, I don’t think I’ve ever been so off-base with my preconceptions of a book. I’d somehow come to the conclusion that the controversy surrounding Foer was due to his pretentiousness, and I was prepared for something in-your-face erudite, clever, showy, and snarky (since I’d heard it was funny) with his first effort. This probably sounds idiotic for those of you familiar with Foer’s work, but that’s what I was expecting. The only question for me was: would he be able to use his pretentiousness in a way that I’d find enjoyable? But as I got into the book, what I found was one of the least pretentious literary novels I’ve ever read. And perhaps this puts the backlash that this guy’s received into a whole new light, although I don’t want to get into that right now. I’d rather talk about what Foer does (and does very well) in Everything Is Illuminated.

First, the humor. This book is funny, but not in the way I was expecting (Foer’s basically anti-snarky). And it’s with his comedy style that he probably makes most of his enemies. Instead of taking one of the modern American approaches to humor*, Foer utilizes the type of slapstick that ruled comedic cinema over 60 years ago and has more or less disappeared from popular culture. Bold, bold move. And one that I, as a long-time Abbot and Costello fan, happen to love. I’ve watched each Abbot and Costello movie between 3 and 25 times, and while I think their routines are brilliant, I’m also aware that the majority of Americans under 40 would likely yawn or cringe through many of them. It’s just a different style, full of classic gags sans sarcasm or irony, and one where any constraints of realism are given the boot while the routine is in progress—just like in Everything Is Illuminated. From Alex’s ludicrously over-the-top English, where Foer nabs Wallace’s gag of incorrectly substituting difficult words for easy ones, to the hero’s inconvenient vegetarianism; from the absurd dog behavior to the classic mistranslation humor reminiscent of the Pequod’s encounter with the French Rose-Bud, Foer never wastes an opportunity to inject an episode of hilarity. And to be honest, he’s not always successful. But when it works, and if you’re susceptible to this style of humor, you will laugh out loud.

I can’t think of another book that blends this kind of extreme comedy with fanciful melancholy so well (or even at all). The initially hidden sadness builds (in both the present-day storyline and the 18th-century through WWII storyline) to a dramatic moment that didn’t quite have the impact on me that Foer reaches for and that others have experienced. I’m not especially disappointed about this, although I am stuck knowing that I didn’t experience the emotional tidal wave that this book is capable of unleashing. But you might.

*Here I must rely on an excerpt from David Foster Wallace’s essay on Kafka’s humor: There's no recursive word-play or verbal stunt-pilotry, little in the way of wisecracks or mordant lampoon. There is no body-function humor in Kafka, nor sexual entendre, nor stylized attempts to rebel by offending convention. No Pynchonian slapstick with banana peels or rapacious adenoids. No Rothish satyriasis or Barthish metaparody or arch Woody-Allenish kvetching. There are none of the ba-bing ba-bang reversals of modern sit-coms; nor are there precocious children or profane grandparents or cynically insurgent co-workers. Ok, so there’s some word-play and maybe ‘Pynchonian slapstick’ could describe a few scenes in Everything is Illuminated, but since when was Thomas Pynchon’s sense-of-humor considered part of ‘contemporary U.S. amusement’?
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Sep 10, 2012 K.D. Oliveros rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, funny, humour, race, family-drama, challenging, saddest, tragicomic, stylish, sex

You are burned out. So you suggested to your wife that the whole family spend the weekend in a beach resort. You left the house in the morning, drove the whole day and arrived at the resort few hours before the sunset. You dropped your things, donned your beach wear, went barefoot and hurriedly went straight to the shore. The sand is not sugar-like but the pain is bearable. The wind is a bit cold and it gives you slight chills. You dip your feet into the water. It is still lukewarm since the sun...more You are burned out. So you suggested to your wife that the whole family spend the weekend in a beach resort. You left the house in the morning, drove the whole day and arrived at the resort few hours before the sunset. You dropped your things, donned your beach wear, went barefoot and hurriedly went straight to the shore. The sand is not sugar-like but the pain is bearable. The wind is a bit cold and it gives you slight chills. You dip your feet into the water. It is still lukewarm since the sun is just about to set. You start to swim. Then you notice how beautiful the sun is. The kaleidoscope of colors: yellow, orange, bright orange, red, reddish orange. It’s like God’s canvas spluttered with beautiful colors.

You feel mesmerized. Sunset is always breathtaking and you find yourself staring at it, perplexed and speechless. You are there standing, you feel the small stones piercing your soles. With wet hair, your wet clothes on, the water drips to your skin. With the afternoon sea breeze softly blowing, you feel cold. You feel the discomfort, but you don’t care. You go on standing. You go on staring. You want to see the finality of the sunset.

Slowly, slowly. Down. Down. Until it’s gone.

Darkness.

