Foer, Johnathan Safran - Everything is Illuminated

Jonathan Safran Foer recently released Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a follow-up to his debut, Everything Is Illuminated. We will post a review of the new book as soon as I finish it and am able to write a review. In the meantime, Everything Is Illuminated needs to be mentioned on this site.

Now, as a qualifier, I want to explain that I’m a typical guy: I try to keep my emotions intact, and I try not to cry too often. I’ve been known to choke up, however, especially when I’m tired and hear something especially beautiful. One example would be last night, when I was listening to a very moving episode of “This American Life” concerning the logic of children (to listen to this episode, click here and, under search, type “kid logic”. When a man begins telling a story about explaining who Jesus was to his 4 year-old daughter, you’ve got the right spot). Yeah, yeah…maybe I’m kind of a wuss.

I’m telling you all of this and opening myself up to public ridicule, in order to iterate a point: I read Everything Is Illuminated twice in my life, and by the end of both readings, I was sobbing. Not merely crying. Sobbing.

Everything Is Illuminated combines mangled Ukrainian-English, love, poetry and heartbreak into the most unbelievably well-crafted coming-of-age story ever written.

The protagonist is Jonathan himself, who travels to Ukraine to investigate the history of a small Jewish town that was entirely wiped out during World War II, and from which his grandfather was one of the only survivors. Upon his arrival, he is met by his interpreter, Alex, who is actually not very good at interpreting. Jonathan and Alex, along with Alex’s grandfather and a flatulent dog named Sammy Davis Junior Junior set off on a quest to piece together the history of the town. But the narrative is not this simple. The story is broken into three parts: the quest for the town is written by Alex in beautifully broken English, and each chapter by Alex is preceded by a letter from Alex to Jonathan charting the writing of the novel, linking Alex to the story of the town and to the story of Jonathan’s quest. Safran Foer winds the actual history of the town, of his ancestors, into the novel, so Everything Is Illuminated has three tiers, all woven with intricate beauty and fragility.

Describing this book is difficult, as you can probably tell. Quite simply, it takes reading the book (maybe even twice) to truly grasp its intricacies and depth. Safran Foer writes with inventive brilliance, and his words can be alternately funny and brutal, all in the same sentence. I don’t do this often, but I found myself bracketing especially beautiful bits. I’ll include some of them here, but keep in mind that these are just small sections:

“The culpable fly was caught in the net of an unidentifiable schoolboy. The boy raised his hand to smash it, knowing that an example must be made, but as his fist began its descent, the fly twitched its wing without flight. The boy, the sensitive boy, was overcome by the fragility of life and released the fly. The fly, also overcome, died of gratefulness. An example was made.”

“I have considered everything you told me, and I do believe that the stars are silver nails.”

Do yourself a favor and read this novel.

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer: A+

Jordan Green enjoys chopping wood and other manly endeavors. Seriously, he doesn’t cry very often, and when he does, it is usually a very masculine type of cry.

Posted on February 9, 2005 5:06 PM