Everything Is Illuminated

The most notable aspect of the book is that a good portion of the book is narrated by a Ukrainian with an odd manner of speaking. He comments on Americans, their custome, and their pop culture, with a sincere but befuddled enthusiasm. Several times, it's revealed that the supposed author wants him to edit scenes calling the supposed author short, or foolish things he did.
If it sounds familiar, it's because the comedic device is about the same as that used in the old TV sitcom "Perfect Strangers." It's well-done and amusing to read for a while, but ultimately I don't think it's nearly enough to hold a book together. Not to mention that I have a number of Slavic friends with varying commands of English, none of whom talk remotely like this...
So there's more to the book than that - but it's easily forgotten. There's the author's fiction about his family, that's somewhere between self-parody and just bad, that I feel most readers will skim or even skip. There's writings on the Holocaust that, like most writings on the Holocaust, fall short of their huge ambition and becomes a re-setting of easily forgettable cliches. The human drama rang false.

While JSF's narrative ambition and linguistic acrobatics are impressive, this book ultimately left me cold. After reading such rave reviews, I feel like I *should* love this book; everyone seems to think this is the best kind of reading experience -- challenging, thought-provoking, illuminating, satisfying. I found it to be none of these (with the exception of one scene, which was incredible).

At first, I loved Alex's broken English, but after a while, the novelty wore off. Unlike the narrative of *A Clockwork Orange*, which works seamlessly with the content of the novel, this device doesn't really add anything to the story.

I am impressed with the way the author connects elements from various plotlines within the story. There are parallels of imagery and of events. It's clear that a lot of thought went into creating this. However, I'm not sure what to do with all of it. Yes, I see the connection, but so what? It doesn't seem to point to anything meaningful or thought-provoking. It's more that these elements simply point to each other.

I consider myself to be a capable reader. I am willing to put in the time and effort to read something that challenges me, but I want it to be rewarding. I did not find this rewarding, emotionally or intellectually. It's all form, with very little of substance beneath it. (...) It seems that JSF had a good time. I *get* that the past illuminates the present. There's got to be more to it than that, though.

One of the most touching books I've ever read. The final scenes are astonishing - if you are a mother or father, you will find it hard not to cry. I also plenty enjoyed the complexity of the structure, the numerous literary techniques applied to perfection and the humour. I had just read Murakami's The Windup Bird Chronichle. Everything is Illuminated is far tighter in construction, and quicker in pace. Froer is an genius: it is tough to believe he was in his early 20s when he wrote this book.

What works well as a short story is mind-numbing as a novel. All schtick. Having one of the lead characters translate all his writing into broken English with a dictionary grates after a humorous start. The flashbacks about people with insane names grates too. I fought to finish this book. I lost the battle. A literary hoax with raves from friends and teachers of the author. This is Dale Peck's (the best first novel he ever held) and Joyce Carol Oates' lowest moment.

Foer's "Everything is Illuminated" is -- in some places -- engaging and entertaining and -- in other places -- confusing and frustrating. As one reviewer already indicated, there are some remarkably insightful comments ("She loved her new vocabulary of simply loving something more than she loved her love for that thing, and the vulnerability that went along with living in the primary world."), albeit these moments couldn't compensate for the drivel that characterized the remainder of the book. I did, however, particularly enjoy Foer's jab at Mormonism when he remarks that the shtetl was usually referred to as some variant of Trachim*, "except for maps and Mormon census records, for which it would go by Sofiowka" -- the reference to Mormon genealogy struck me as comical.

This is one of the funniest books I've read in a long time, and yet it's also one of the most heartbreaking. The sections in Alex's voice contain some real laugh-out-loud moments, but what was marvelous, and surprising, is how touching it was. I laughed and laughed as Alex described his clumsy younger brother, and portrayed himself as a 'man about town,' but slowly Foer reveals that the younger brother is not clumsy, he's being beaten up by his father. That Alex is not a man about town, he's a lonely young man, full of hopes, dreams, ambitions and wishful thinking.
The same 'flip' was evident in the section of the story told in the town called Trachimbrod. Here the writing is more serious, almost poetic, full of beautiful images, and I could feel it moving towards tragedy. And yet it contained real humor and charm.
The is an amazing book, full of the unexpected, I found it impossible to put down. In fact I may well read it again.

Yes, I'm jealous. As a sometimes poet, frustrated novelist, and English teacher, I can't help but be jealous of Foer's achievement. His praise is well-deserved; he has managed to make a page turner out of a complex story with complex philosophical musings. There are loose ends to the story (unless I missed something), but life has loose ends -- that is real. The juxtaposition of this reality with the magic realism is intriguing and raises important questions about the relative importance of truth and the imagination. Of course there is humor in Alex's endearing attempts to use thesaurus-burdened words to seem more "intelligent," but perhaps equally important is the fact that his inability to get connotations of words helps the reader to see the irony in the subjects he discusses. My experience with the book may be different, since I listened to the audio version (my first experience with audiobooks)and the speaker who read Alex's sections added a wonderfully engaging accent. Yes, there were times when I had to rewind and listen again to get the pronoun references, and I felt frustrated that I didn't have the book in front of me to savor passages (I may buy it yet). But I was late to many an appointment and sat in the garage for many minutes each time I got home, because I couldn't bear to turn off the story, the humor, the sadness, the wisdom of what I was hearing. This book is fascinating, and if I were teaching at the college level I would consider adding it to my curriculum. The students would love me for it.

