Book Report- Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Everything Is Illuminated
Jonathan Safran Foer
Houghton Mifflin Company
2002
I just finished re-reading Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. He is one of my all time favorite authors, and this book was definitely worth a second reading. Set in contemporary Ukraine, this book is a mixture of humor, sorrow, and poetry.
One of the reasons why I love Foer's writing, is that he deals with subject matter that is super difficult to tackle, and yet he approaches it is such a way that it makes the subject safer for the reader, without infantilizing any of the issues. In this book he deals with prejudice, propaganda, what really occurs between human beings in war, and how it affects future generations.
The storyline of this book revolved around a young man, named Jonathan Safran Foer, who goes to the Ukraine in search of a woman who saved his Jewish grandfather from murder at the hands of the Nazis. The book is broken up in three parts the whole way through. One part of the writing is done by a man named Alexander Perchov, the translator and guide for Jonathan when he arrives in the Ukraine. Alex writes about the experience of trying to help Jonathan find the town of Trachimbrod, where his father has been from. The second part of the writing is a set of letters written by Alex to Jonathan after the search has occurred, and the third part of the writing is the embellished story of Jonathan's family in Trachimbrod.
Although I find this book a little convoluted, there are certain sections that are so poetic and beautiful I can only marvel at capacity of words to elicit feeling. One of my favorite things about the book is the extremely terrible english used by Alexander, the translator. It gives the whole book a feeling of reality and also humor.
"Enough of my miniature talking. I am making you a very boring person. I will now speak about the business of the story. I perceived that you were not as appeased by the second division. I eat another slice for this. But your corrections were so easy. Thank you for informing me that it is "shit a brick" and "shitting bricks," and also "to come in handy." It is very useful for me to know the correct idioms. It is necessary. I know that you asked me not to alter the mistakes because they sound humorous, and humorous is the only truthful way to tell a sad story, but I think I will alter them. Please do not hate me." (Pg 53)
The treatment of the stories of the people in the book is so real, it makes them more human than most people I know. The feeling of the characters and the surrounding countryside remind me of the photojournalism of Mila Teshaieva.
A large part of the story was written about Jonathan's grandfather, Safran. Safran is portrayed as a womanizer, who had been sleeping with a large number of the women of the town since the age of ten. This story is almost romantic, and also full of longing and confusion.
"It's not that he was ashamed, or even that he thought he was doing something wrong, because he knew that what he was doing was right, more right than anything he saw anyone do, and he knew that doing right often means feeling wrong, and if you find yourself feeling wrong, you're probably doing right. But he also knew that there was an inflationary aspect to love, and that should his mother, or Rose, or any of those who loved him find out about each other, they would not be able to help but feel of lesser value. He knew that I love you also means I love you more than anyone loves you, or has loved you, or will love you, and also I love you in a way that I love no one else, and never have loved anyone else, and never will love anyone else." (Pg 170)
"They exchanged notes, like children. My grandfather made his out of newspaper clippings and dropped them into her woven baskets, into which he knew only she would dare stick a hand. Meet me under the bridge, and I will show you things you have never, ever seen. The "M" was taken form the army that would take his mother's life: GERMAN FONRT ADVANCES ON SOVIET BORDER; the "eet" from their approaching warships: NAZI FLEET DEFEATS FRENCH AT LESACS; the "me" from the peninsula they were blue-eyeing: GERMANS SURROUND CRIMEA; the "und" from too little, too late: AMERICAN WAR FUNDS REACH ENGLAND; the "er" from the dog of dogs: HITLER RENDERS NONAGGRESSION PACT INOPERATIVE... and so on, and so on, each note a collage that could never be, and a war that could.
The gypsy girl carved her letters into trees, filling the forest with notes for him. Do not forsake me, she removed from the bark of a tree in whose shade they had once fallen asleep. Honor me, she carved into the trunk of a petrified oak. She was composing a list of commandments, commandments they could share, that would govern a life together, and not apart. Do not have any loves before me in your heart. Do not take my name in vain. Do not kill me. Observe me, and keep me holy.
I'd like to be wherever you are in ten years, he wrote her, gluing clips of newspaper headlines to a piece of yellow paper. Isn't that a nice idea?
A very nice idea, he found on a tree at the edge of the forest. And why is it only an idea?
Because- the print stained his hands: he read himself on himself- ten years is a long time from now.
We would have to run away, carved in a circle around a maple's trunk. We would have to leave everything behind but each other.
Which is possible, he composed with fragments of the news of imminent war. It's a nice idea anyway."
(Pg 233)
The book also had an overwhelming feeling of collections of things. Collections of stories, objects, people, all building on top of one another and on top of one another to finally make the whole story. You aren't really sure what's really going on until the very end, when you can look back at the whole puzzle and see and understand. Foer has such a beautiful way of drawing you in an explaining things so you have a complete understanding.
(Excerpts from the town dictionary as written in the book)
THE EXISTENCE OF GENTILES
(See God)
THE ENTIRETY OF THE WORLD AS WE DO AND DON'T KNOW IT
(See God)
THE PROBLEM OF EVIL: WHY UNCONDITIONALLY BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO UNCONDITIONALLY GOOD PEOPLE
They never do.
ART
Art is that thing having to do only with oneself- the product of a successful attempt to make a work of art. Unfortunately, there are no examples of art, nor good reasons to think it will every exist.
THE PROBLEM OF GOOD: WHY UNCONDITIONALLY GOO THINGS HAPPEN TO UNCONDITIONALLY BAD PEOPLE
(See God)
(Pg 198)
I would recommend this book to anyone I could. Although I much prefer Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by this same author, his writing in general is almost unparalleled in his use of poetry and storytelling.