Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel
by Jonathan Safran Foer
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jonathan Safran FoerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-30
ISBN: 0061686670
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Book Reviews of Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel
Book Review: Literary Flair and Exuberant Creativity Do Not A Novel Make
Summary: 3 Stars
Spread across the different editions of this book there are three camps of reviews. (A) The-omigod-this-is-brilliant camp, (B) the This-is-an-insult-to-Ukranians (and/or ignorant of Ukraine/WWII/history/language) camp, and (C) The YES-FOER'S-GOT-TALENT-BUT-THIS-BOOK-DOESN'T-HOLD-TOGETHER-AMIDST-THE-FLAIR CAMP.
For me, the clear choice is C. I certainly am impressed that an author as young as Foer (was) could write this book. He evinces tremendous dexterity and creativity as a writer. He is bold and inventive. And like a circus performer, he can juggle many odd-shaped and strange objects in the air with only a rare drop.
But, like the other C-camp reviewers, I found that the juggling and circus show ultimately took over the novel. There was too much "look at me" by the author and not enough substance to the novel. The novel was buried beneath layers of writing, if you will.
As the book went on it took me more and more effort to pick up the book and turn the pages. With many other reviewers I agree that the wildly funny broken English gets to be a tad old and a bit of a hindrance after a while. And, with some others, I felt that the magical realism of the old shetl bogged down. I got very tired of the shetl, its goofy accidents, and its wild (hetero-male oriented) sex... this impacted the outcome of the novel, because I felt less connected to these people, whose victimhood at the hands of the Nazis (and Ukrainian goyim) is meant to provide the combustion of the entire novel. It almost works, in a "Life Is Beautiful," Roberto Benigni sort of way. And I certainly was moved by the genocidal imagery. But literary flair again interrupts here. For example, in one of its most important narrations of the Nazi murders, by the Ukrainian grandfather, is done in a heavily stylized stream-of-consciousness.
Several of my fellow C-camp reviewers note that the absurdly laudatory praise for this book (book of the year from a few quarters) is unwarranted and sets the book up for a real letdown. Some also noted that Foer has big-time connections in the elite literary-publishing world--thus, they imply, some of his reviews and attention might be a bit hyped up personal networking and by savvy business insiders. I myself was certainly drawn to the praise from on high, and feel a bit cheated in the process. And, with my other C-campers, I do feel that Foer--so young, and so gifted--is one to watch. Next time we'll afford him less of the benefit of youth, and try not to crown him a Great Novelist prematurely. We'll try to let him find his own voice--hopefully one that does not impede the path of the novel.
Summary of Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
The simplest thing would be to describe Everything Is Illuminated, 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 Taxi. 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.
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. --Travis Elborough, Amazon.co.uk
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