Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
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Book Reviews of Everything Is Illuminated
Book Review: Foer Makes a Stunning Debut
Summary: 5 Stars
Mini-Review of "Everything Is Illuminated" by Jonathan Safran Foer
As I mentioned last month, my friend, Andy Peix, turned me on to the idiosyncratic writing style of Jonathan Safran Foer. Having been moved by "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," I knew I had to dig deep and read his first novel, "Everything is Illuminated."
Foer has a gift for taking huge tragedies - 9/11 or the Holocaust - and distilling the horror of their aftermath into very personal journey taken by unforgettable characters. In this case, the protagonist - a fictional Jonathan Safran Foer - sets out on a journey to find a gentile woman who may have saved his grandfather form the Nazis. The fractured English of Alex, the young Ukrainian translator, highlights the absurdity of many of the situations that Alex and Jonathan find themselves in - accompanies by the ever-drooling and randy canine with the greatest name in all of literature: "Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior"!
The writing is brilliant; the characters are memorable; the story is moving. Read it.
Enjoy.
Al
Book Review: One of the best books ever written
Summary: 5 Stars
This is my second favorite book. The imagination and narration is simply fantastic. I have never experienced imagination as beautiful as the telling of TrachimBrod. Every chapter about this city is glowing with incredible anecdotes and interesting characters. In fact, Brod is by far the best character i have ever encountered.
And Trachimbrod is just about a third of the whole story!
This book is modern literature, which is what i like about it most. Beyond its plot and characters and historical look at the lasting effects of WWII, there are themes of writing itself, of communication, of stories told 3rd or 4th handedly (Foer the character writing about Trachimbrod through a book about Trachimbrod, then us reading his writing). I am willing to bet colleges will start using this book in certain curriculum, like modern American literature or something like that.
Read this book, and read every detail of it and Foer's imagination will overwhelm you.
Book Review: Brilliant--No Pun Intended
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel was utterly amazing. It's about Sasha, a young adult from the Ukraine who is assisting his grandfather and his grandfather's seeing-eye bitch in escourting a tourist around the Ukraine. The tourist, who is Jonathan Safran Foer himself, is searching for the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. The novel is extremely funny, with an incredible amount of jokes included in just the first three pages. The dialogue used amongst the characters and the misused English by the narrator is also incredibly hilarious. In the end, the novel reaches a bittersweet conclusion. It's larger-than-life tales of Safran Foer's grandparents and great-great-great (etc.) grandmother inspire great catharsis for the reader. The novel is incredibly pleasing, with an ending that will not only break your heart, but also mend it and teach you about the ways of the world all at once. Everything Is Illuminated is incredibly true to life, and a wonderful read.Book Review: Everything is Amazing
Summary: 5 Stars
This book was the funniest, quirkiest, most fabulous (as in "off-the-wall can't wait to reread it" way)book I've read in . . . oh, ever. There are bits in this book that I've quoted. There are literary mindgames that just keep turning me around and making me view my world differently. And isn't that some of the value of great literature? Yes. Literature. Art. New visions of this and that. Everything is Illuminated qualifies - and the more stringent your standards the better.Book Review: Danger: Read only if you like to read good literature
Summary: 5 Stars
And I feel this can sound arogant...but...
There are different sorts of people - and there are different sorts of readers. Nothing bad about it.
I do not know how cars are working, or how to navigate airplane or so on.
But I know that this is one from the best books around.
Did you like 'One hundred years of solitude'? If yes than you will love this one too.
Please read it - and enjoy being sad and smile through it ...