But you remain standing. You want to see what comes next. The shore is part of the bay and you can see lights starting to flicker from the nearby island. The fishermen light up the gas lamps on the boats. You look up at the sky. The crescent-shaped moon starts to appear over at the horizon. And the countless stars twinkle as if they are smiling at you. The small insects start to swarm and bite, you swat them with your hands. You feel the stones poking your skin. You start to shiver from cold. But you feel happy as you have just witness an unspeakable beauty. Something that we tend to ignore as we rush through our daily lives. A celebration of life. A miracle.

You feel utterly happy. Blissful. Joyous.

This is exactly how I felt reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s debut novel Everything is Illuminated.

Amazing.(less)

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Jan 23, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished, owned-and-gave-away

Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated (Dutton, 2002)

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 unwarranted, as Alex, Foer's Ukrainian hero, destroys the English language in a quite different way than does Burgess' Alex. (A less politically correct but more conceptually accurate comparison would be Charlie Chan, as written...more Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated (Dutton, 2002)

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 unwarranted, as Alex, Foer's Ukrainian hero, destroys the English language in a quite different way than does Burgess' Alex. (A less politically correct but more conceptually accurate comparison would be Charlie Chan, as written by Earl Derr Biggers.) Foer's intertwining of stories is also quite clever, and his use of the two narrators to tell the main storylines.

However, with all the cleverness going on, Foer seems to have forgotten in many places to actually insert a novel. Threads pick up in odd places and then die with no fanfare, never to be resurrected again; the story has holes without being told an enough of an impressionist way to allow the reader to fill in enough blanks; the characters are obviously there as vehicles to carry off the cleverness, instead of being fully-realized human beings. In other words, this is a linguistic roller coaster, not a novel.

Not to say Foer doesn't write well when he forgets about the tricks and applies himself. Especially in the novel's last eighty pages, there are scenes of great beauty and tragedy that are conveyed in powerful manner that make the reader sit up and take notice. (The emotionl impact of every last one of them is dramatically undercut by Foer's following each with a needlessly scatological and/or pornographic piece of attempted humor, each of which fails because of its positioning, but the tragic pieces themselves are extremely well-written.) Unfortunately, these scenes are all too few. One of them is going along swimmingly until he decides to interject a Rick Moody-esque three-page unpunctuated sentence. Horrid. (And a trick he repeats a couple of times afterwards, also throwing in run-on words. Even more horrid.)

The book is billed as a comedy, and Foer tries to carry it off as such, but when the finest-written scenes are those of tragedy, it's hard to call it a success as attempted. Foer has the makings of a fine dramatic writer, once he gets away from being so consciously clever. ** (less)

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Jan 11, 2012 Brian Godsey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Recommended to Brian by: Sammyatmiami

Shelves: totally-awesome-books, good-books, fiction

If I haven't laid out my good-book-philosophy yet, then I'll do it here. It needs to be done some time, or else any reviews I write would be somewhat out of context. So, here goes:

To me, there are two main parts, or aspects, of a book. One is the story, and the other is the way it is written. When I say "story", I mean everything that happens in the book, as it would happen in real life (or some other life, in sci-fi), while the "way it is written" is, of course, the words that are chosen to des...more

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Feb 09, 2012 Kua rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, a-2-4

All'inizio, non ci capivo una mazza... poi proseguendo nella lettura ho cominciato a trovare i fili da seguire e questo scoprire il libro pian piano mi è piaciuto molto. Questo racconto è tenero, malinconico, cinico, buffo, straziante... insomma, un bel problema tirarne fuori una recensione con i dovuti crismi. Nonostante alcune pecche narrative, è un libro che ti porta in un'altra dimensione, da cui poi è difficile staccarsi e pur trattando un tema forte come l'olocausto la lettura rimane legge...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Patrizia O rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, recensioni, autori-autrici-usa, genocidio

E se dobbiamo batterci per un futuro migliore, non dobbiamo conoscere il nostro passato e riconciliarci con esso?

Quando leggo un libro cerco sempre di trovare il messaggio che vuole comunicare, di capire la tesi che vuole dimostrare: i libri che hanno un messaggio e dimostrano una tesi sono i miei preferiti, soprattutto se posso ricondurre questa tesi a qualche teoria psicologica, meglio ancora se riesco a trovare la dimostrazione di un qualche fondamento clinico.
Nel libro di J. S. Foer tutto q...more E se dobbiamo batterci per un futuro migliore, non dobbiamo conoscere il nostro passato e riconciliarci con esso?