I too was caught up in the publicity that this book first got when it was published - and while it wasn't the best book ever -it was very entertaining and a good page turner. The first two chapters are tough to get through, but if you make it through them you will get caught up in the story and want to see how it plays out. Sad at times, funny as hell at others, introspective and thought provoking - which to me are good signs of a book.

How refreshingly eccentric....I know that sounds funny but honestly when I began the book it was hard to follow, it seemed here and there. I have become so accustomed to the hurried hollywood versions of everything, even literature now it seems, that it is hard to take the time to allow a story to reveal it self. About a quarter into the book I was able to pick up the pace a bit, I became suddenly anxious to collect the pieces of each characters intricate involvement in Jonathans tale. I began to go back and even mark "illuminating," phrases and conversations. I want so badly to say what it all means but don't want to give it away and/or perhaps there is something different for you to find. Take your time and you will find within each story and letter a sort of lesson. "Everything Is Illuminated," is about life, love,honesty and none of the above. I look forward to reading the authors lastest novel and seeing the film adaptation of this book. I will certainly be in line when Jonathan begins his new tour, hope he's coming to OHIO!

Jonathan Safran Foer has written one of the very best novels of the past ten years. The writing is inventive, the characters are wonderful, the story is gripping, and all of it weaves together for a truly brilliant novel.
Alex has been told by his father to assist a young Jewish man (Jonathan Safran Foer) on his quest in finding the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Alex brings his depressed grandfather along to act as a driver. Alex is still trying to get a grip on the English language and Safran Foer writes the novel from his perspective, broken English and all.
But really, my description does not do the book any justice at all. Reading this book was one of the most liberating reading experiences I've ever had. Every emotion imaginable will run through you at some point while reading this book. Look out for this author, I expect him to have a wonderful career ahead of him. This book will be a classic in the years to come!!!!!

I'm sorry, I just didn't get it.
This book was sold hard, and reviewed very well, and being a fan of modern literature I bought into the hype.
The "parallel writing" gimmicks are cute for about the first 50 pages.
The fractured use of the English language grows weary after about 100 pages.
The ending is about as unfulfilling as any book which I have read in the last ten years.
Maybe you need to relate to this story on a different level (as a foreigner, as a traveler having a unique experience with a guide, as a relative desperate for family tree information) in order to enjoy "Everything Is Illuminated". I came into the story as neither.
I sold this book as soon as I finished it, and used the money to buy "Prague".

I finished this book a week ago and I'm still gathering my thoughts about the experience. First let me say that I picked this book up because a friend of mine saw the movie and said she thought I would think it was highly amusing. "Everything is Illuminated" never came to my local arthouse (looking forward to renting it) so I read the book instead. She was right- I found it very amusing. But what I wasn't expecting was the emotionality of the Ukrainian narrator, along with the inhabitants of Trachimbrod. By the end, I was crying and depressed... but in a good way :). Not the best book I've ever read and rather uneven and affected, but Jonathan Safran Foer uses inventive and interesting style choices and creates an intense and truthful emotional undercurrent to what could have been just another drop in the Bildungsroman bucket.

This book was amazing. The characters of Alex, Jonathan, and Grandfather were incredibly well-drawn and the narrative (in all three tales) was subtle and delicate. There were many memorable and heartbreaking scenes, including the two major "betrayal" stories at the end. In fact, I put the book down during both scenes because it was so emotionally wrenching to read.

I understand the author has experienced some trouble following up this novel, that his second novel hasn't received the accolades this one did. It's easy to see why. Everything is Illuminated is an incredible novel, one I won't soon forget and one that ANY writer would hate to have to follow up with something new. I look forward to recommending Everything is Illuminated to friends.

i can't recommend this book enough, especially for people who love language. there are 2 characters telling stories (the structure may confuse some people but stick with it - it's worth it!). the 1st is jonathan, who journeys to the ukraine to find the woman who saved his grandfather during the holocaust. he also imagines his family's history through generations. the 2nd is his ukrainian translater, alex, whose family also becomes interwoven in the story (along with their dog, sammy davis junior junior!).
but what's most wonderful is the WAY it's written. alex has an incomplete grasp of english and comes out with some near poetic expressions - like when he describes his little brother: "it is now evident to me that he will become a very potent and generative man, and that his brain will have many muscles." or "father dubs him clumsy one because he is always promenading into things. it was only four days previous that he made his eye blue from a mismanagement with a brick wall". foer's mastery of english is really proven here, and will make you laugh out loud at times.
it's not one of those "should reads" you plow through - it's enjoyable and you'll be sad it ends. the book does have some flaws - i think the ending was weak, for example - but it is a debut novel. and still one of the most original books i can remember reading.

Everything Is Illuminated isn't just a book; it's an experiance.

