Everything Is Illuminated

Jonathan Safran Foer

I don't have the foggiest notion how to review this book. Foer is an extremely talented young writer and this book, in many ways, borders on brilliance, especially given Foer's age (I think he's 23 or 24 which means he probably wrote most of it somewhere between 21-23 years old.) And yet, it's definitely not a book for everyone as it's very idiosynchratic. Okay, let's see if I can sum up the story: ultimately, this is a story of family roots and folklore and family secrets. A character named Jonathan Safran Foer is searching for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He goes to the Ukraine where Alex Petrov and his grandfather play translator and driver, respectively, to Foer's search. The novel is told in three alternating formats - a novel Jonathan (the character) is writing recounting his family history that he is sending to Alex in chapters to read and review, a novel Alex is writing recounting Jonathan's trip in the Ukraine and their search for the Ukrainian woman who saved Jonathan's grandfather that he is sending to Jonathan to read and review, and letters that Alex writes to Jonathan that accompany the finished chapters of Alex's book. The most entertaining part of this novel is Alex's telling of the story, as his English is not particularly good and he relies on a thesauras in order to explain himself which results in habitual misuse of everything from simple verbs to well-known idioms. That makes for some very entertaining reading. On the other hand, Jonathan's (the character) family history story is filled with often absurd magical realism and takes some getting used to. I rather enjoyed the entire experience even if much of the novel's (and the author's) idiosyncrasies became tiring after awhile.