Everything is Illuminated

by Jonathan Safran Foer

"An astonishing feat" THE TIMES

A young man arrives in the Ukraine, clutching in his hand a tattered photograph. He is searching for the woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Unfortunately, he is aided in his quest by Alex, a translator with an uncanny ability to mangle English into bizarre new forms; a "blind" old man haunted by memories of the war; and an undersexed guide dog named Sammy Davis Jr, Jr. What they are looking for seems elusive -- a truth hidden behind veils of time, language and the horrors of war. What they find turns all their worlds upside down.

• ISBN10: 0141037326
• ISBN13: 9780141037325
• Publish Date: 1 September 2008 (first published 16 April 2002)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 October 2012
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!

The special thing about this book is that it tells two stories. We have Jonathan who travels to Ukraine and cruises the countryside in search of his grandfather's past. And then we have the story of Trochenbrod, the Jewish shtetl he is looking for.
For some reason, the book reminded me a lot of Nick Cave's And the Ass saw the Angel. Not because the story is similar, but because both books gave off the same vibe.
To be honest, I am not a big fan of the novel. I found large portions of the book somewhat unsettling and several chapters made me cringe. That's especially true for the story dealing with Trochenbrod which is filled with weird moments of eroticism followed by horror.
The actual story of Jonathan isn't that entertaining and mostly consists of bad jokes making for an even more irritating contrast with the other half of the book.
What annoyed me the most, however, were the parts of the book attributed to Alex, Jonathan's Ukranian guide and, later in the book, friend.
His English is relatively decent, however, he often uses words that don't quite match what he wants to say, although the meaning is somehow related. It's a bit like typing a regular sentence and then using a thesaurus to swap a word that's just not quite on point. I know this was supposed to be funny, but it simply lacked charm and had me rolling my eyes after the second chapter.

[clementine]

People either love or hate Jonathan Safran Foer's style. I personally love it, though I can see why it's polarizing. I am in awe of the way he manipulates language, spelling, grammar, even punctuation and formatting. The fact that he plays around with convention really helps immerse me in the book. His books are an experience. I know that sounds pretentious, but that's the only way I can describe it.

Everything Is Illuminated is initially difficult to get into. Alex, the Ukrainian narrator, writes in very hilariously broken English, and it takes a few chapters of his narrative to fully get it. The story is also a bit slow-moving. However, by the halfway point, it is much more interesting and easy to follow.

I loved the two complementary storylines. The first, the one about Alex, Grandfather, and Jonathan, was more immediate, focused, personal, and straightforward. The second, about Jonathan's family history, is much more broad and complex. The stories are tied together through Alex's letters to Jonathan (although we never see Jonathan's letters to Alex). They also share many of the same themes and end up overlapping. What is so amazing to me is how parts of both were hilarious and parts were heartbreaking and touching. The book is neither a comedy nor a tragedy, the way I see it.

I felt sympathy for all of the characters. Jonathan comes across as a bit of a clueless tourist at first, obviously tainted by his privilege as an American, but he eventually becomes more used to life in the Ukraine and develops a certain fondness for Alex. Alex is pretty pathetic at first, but he's also completely hilarious. And while Grandfather seems like a cranky old man at first, his eventual backstory really solidifies his humanity. (Which I guess seems weird to say given that he was responsible for the brutal death of his best friend, but the remorse he feels for it 60 years later is very human and real.)

I could write so much more about this book (the handprints making it impossible to tell what is natural! The Brod as a character who brings both life and death!), but I'll just leave it here. This is truly a remarkable book.