Everything is Illuminated

by Jonathan Safran Foer

[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.