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Everything Is Illuminated
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List Price: $13.95
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Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780061120572
ISBN: 0060792175
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 288
Publication Date: 2005-09-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2005-08-23
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews:
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With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past. By turns comic and tragic, but always passionate, wildly inventive, and touched with an indelible humanity, this debut novel is a powerful, deeply felt story of searching: for the past, family, and truth.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the anti-hype.
Comment: This may be one of the most humorous tragedies I have read.
The novel is set up with three parts per chapter: the "main story" (as narrated by the established secondary character, who apparently learned English mostly from a thesaurus), the "other story" (by the author/title character, discussing his ancestral history of the past few hundred years, sex-lives and all), and a series of letters from the secondary character to the main character.
Many people found the English-as-a-second-language narration of the "main story" grating or even offensive, but this is ridiculous. It adds a truly alien aspect to the character, and some of what appear to be oddities in his speech are actually improvements on daily speech, upon second glance. Also, the masterful slaughter of the English language is strangely reminiscent of Nadsat (the slang in "A Clockwork Orange", for those unfamiliar). And please note: this novel was, in fact, WRITTEN AND RELEASED BEFORE THE MOVIE "BORAT." People love to claim that this novel is ripping off Borat's style of speech. Even if "Borat" came first, the styles are hardly comparable.
The "other story" contains many sexually graphic depictions, but none of them seem overdone or unnecessary. The world set up by Foer in the semi-fictional Ukrainian town of Trachimbrod is very unique, creative, and captivating. Many scenes, concepts, and stories from this section stick very hard with the reader, due to their collective strange, beautiful, and occasionally disturbing aesthetic. This may have been the most interesting part of the book, although its omission from the movie is very understandable.
Additionally, the letter series serves as a sort of epilogue that runs through the entire story.
Overall, this book is a great read. I will admit, however, there is a possibility that my opinion is slightly biased, due to my personal interest in the Slavic and Jewish cultures (both ubiquitous throughout the novel), as well as the fact that the singer of a band I listen to costarred in the film adaptation. I reasonably doubt this, though.
Anyway, I would suggest this novel to anyone looking for a dark, funny, and somewhat experimental story. If interested, one should definitely read the novel before seeing the movie. However, in my opinion, both forms of the story are amazing.
Customer Rating:
Summary: not for smooth reading but worths it...
Comment: I could not engage with this novel as much as I wanted although the author has too many merits. Maybe because I was going through a stressful phase. So although I rate three starts, I still believe it is worth reading it. This multi-perspectival narrating technique, with language games and not always linear timeline is an interesting experiment. I know that these are not new and there is something not smooth in reading. Maybe the author wants that intentionally. It is a challenge to the reader.... But of course this may be due to the fact that the author attempts to portray comedy and tragedy (Holocaust) elements together...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Everything is Illuminated
Comment: Great Book. Prompt mailing and good customer service. Thanks for being one of the best sources for unisual book on the internet.
MR
Customer Rating:
Summary: what am i missing here?
Comment: i have tried, on three separate occasions, to get into this book. each and every time, i am unable to pass the 3rd chapter. i kept thinking, what am i missing? the astronomical hype surrounding this book would lead one to believe that their lives are somehow of lesser quality should the miss the revelations contained within this supposed masterwork. am i of an inferior intellect that i cannot simply get past what seems like (to me, at least) the overtly gimmicky and contrived 'out there' writing style? am i the only one that found the cliched use of borat-like 'wierd foriegner' butchered english offensive? i know several eastern europeans (with varying degrees of english speaking ability) who sound and act nothing like this. i mean, come on.
its like this guy has gone out of his way to alienate the reader by bombarding us with a three ring circus of every writing techniques he has ever learned. and whats with the 'clever' use of the authors name as the main character? apparently the meaning is too deep for a mere peon like myself.
my point is, you dont have to scream to tell a story. this dude needs a large slice of humble pie and a tall glass of shut the hell up.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I hate this book, even though it inspired the movie, which I like
Comment: My review title says it all. This book is so utterly obnoxious, I don't know where to begin. For starters-----and, this will render my review pointless to many, which is fine-----I didn't finish it. I found the book to be so utterly horrid, I couldn't finish it. I read about half of it, putting it down, and picking up another book in its place.
The book gets the first star, for I liked the horrid English from Alexander, which I enjoyed. However, for some reason, I wonder if the author has some sort of repressed sexual tension, as he seems unable to keep sexual things of a middle-school locker-room nature out of the dialog, which I found to be most obnoxious.
The book gets the second star, for it inspired the movie, which I enjoyed. It's funny, because the movie has been criticized for 'straying' from the book too much, namely in the trippy backstory segments of the book (which I found to be most intolerable). I'm happy Liev Schreiber did so, otherwise I would've found his movie to be as intolerable as the book. I'll stop there, so this doesn't become a positive review for the movie.
In closing, I once again openly admit to not finishing this book, and invite any and all flaming that may ensue in that regards. But, alas, how can I be expected to finish a book which annoys me to no end? At least I gave it a shot, eh? If this is the kind of writing and storytelling which receives accolades today, then I think I might stop trying out these "modern classics", and stick with the old greats (Dostoyevski being my favorite author, for the record).
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