Book Review
Apr. 24th, 2022 10:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariEverything Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer
This novel is the story of a young man's (who shares the name of the author) trip to the Ukraine to find what remains of the village his grandfather was from and the woman who may have saved his life during WWII. His guides are Alex, a young man fascinated with America and possessed of a dubious command of English, and Alex's grumpy grandfather. The story is told in three interwoven narratives: Alex's letters to Jonathan commenting on the trip, Alex's story of the trip itself, and Jonathan's imagined version of the history of his grandfather's village and family. All three narratives are a deft mixture of humor, absurdity, and tragedy.
There was a lot to like about this novel. I enjoyed the slow build-up and reveal of the tragedies of the past and the ways those events echoed into the present. I liked the humor of Alex's quirky English and the way it requires the reader to pay attention to what he really saying beyond the words he uses. I liked the imagined past of the village and how it foreshadows the real events of the 20th century. I loved the explorations of memory, the necessity of understanding but also letting go the past, and the evil choices evil situations force upon good people. My only criticism is that sometimes it seemed like Foer was trying too hard with his literary structures and devices. It's all clever and mostly works, but I think he could have backed off on some of it.
by Jonathan Safran Foer
This novel is the story of a young man's (who shares the name of the author) trip to the Ukraine to find what remains of the village his grandfather was from and the woman who may have saved his life during WWII. His guides are Alex, a young man fascinated with America and possessed of a dubious command of English, and Alex's grumpy grandfather. The story is told in three interwoven narratives: Alex's letters to Jonathan commenting on the trip, Alex's story of the trip itself, and Jonathan's imagined version of the history of his grandfather's village and family. All three narratives are a deft mixture of humor, absurdity, and tragedy.
There was a lot to like about this novel. I enjoyed the slow build-up and reveal of the tragedies of the past and the ways those events echoed into the present. I liked the humor of Alex's quirky English and the way it requires the reader to pay attention to what he really saying beyond the words he uses. I liked the imagined past of the village and how it foreshadows the real events of the 20th century. I loved the explorations of memory, the necessity of understanding but also letting go the past, and the evil choices evil situations force upon good people. My only criticism is that sometimes it seemed like Foer was trying too hard with his literary structures and devices. It's all clever and mostly works, but I think he could have backed off on some of it.