Quando leggo un libro cerco sempre di trovare il messaggio che vuole comunicare, di capire la tesi che vuole dimostrare: i libri che hanno un messaggio e dimostrano una tesi sono i miei preferiti, soprattutto se posso ricondurre questa tesi a qualche teoria psicologica, meglio ancora se riesco a trovare la dimostrazione di un qualche fondamento clinico.
Nel libro di J. S. Foer tutto questo c’è: c’è un messaggio e c’è una tesi che viene ampiamente sviluppata e dimostrata con dovizia di particolari e di eventi a sostegno della tesi medesima. Ma questo è anche il suo limite (almeno secondo me) perché è tutto troppo esplicito, troppo artificioso. La mia impressione, leggendo il libro, è che l’autore abbia prima sviluppato la sua tesi e poi gli abbia “cucito” addosso una storia che, in certi passaggi, risulta macchinosa.
Qual è questa tesi? I segreti (celati, rimossi, mistificati) del passato trovano sempre il modo di “emergere”, di far sentire il loro peso sulle generazioni successive, anche quando queste non sanno nulla, a livello consapevole, di cosa è accaduto. Il peso del passato oscura la vita presente nelle forme dell’incertezza, dell’angoscia, del senso di perdita soprattutto perché i segreti vengono trasmessi alle future generazioni attraverso l’ansia degli adulti senza alcuna possibilità di trasformare questa ansia in parole, che aiuterebbero a dare un senso alla sofferenza e al senso di mancanza che dolorosamente può diventare la base su cui si edifica la personalità.
Per dimostrare la sua tesi, Jonathan Safran Foer sviluppa il suo romanzo su due piani temporali.
Jonathan (giovane ebreo americano in viaggio in Ucraina per cercare le sue origini) racconta la storia di Trachimbrod (con i toni epici, a volte tragici a volte comici, della saga ebraica) sino alla distruzione avvenuta ad opera dei nazisti. Da questo villaggio, Safran (il nonno di cui Jonathan porta il nome) è fuggito verso gli Stati Uniti, grazie all’aiuto di una donna, Augustine. Jonathan ha saputo di questa vicenda da poco: la nonna gli ha dato una foto del nonno (morto poco tempo dopo essere giunto negli Stati Uniti) in compagnia di una donna di nome Augustine. Jonhatan decide di partire per l’Ucraina alla ricerca di questa donna; non sa bene il perché, ma sa che deve cercarla per capire meglio se stesso e conoscere questo nonno di cui sa solo quello che gli è stato raccontato dalla nonna. Intuisce che c’è qualche doloroso segreto di cui la nonna non riesce a parlargli.
Il secondo romanzo lo scrive Alex (il giovane ucraino che, insieme al nonno, accompagna Jonathan nella sua ricerca) ed è la storia tragicomica del viaggio reale compiuto alla ricerca di ciò che rimane di Trachimbrod, ma che si rivela un viaggio nella storia del suo paese e della sua famiglia. In entrambi i romanzi, il filo conduttore è l’occultamento del passato e la necessità di dire sempre la verità che, per quanto dolorosa, aiuta a rimanere se stessi e ad accettare gli errori commessi, a essere onesti e autentici con i propri figli senza dover rinnegare nulla di sé e della propria storia. Questa affermazione è valida sia che si tratti di persone sia di un’intera nazione. Non è un caso che il viaggio di Jonathan coincide con i festeggiamenti per il primo anniversario dell’indipendenza dell’Ucraina, nella celebrazione di un presente che non vuole ammettere le ombre del passato che portano il nome di antisemitismo e collaborazionismo.
La necessità della verità e il rifiuto della menzogna come base su cui costruire la propria vita investe in modo prepotente soprattutto Alex che gradualmente getta la maschera di uomo cinico e superficiale (maschera indossata per assecondare l’immagine che ha di lui il padre) per rivelarsi un ragazzo sensibile che non ha vergogna delle sue ansie e delle sue insicurezze, ma anzi fa leva su quelle per accettare le proprie responsabilità.
Per Alex è un’operazione dolorosa perché la maschera è tenacemente attaccata alla sua pelle e senza di essa si trova indifeso e vulnerabile. Parallelamente, chiede a Jonathan di dare ai personaggi che animano Trachimbrod un lieto fine che essi da soli non riescono a cogliere, anche quando la possibilità di essere felici è a portata di mano e dipende solo dalle loro scelte. Jonathan non accoglie nessuna delle richieste di Alex: non si può tacere la verità, anche se è spietata, non si possono tacere le responsabilità di ciascuno nell’adempimento di quello che a posteriori sembra un ineluttabile destino, ma che a ben vedere è il risultato di scelte e omissioni volontarie.
La differenza temporale si accompagna a una diversità di stile che riflette la personalità dei due autori. Jonathan racconta le vicende di Trachimbrod in maniera tradizionale, almeno per quanto riguardo lo stile. I personaggi e l’intera storia hanno, però, il sapore delle fondazioni mitiche e vi troviamo tutti i “tipi” e i temi delle saghe ebraiche; gli espedienti grafici (intere pagine con punti di sospensione, titoli dei capitoli con un layout curvilineo) imprimono una specifica coloritura emotiva alla narrazione, stratagemmi che poi J. S. Foer riprenderà con maggiore consapevolezza in “Molto forte, incredibilmente vicino”.
Il viaggio alla ricerca di Trachimbrod nell’Ucraina moderna è scritto rispecchiando la scarsa conoscenza che ha Alex della lingua inglese: interi brani sembrano usciti dal traduttore di Google! Sicuramente bisogna riconoscere l’abilità di Foer in questa operazione che fa usare ad Alex parole che, a rigore di vocabolario, sono dei sinonimi del termine corretto ma che, rispetto al contesto, sono sbagliate, imitando il risultato di una traduzione letterale. Bravo anche il traduttore (Massimo Bocchiola) che ha dovuto ricreare lo stesso effetto in italiano. Dal punto di vista stilistico, insomma, una bella trovata ma dal punto di vista del lettore risulta un’operazione che rende difficoltosa e, in certe parti, poco piacevole la lettura. Meno male che, man mano che scrive il romanzo, l’inglese di Alex, grazie anche alle indicazioni di Jonathan, migliora e quindi la lettura diventa più scorrevole. Quindi abbiate fiducia e non vi fate scoraggiare dall’inglese maccheronico di Alex.
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Jul 02, 2009 Beth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Probably in the top 3 best books I've read in the past 5 years. It is not an easy book to read, and it is at times bizarre and vaguely offensive. But it is also hearbreaking and heartwarming and funny and thought-provoking.

