Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer
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Book Reviews of Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel
Book Review: Lovely, funny, and ultimately moving
Summary: 5 Stars
This was a lively, lovely book, engaging throughout. It was a fast read, for me. And I read the book before seeing the movie, which I also found to be engaging and well-done, though different from the book. Experience them in either order, but each brings its own unique story to life.
The story migrates between magical realism and dark realism, without losing the reader. As the book marches forward and backward in time toward the same moment, the narrative unveils rather artistically the layers of discovery that both views experience.
What could have come off as merely clever story-telling becomes, in Foer's hands, evidence of master craftsmanship.
I am fascinated by reviewers who rail about the youthful vision of this story--that to me is what makes this story so complete. It takes that view of the world to tell this story. In the hands of a more wizened narrator, or author, it would have been a much darker and more cynical story, and thus lose the magic that this story holds.
Book Review: Wonderful Quirky Book
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything is Illuminated is three stories running at once in sequence: (1) Jonathan looking for the woman who saved his grandfather; (2) Alex's (the young guide) letters to Jonathan; and (3) the story of Trachimbrod, the village. It is a wonderful book. I would be laughing out loud in one chapter and have tears in my eyes the next. To me it is an epic story of how ordinary people cope with ordinary events. Yankel and Brod created their own world within their house. Love was at a distance because it was too intense and personal to experience close up. Feelings were there but usually either denied or kept at a distance.Book Review: Worth It!
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything Is Illuminated is quite a challenging book. It has a unique narrator's voice and narrative structure, a complex plot that travels back and forth over 300 years of history, and an enormous cast of distinctive and often doomed characters. It is also the story of two young men on a quest that will mature and change them in ways they cannot forsee. The tale is complicated, tragic, comic, devastating, romantic and completely rewarding. By the end of the book you too will agree that Everything Is Illuminated.Book Review: Extarordinary
Summary: 5 Stars
Moving, funny, simply extraordinary! I enjoyed it thoroughly, even if English is not mother tongue. The Author's use of the language is that of an artist and of a real master, and the two-voice narrative is compelling and totally absorbing. Safran Foer is able to take the reader into different worlds with the levity and magic of a dream. A must.
Anna Cossiga
Book Review: Everything is illuminated
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is excellent and in a good shape. However, the shipping took a long time. The fisr vendor cancelled on us because he ran out of stock (should have been listed in the website) and the other shipment was slow and relatively took many days.
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