Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.
This is the first novel by writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. The book was adapted into a film of the same name in 2005.
The story switches between 2 stories, both of which are autobiographical.
One is a fictional history of the eradicated town of Trochenbrod (Trachimbrod) in Poland -
a real exclusively Jewish shtetl in Poland before the Holocaust where the author’s
grandfather was born.
The second story tells of the trip Foer made to Ukraine in search of remnants and memories of
Trachimbrod.
The author, a young American Jew, who is vegetarian and an avid collector of his family’s heritage, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather’s life during the Nazi liquidation of Trachimbrod.
The book received many prestigious awards and honors.
While I didn’t really enjoy reading the book, the writing was very unique, hilarious at times and poignant. **** ( )

I am glad that I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close BEFORE I read this one. If this had been the first I read, I would not have read another. I just didn't get the same feel for this book as I did his other one. I didn't connect with any of the characters and the letter and language styles were making it tough for me to remember who was who and what storyline I was reading. I'm glad I gave it a try though. ( )

Told over two timeframes by two different narrators this is a dense novel that demands close reading and blurs the line between fiction and autobiography. One part of the action takes place in Ukraine in 1997, the other over an earlier period stretching from 1791 to 1942. The earlier section looks at the life of the Jewish community in a small village and the later is the search by an American visitor, Jonathan Safran Foer, who is trying to find information about his ancestors in the village. Aiding him in this quest, is Alex, a young local translator whose ambition is to emigrate to America. What starts as humorous with Alex’s broken English and his grandfather’s accompaniment of the search, gradually takes an almost mythical quality and then turns much darker. This leads to a moving and shocking conclusion as Jonathan’s search come to an end,

Mixed feelings about this novel. Overall, I liked it and would recommend it to any fan of literary fiction, Jewish history, history in general, and genealogy. It's very different from the film, which slices out at least one-half of the novel: the backstory. The film is a well-done "road movie" set in the Ukraine and following the three main characters, Alex, Alex's grandfather Sasha, and Jonathan, as they search for the elusive town of Trachimbrod. The novel, however, is less focused on the interaction among these three characters and their actual voyage. It jumps back and forth between the present day (post-search), told in letters between Alex and Jonathan, and the 1700s, leading up to the early 1940s, when the town's people were destroyed by Nazis.

The most captivating character, in my opinion, was Alex. The letters he writes to Jonathan in his just-learning-English style are hilarious, insightful, heartbreaking. I adored him. Unfortunately, he is only present in about one-third of the novel. There were times when I was incredibly annoyed to have to leave the present day and continue with the 1700s backstory, which was just not as interesting. Much of the backstory seemed to rely on characters who were outlandishly quirky, but not in genuine or endearing ways, and Safran's endless sex scenes began to bore me and trivialize the rest of the story. I wanted the novel to focus on the three main characters, their enlightenment/illumination, and their relationship.

But still, it's a great book and it deserves its accolades. ( )

I have noticed that when I read lit, it tends to be Jewish lit. An Irish friend reads mostly Irish lit (tho I don't envy her the Joyce!). That said, I adore this book-- it's one of my favorite "real" ones. I need to read it again. ( )