Throughout the novel, Jonathan is referred to as the "hero" by Sasha/Alex, but I believe that Sasha ends up being the real hero. I don't think that Jonathan becomes some sort of terrible person, but it is telling that Jonathon and Sasha stop writing to each other. I believe i...more Probably in the top 3 best books I've read in the past 5 years. It is not an easy book to read, and it is at times bizarre and vaguely offensive. But it is also hearbreaking and heartwarming and funny and thought-provoking.

Throughout the novel, Jonathan is referred to as the "hero" by Sasha/Alex, but I believe that Sasha ends up being the real hero. I don't think that Jonathan becomes some sort of terrible person, but it is telling that Jonathon and Sasha stop writing to each other. I believe it is because Sasha has come away with a much deeper understanding of himself from their trip, while Jonathan seems to have mostly come away with good writing material. Sasha becomes so angry with Jonathon's story because it is not truthful in the way that Sasha is truthful. Jonathan wants to take pieces of what he knows for sure, and embellish and expound and fictionalize it to make enticing fiction. In doing so, he does make his grandfather out to be a pretty bizarre person, taking only his supposition that his grandfather had a dead arm and a lot of teeth as a baby, and looking through his journal, and then making up this whole ridiculous story about how the Safran had affairs with over 2,000 women because they were strangely attracted to the dead arm. Sasha, on the other hand, comes away from the trip with a better understanding of, and deeper love for, his grandfather, and a commitment to truth. He realizes the value of truth in seeing what his grandfather had to live with and in coming clean on certain aspects of his life. For instance, he admits that he is a virgin, though he boasted in the beginning of how many women he was "carnal" with. And he is not especially tall, as he also boasted about in the beginning. He also embraces his love for Ukraine, giving his savings away and deciding to stay there and take care of his family. And he is finally able to stand up to his drunken father and banish him from the family.

So, I believe that the title refers to the way the past illuminates the present, and the present illuminates the past. But differently for our two "heroes". For Jonathan, he has found the material he needs to become the writer he believes he was born to be. For Sasha, he has found the truth he needs to become the man he wants to be. You could argue the value of each. Jonathan writes everything down, documents the names on all of Lista's boxes, reads guidebooks on properly dealing with Ukrainians. Sasha listens to the stories, takes it all in, doesn't think to worry about each little detail to remember forever. Sasha is more concerned with understanding the heart of the truth, in short, while Jonathon wants the material to use later.

In one final thought, I remember that Ernest Hemingway was mentioned at some point in the novel, I believe by Sasha in talking about Jonathan becoming a great American writer. I took an American Lit class in which we discussed the novel Garden of Eden by Hemingway, and the way in which Hemingway addressed the guilt of the writer who puts themselves and those they love in emotionally reckless positions in order to create good writing material. I just thought it was interesting that his name comes into this novel because of Jonathan's intentions. Not that Jonathan creates any sort of emotionally reckless situation, but he in some way sells out his family history in order to write an interesting book.

On a side note, don't see the movie if you want it to be like the book. The movie felt like the screenwriter thoroughly read the first half of the book, and then skimmed the rest in about 8 minutes and threw the movie together from that. I felt like it missed everything that was important about the story.(less)

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Jul 13, 2007 Nils Samuels rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: twenty-somethings

I could go on and on about how what is clever at 25 grows less so as we age, about how metafiction resonates more with young men who have yet to face the issues that do have enduring meaning in life (durational love, children, divorce, death), about how tapping into the Holocaust for emotional weight seems increasingly to be cheating. But enough. There are already mixed reviews that discuss the limits of this novel. Read those. Smart but not especially emotionally or psychologically interesting.

