Everything Is Illuminated

I don't know what it was about me and this book, but I tried and tried and tried to get into it and I kept feeling like I was working rather than reading. I have seen numerous people give it glowing reviews, and maybe they are smarter than me, or maybe they have a magic decoder ring that I forget to get. I'm sorry but I found this novel to be impenetrable. Just couldn't do it.

I've read this book so many times, and each time I find something new. It's hearbreaking, hilarious, and sobering, all rolled into one. Highly, highly recommend!

I have a book review blog that reviewed this book on February 2, 2009: [...] "A very good novel split into sections that go back and forth. One narrated by a Ukranian who cannot speak English very well, but it improves as he keeps studying. He works as a translator with his Grandfather for his father's touring business that allows tourists to find old places their ancestors once lived, etc. And he narrates the story of "the hero" and his search to find a woman who saved his grandfather in World War II. Other sections are the hero's writings of his own family history from a terrible wagon accident in a river by his very-great grandfather to the same river many years and generations after during the war. The other sections are letters as the two characters send their writings back and forth across the ocean and comment on each other's lives. It is a great novel that has you feeling for everyone in it, even "the bitch, Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior." (Shhh: One part made me cry.)" [From Facebook's "Caught Reading: Summer Project 2007"] Although I cannot remember exactly which part made me cry, I do know that I am still in love with this book. The idea of a personalized tour through your own family history fascinates me. The Hero is trying to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis during World War II. However, his tour guides don't come off as professional at first glance. Alex is a Ukranian obsessed with the club scene and still learning to speak English, which is an important fact since he is working as translator. It's a family enterprise: Alex's father owns the tour company, and Alex's grandfather is the nearly blind van driver who is extremely protective of his "seeing eye bitch," a horny dog named Sammy Davis Junior, Jr. As Alex leads the Hero through the countryside to learn more about family history, Alex is also getting closer to his grandfather. This story line is a very entertaining one, enough to make a movie starring Elijah Wood, but the movie leaves out my favorite parts. Intertwined with this narrative are the writings of the Hero about the story of his ancestors. While searching for the woman who saved his grandfather, the Hero writes the narrative of his family's history leading up to the story of that grandfather. The historical excerpts from the city of Trachimbrod are all shocking, engaging, lovable, disturbing, and all together memorable. I just can't get over the amazing love story of the Hero's ancestors, but also the amusing workings of the tour group as they trace through the Ukranian countryside where millions of treasures lay buried in jars. The amazing balance of detail and simplicity makes Foer's writing accessible to all types of readers. The intricate plot that he weaves also makes it enjoyable for all. There is seriously something for everyone in this novel, and the writing style helps prove this. The author has a distinct style for the separate sections of this novel and because of this, I do not get

Jonathan Safran Foer's use of the English language is beautiful. While he has a very different style of writing and it may take a little while to get into it, I don't see what there is not to like. I'm not sure which I liked better- this or his "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," but both are worth the read. A review I could write could not do this work justice. I laughed. I cried... It's a good book.- Lauren

The eccentric and attention-seeking graphics of the bookjacket convey the idea that this book is fresh, daring, kooky, and inventive--and the book is all these things! But it is also serious and thoughtful, touching on universal themes and the essence of what makes us human. With young "heroes" who are sometimes both earnest and sweetly vulnerable, the book contains moments of profound melancholy, as well as deep sadness, behind its bravado and its finger-snapping brio. Jonathan Safran Foer, a character bearing the same name as the author, is looking for the woman he believes saved his grandfather Safran from the Nazis. Traveling to the Ukraine, he meets Alex Perchov, a young man representing a Ukrainian travel agency which specializes in taking tourists to the sites of vanished shetls. Alex, a not-quite-fluent translator, and his "blind" grandfather, who serves as the driver, travel with Jonathan to the site of Trachimbrod, his family's village, collecting stories and legends which will help Jonathan learn about his family and his Ukrainian Jewish heritage. Parts of the book are a bit sophomoric. (How many farting dog jokes does one need? And do we really need to know the details of Grandfather Safran's 132 mistresses?) The fictional Jonathan's letters and comments as he writes a novel about his trip are an artificial device for dealing, perhaps, with the author's uncertainties and/or heading off criticism, while the chapters he includes for Alex's review, are, of course, the actual chapters of this book. And Alex's misuse of language, while often very funny, begins to pall after numerous repetitions. But these are minor criticisms in view of the author's immense achievement in dynamically presenting two young men as they explore who they are, where they come from, and how they fit in the world. As the sought-after story of each boy's grandfather emerges, the depth and breadth of family relationships and cultural history become clearer to character and reader alike. The dramatic and moving conclusion clearly establishes Foer's credentials as a brilliant new talent. Mary Whipple