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May 28, 2007 Nathan Pearson rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The gut-tickling malaprop voice of Alex, bragging falsely (but without a trace of guile) in a broken idiolect that suggests computer translation gone awry, is worth the price of admission all by itself. Sadly, the rest of the book -- much of it strung out in unimaginative flashback episodes -- is a turgid, half-baked mess. Reading just Alex's bits and ignoring the rest would be a bit like picking out all the chocolate chips from a bag of trailmix...but that may be the best way to snack here.

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Jul 19, 2007 Ben rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Sorry but I didn't care for this at all. If Mr. Nobody wrote a book about himself as the main character, and used some uninventive malapropisms to make discussions with a foreigner amusing, the book would be tossed. But wait, Foer went to Yale. Unfortunately for me the quality of his writing shows me that nepotism will always beat out merit these days. Sorry to be harsh, but really, I found the writing to be quite poor.

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May 17, 2008 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Those seeking fresh voices in literature

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This brilliant debut novel by Jonathan Safran Foer is a deeply-felt imaginative achievement. It is wholly recommendable, even if it is only half of a good book. The half that is good--no, great--is so worthy as to overshadow the book's other half, which is, sad to say, an embarassing if rightly-intended misfire.

The half that is successful is the tale of the fictional Jonathan Safran Foer's search for the story of his ancestors. It is successful as a story, but especially in the way it is told, i...more This brilliant debut novel by Jonathan Safran Foer is a deeply-felt imaginative achievement. It is wholly recommendable, even if it is only half of a good book. The half that is good--no, great--is so worthy as to overshadow the book's other half, which is, sad to say, an embarassing if rightly-intended misfire.

The half that is successful is the tale of the fictional Jonathan Safran Foer's search for the story of his ancestors. It is successful as a story, but especially in the way it is told, in the hilarious, fractured, malapropriate voice of Alex, the Ukrainian translator/guide. Alex's way of speaking jumps instantly into the pantheon of great narratorial voices in literature, right next to Huckleberry Finn, to whom the technique hugely owes allegiance. Foer is doing the Twain bit of putting his story in the mouth of of a speaker of "substandard English," and of letting this voice become, eventually, poetic and utterly profound. It is a great and a wonderful achievement.

Part of what is terrific about this is that Alex's voice changes throughout the course of the narrative, as he learns more correct English from his writer-idol, Foer. So the book shows not only a narrative arc, but a corresponding arc of style as well.

The Alex-spoken chapters alternate with the supposed novel about his ancestors which the fictional Foer is writing, and which Alex progressively comments on when his sections come around again. Unfortunately, the quaint story of the ancestors in their small village doesn't have the brilliance of Alex's parts. This whole section of the novel reads like a Jewish folktale, full of magical-realist touches, but somehow it doesn't have a stamp of truth or real honesty to it. it comes off as cloying and precious, to tell the truth.

It might be argued that this quality was a very deliberate choice by the author. The idea here, completely supported by the novel as a whole, would be that the real story of the ancestors and their destruction in the holocaust is so harrowing that it cannot and should not be remembered by the fictional Foer. So instead, he creates this folktale version of events, with wild and magical characters and so forth.

Sure, I see that. I know that that is part of what is going on. The contrast between the story as told and the harrowing history as we eventually discover it it huge. But for me, it didn't work. The magical-realist nostalgia sections have to have an integrity and an honesty at their heart. And these are lacking in that, lacking in some deeply-felt spirit that would connect them with reality. They seem cartoony. They are trying way too hard. This is not Isaac Bashevis Singer, but is trying hard to be, and the attempt becomes embarassing after awhile.

The film version of the novel very rightly left out this half of the story entirely, and was very true to Alex's narrative. It worked, I thought, quite well.

As I said at the outset, though, the Alex parts are so well done, so strong and funny and well-told, that they carry the novel. Though only half-successful, this is a very good book. (less)

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May 03, 2008 Graeme Hinde rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This gets an extra star for a truly funny gag that carries the book for the first fifty or sixty pages. That's surprising and impressive mileage for a simple bit (the narrator, a non-native English speaker, relies heavily on a thesaurus, so that "a hard journey" is "a rigid journey"), but after it wears off -- grinding agony.

Foer wants to be Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but his magic is insipid and his realism is lazily dishonest. He consistently goes for an easy lie over a more complex truth. For e...more

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Jun 03, 2008 Lucy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book is hard to piece together. It's even harder to write about.

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 loneliness.

Whatever it actually is about, Jonathan Safran Foer seems to be too odd of a man, and definitely too odd of an author, to define the book or narrow its focus. The minute the reader does, Foer changes the temp...more This book is hard to piece together. It's even harder to write about.

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 loneliness.

Whatever it actually is about, Jonathan Safran Foer seems to be too odd of a man, and definitely too odd of an author, to define the book or narrow its focus. The minute the reader does, Foer changes the tempo and direction of the book. Sometimes, the stories of cruelty are cover-your-eyes horrible. Sometimes, the situations are uncomfortably obscene. Sometimes, the story and characters are folklorist-y bizarre. Sometimes, it's modern-age hilarious. A lot of the time, it's furrow-your-brow confusing. Everything definitely did not get illuminated for me.

With broad, sweeping strokes, I'll attempt to give a basic summary of the book. A young 20 year-old Jewish man, whose name also happens to be Jonathan Safran Foer, travels to the Ukraine in an attempt to track down a woman in a photograph named Augustine, who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. To help him, he hires a tour guide/translator named Alex, whose English appears to have been mostly learned directly from a thesaurus. The nouns and verbs he chooses are almost always slightly off, but kind of, sort of close, and the reader is forced to translate almost all of Alex's narrative into actual English. Part of the book is written as letters from Alex to Jonathan as explanations for his translations and editions. Some of it is what the character Jonathan Safran Foer writes as his novel (after his return from his trip) and some of it is narrative of the actual trip, given by Alex. When the parts are put together as a whole novel, the reader is forced to be quite patient and thorough to finish the book actually understanding all of what happened, and even more willing to be content with its loose ends that will never be tied.

While Alex's broken English can certainly be funny, it slows down the pace of the novel (because it's impossible to read it fast) too much. Thankfully, his conversational skills do improve and his letters to Jonathan towards the end are much more accessible. Additionally, because both Alex and Jonathan are young and male, there is quite a bit of sexual humor that turns out to be quite harmless, and even slightly endearing, but still makes the overall effect a bit R-rated.

There are so many characters to keep track of and I'm not exactly certain if I figured out who was who and if they mattered. Ultimately, I think most didn't matter because, again, I think the take-home message is meant to be about the horrors of the holocaust and how good people can do bad things. If not, then I missed a whole lot.

If you do attempt this book, read it patiently. It might help to read it as part of a group effort. Then, perhaps if you're able to talk it through and everyone brings their own understanding into a collective whole, everything about this novel might actually BECOME illuminated.(less)

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Jun 14, 2008 Jule rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Jule by: Meike

I liked the idea of the plot a lot: Young Jewish-American (Jonathan) travels to Ukraine to find his family's past. Ends up driving around with his interpreter Alex (bad English), Alex's grandfather (half-blind, nevertheless the designated driver), and their family dog (flatulent). Sounds hilarious. And it is! But that is only the smallest part of the novel. There are also historical sections (from waaay way back) about the village that Jonathan's grandfather (tiny little shtetl in the middle of...more

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Feb 21, 2008 Heidi Nemo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Overhyped, yess. But the embedded bits of brilliance are worthwhile. The play of language is what I'm most interested in here, more than the meditations on loss, holocaust, and history's shadow of brutality, personal (micro) history intersecting with, building, and being torn apart by, macro history. Those elements are there, yes.
But Alex's play of language, it goes on even in the midst of disaster. Yeah, it's a metaphor for the difficulty of all cultural, and thus personal, understanding and co...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Martine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: modern-fiction, postmodern, film, north-american, magic-realism

I'm not sure how I feel about this, one of the most overhyped novels of the early noughties. On the one hand, it undeniably contains flashes of genius. It is original, inventive and ambitious, which is great. On the other hand, it has a few aspects which annoyed me, and that, I think, is less good.

In a nutshell, Everything Is Illuminated is an amalgam of three interconnected stories. The first is that of a young Jewish American (bearing the same name as the author) who visits the Ukraine in an a...more I'm not sure how I feel about this, one of the most overhyped novels of the early noughties. On the one hand, it undeniably contains flashes of genius. It is original, inventive and ambitious, which is great. On the other hand, it has a few aspects which annoyed me, and that, I think, is less good.

In a nutshell, Everything Is Illuminated is an amalgam of three interconnected stories. The first is that of a young Jewish American (bearing the same name as the author) who visits the Ukraine in an attempt to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis and without whom he himself would never have been born. This part of the story is told by Alex, the flashy young Ukrainian who serves as Jonathan's interpreter. Alex's subsequent letters to Jonathan, written in a bizarre, highly ornate and seriously mangled kind of English, make up the second storyline. Finally, the third storyline consists of the magic-realist novel Jonathan writes about life in his grandfather's Jewish village before the Nazis destroyed it. Together, the three storylines tell a tale of friendship, guilt, family secrets, atrocities, opportunities, dreams and ways of dealing with drama which is at turns funny and shocking and occasionally beautifully nostalgic.

As I said, there is much about the book that is to be admired. Foer is undeniably a gifted writer. He relishes his stories and has a lot of fun sharing them with the reader. Sadly, though, he is rather uneven, following passages of great beauty (especially towards the end of the book) with scenes which are so crass that they completely ruin the effect. He also tries a bit too hard to be clever and original, coming up with gimmicks and typographical idiosyncrasies which are interesting at first but do rather distract from the narrative. And then there's the book's main gimmick, which is Alex' mangled English. While frequently funny, it is also entirely unconvincing from a linguistic point of view, and I'm enough of a linguist to care about such things. Halfway through the book I got so fed up with Alex' overwritten language that I began to dread his parts of the narrative. I doubt that was Foer's intention.

So. Yeah. It's an interesting tale, but I wish Foer had waited a few years before telling it. I'm pretty sure he'll mature into an excellent author; this story just happened to come a bit too early in his career to live up to the hype.
(less)

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Mar 07, 2007 ElizaBeth rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone, specifically Nathan and Adam

I was in pain from laughing so much during the first part of this book. I've never enjoyed a "non-native" English speaker's writing so much. Although it gets less funny and more serious as it progresses, and it occasionally treads on the unclear / confusing side of things, I think that's just part of it: you aren't supposed to fully understand everything that's happening. All in all, one of the most memorable books I've read in a while.

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Feb 28, 2007 Tova rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I think Jonathan Safron Foer (sp?)is greatly overrated.

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. His voice is being heard, now, where's a voice that i feel speaks for me, for my experience. hopefully that will yet happen!

tt

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Jun 10, 2010 Stephen M rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: tears-of-beautiful-laughter

Brod "would never be happy and honest at the same time".

Dear Mr. Foer,
Your novel was so beautiful that it's hard to express my true feelings for it. Thank you. I was really moved by this book in so many ways. I feel much less alone in the world.

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Mar 01, 2008 Elaine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mixed feelings about this novel. Overall, I liked it and would recommend it to any fan of literary fiction, Jewish history, history in general, and genealogy. It's very different from the film, which slices out at least one-half of the novel: the backstory. The film is a well-done "road movie" set in the Ukraine and following the three main characters, Alex, Alex's grandfather Sasha, and Jonathan, as they search for the elusive town of Trachimbrod. The novel, however, is less focused on the inte...more

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Dec 17, 2007 Emily rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I disliked the character named "Jonathan Safran Foer" and I cannot stand when authors make themselves the heroes of fiction. You made up the story, you can't make up a name for the character? The ESL narrator Alex is the reason I like the book at all. He probably would have been even better if I hadn't seen Borat. He writes like Borat speaks, especially in the beginning of the book. But he is generous and grows emotionally, whereas JSF is snide and self-involved. It seems to me that many contemp...more

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Mar 30, 2007 jesse rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who are relatively unversed in holocaust literature, pynchon, auster, gaddes or Dow Mossman

Sure, JSF was overhyped and I shouldn't blame him for that. Sure, for a 23 year old, I suppose EiI is pretty remarkable, and yes, it moved me now and then. But literature is not a dog show. I shouldn't have to say to myself, "Well, isn't it amazing that he was only 23 when he wrote this?"

Secondly, I caught on to his shtick early on. Throughout the entire book, when he is not patting his alter ego on the back for being so tortured and brilliant, JSF basically passes off as brilliant snippets of w...more

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May 14, 2007 Melanie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: ANYONE

Shelves: alltimefavorites

Wow...I heard great things about this book, and have read it twice. You will laugh so hard you'll cry during the first page. This book is my #2 favorite of all time. You get sucked into the characters and their surroundings, which alternates between modern Ukraine, WWII-era Ukraine and a third time period that I can only describe as fantastical, magical and sad, sad, sad. Remember the first time you read "One Hundred Years of Solitude" and you wished you could slow down your reading in order to...more

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Mar 06, 2008 Books Ring Mah Bell rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

if you can see from someone's comments, it took me awhile to get through this book. No, it's not war and peace. I found it amusing in some parts and others were kind of slow for me... the humor is warped, but i like that in an author!

I believe this was his first novel - and I have to give him props for that - a solid effort.

I enjoyed it, but not enough to read it straight thru. other books got in the way... I have this book problem, you see.

Hey, I can quit anytime I want!
really.

(there, Happy now...more

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Aug 06, 2008 Dave rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The first time I picked up this book, it was difficult to get into. I put it down for a while, read a couple other books, and when I picked it back up again, for some reason it clicked. Everytime Foer switched narritives, I didn't want them to end, only to start another one that I didn't want to end. As far as Foer's writtings are concerned, I liked 'Extremely Loud' better, but stll would recomend this book to anyone. It's late. I'm going to bed now.

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Jan 16, 2009 Jesse rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"These are my ghosts, the spaces amid love."

The quote is worth the weight of the book, that at times is an absurdist rendition of a Jewish stetl attempting to prove that even the Holocaust can be postmodern and jaunty, and at times a tear-jerker, confused about where it's going and where it's been, similar to your lead characters Alex, Jonathan and Alex Sr. Even Sammy Davis Junior Junior, a deranged "officious seeing eye bitch" seems to be unsure of her footing in this novel about so many things...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Lucrezia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: rereading

Reduce dalla mia seconda rilettura di ogni cosa è illuminata che ho terminato ieri notte alle 3 circa reduce da una bella serata , ma faceva decisamente troppo caldo e dormire era praticamente impossibile indi ho deciso di restare ancora un po in compagnia di Safran , Sammy Davis Junior junior , del nonno, ma sopratutto di Alex. Questo è un libro capitale per quante volte tu possa rileggerlo troverai sempre qualcosa di nuovo , puoi rileggerlo seguendo ogni volta un fil rouge diverso , e avrà sem...more Reduce dalla mia seconda rilettura di ogni cosa è illuminata che ho terminato ieri notte alle 3 circa reduce da una bella serata , ma faceva decisamente troppo caldo e dormire era praticamente impossibile indi ho deciso di restare ancora un po in compagnia di Safran , Sammy Davis Junior junior , del nonno, ma sopratutto di Alex. Questo è un libro capitale per quante volte tu possa rileggerlo troverai sempre qualcosa di nuovo , puoi rileggerlo seguendo ogni volta un fil rouge diverso , e avrà sempre qualcosa di nuovo e di bello da dirti, potrei dire lo stesso di "Molto forte, incredibilmente vicino" Ma questo ha qualcosa di speciale che quello non ha per me , pur essendo superlativo. Foer sa usare le parole in maniera strabiliante, è in grado di farti "sentire" qualsiasi cosa solo usando un pezzo di carta imbrattato di inchiostro , ma ogni cosa è illuminata va oltre... La storia non è poi tutto questo granché un ricco ebreo decide di partire alla volta dell' Ucraina per cercare di trovare la donna che salvò suo nonno dai nazisti e viene accompagnato in questo viaggio da Alex (il suo traduttore ) da suo nonno e dalla sua cagnetta Sammy Davis junior junior , e i quattro vanno allegramente gironzolando per l' Ucraina (beh mica tanto allegramente poi ) niente di così particolare quindi , ma attenti avete sottovalutato il potere della penna di Foer... Mano a mano che la ricerca va avanti le acque da torbide che sono ( come quelle del Brod all' inizio ) si fanno sempre più chiare , e scopri che tali sono sempre state , e tutto era esattamente davanti ai tuoi occhi , ogni cosa è illuminata appunto, e sono state confuse proprio perché alla fine tu te ne rendessi conto quando leggi questo libro , il viaggio non è solo di Safran , ma è anche il tuo , perché alla fine c' è sempre infinitamente tanto da scoprire su se stessi ...
Inutile che io continui a sproloquiare, indi inforcate il libro e dimenticatevi di avere braccia e mani che lo reggono , fatevi sommergere. GO READ!!!(less)

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About Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer (born 1977) is an American writer best known for his 2002 novel Everything Is Illuminated. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, with his wife, the novelist Nicole Krauss, and their son, Sasha.

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Everything is Illuminated & Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

A Convergence of Birds: Original Fiction and Poetry Inspired by Joseph Cornell

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Quotes from Everything is Illuminated

“If there is no love in the world, we will make a new world, and we will give it walls, and we will furnish it with soft, red interiors, from the inside out, and give it a knocker that resonates like a diamond falling to a jeweller's felt so that we should never hear it. Love me, because love doesn't exist, and I have tried everything that does.” — 1,627 people liked it

“He awoke each morning with the desire to do right, to be a good and meaningful person, to be, as simple as it sounded and as impossible as it actually was, happy. And during the course of each day his heart would descend from his chest into his stomach. By early afternoon he was overcome by the feeling that nothing was right, or nothing was right for him, and by the desire to be alone. By evening he was fulfilled: alone in the magnitude of his grief, alone in his aimless guilt, alone even in his loneliness. I am not sad, he would repeat to himself over and over, I am not sad. As if he might one day convince himself. Or fool himself. Or convince others--the only thing worse than being sad is for others to know that you are sad. I am not sad. I am not sad. Because his life had unlimited potential for happiness, insofar as it was an empty white room. He would fall asleep with his heart at the foot of his bed, like some domesticated animal that was no part of him at all. And each morning he would wake with it again in the cupboard of his rib cage, having become a little heavier, a little weaker, but still pumping. And by the midafternoon he was again overcome with the desire to be somewhere else, someone else, someone else somewhere else. I am not sad.” — 1,399 people liked it

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