Before reading Illuminated, I saw the movie version, with Elija Wood as Jonathan. The movie is excelllent, and explains things I would otherwise have missed, but the book, as always, is so much better.

The main plotline is told through the mottled words of a Ukrainian-English "translator", Alex. He and Jonathan, the author, along with Alex's grandfather and their dog, Sammy Davis Jr, Jr, go in search of the woman who saved Jonathan's grandmother during the Holocaust. These chapters are filled with Alex's blunt commentary, which adds comic relief to an otherwise solumn tale.

Illuminated has a distinct rhythm woven through the pages, blending the use of letters, dream journals, past goings-on, and present day to attain a feel like no other. All two(and a half, really) plotlines come together in a satisfying way, and the half-hidden clues in the text make you go "Ah! I see...".

Everything Is Illuminated has a special something that I've never found in any other book, and Jonathan Safran Foer's tell-it-like-it-is attitude is refreshing in contrast to today's stress on political correctness. If you've yet to experiance this wonderful ride, you're in for a treat when you pick up Everything Is Illuminated.

Like some other books I've reviewed, I got this from the list of people who bought this, also bought this... started with Chuck Palahniuk and then Christopher Baer, and ended up with this book. Some of the language, especially the names, are hard to follow, and can be pretty "out there" sometimes. The way chapters alternate can also make for some difficult reading, especially if you are like me and read a chapter or so a night. Missing a day or two and picking it back up can make it hard to figure out where you are. Essentially, most of the small details I got caught up in at the beginning were not that important to the overall story. So plow through the first few chapters and you'll get the hang of the story. It is worth mentioning that there is a movie out there with Elijah Wood that is also very enjoyable. It leaves out some larger parts of the book and changes several characteristics, but I watched it in the middle of reading the book and it helped me get through the rest. Not the best book I've read, but still worth reading.

Jonathan Foer has created in his debut novel, one of the most creative works in many years. His use of English and ability to take it to it's boundaries is a true testament to this newcomers uncanny understanding of the language.
The novel is divided into three distinct parts. The first is the fictional history of the town of Trachimbrod, the origin of the protaganist's (also named Jonather Foer) heritage. Second is the story of a Foer's search for the woman who saved his Grandfather from the Nazi's, told from the perspective of his Ukranian translator who is unintentionally hilarious. And the glue between the two peices is the written correspondences of the translator and Foer.
There is so much to be impressed and excited about in this book. It is touching, hilarious and insightful. Even with such a complex structure, and an overwhelming amount of humor, Foer has created a work that speaks deeply of love, friendship, loss, and our searches for ourselves. A truly impressive debut that needs to be picked up, whether or not you typically buy into the hype. Highly recommended.

I highly recommend Everything is Illuminated to anyone who can bear to read a senstive, highly imaginative account of the web of emotions, memories, and traditions (i.e., history) destroyed by the Nazi holocaust. Jonathan Safran Foer is probably the American novelist who best carries on the tradition of magic realism, best represented by Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum, Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude.

I picked up this book because everyone raved about it, but I hated it and gave up trying to get through it. I was especially annoyed by the affected fashion of the writing and the strange and disturbing ways the author depicted Jewish life as he imagined it was lived in the distant past in Europe. This is the type of book that "intellectuals" love to praise because of its "complexity" but I think that the average book lover would, if he or she were honest, admit was badly done. -- Judy Gruen, author, "The Women's Daily Irony Supplement"

Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated (Dutton, 2002)
My, what a clever novel!
In any case, that, I imagine, is what Jonathan Safran Foer kept saying as he was writing this. And really, much about it is clever. The comparisons to A Clockwork Orange are completely unwarranted, as Alex, Foer's Ukrainian hero, destroys the English language in a quite different way than does Burgess' Alex. (A less politically correct but more conceptually accurate comparison would be Charlie Chan, as written by Earl Derr Biggers.) Foer's intertwining of stories is also quite clever, and his use of the two narrators to tell the main storylines.
However, with all the cleverness going on, Foer seems to have forgotten in many places to actually insert a novel. Threads pick up in odd places and then die with no fanfare, never to be resurrected again; the story has holes without being told an enough of an impressionist way to allow the reader to fill in enough blanks; the characters are obviously there as vehicles to carry off the cleverness, instead of being fully-realized human beings. In other words, this is a linguistic roller coaster, not a novel.
Not to say Foer doesn't write well when he forgets about the tricks and applies himself. Especially in the novel's last eighty pages, there are scenes of great beauty and tragedy that are conveyed in powerful manner that make the reader sit up and take notice. (The emotionl impact of every last one of them is dramatically undercut by Foer's following each with a needlessly scatological and/or pornographic piece of attempted humor, each of which fails because of its positioning, but the tragic pieces themselves are extremely well-written.) Unfortunately, these scenes are all too few. One of them is going along swimmingly until he decides to interject a Rick Moody-esque three-page unpunctuated sentence. Horrid. (And a trick he repeats a couple of times afterwards, also throwing in run-on words. Even more horrid.)
The book is billed as a comedy, and Foer tries to carry it off as such, but when the finest-written scenes are those of tragedy, it's hard to call it a success as attempted. Foer has the makings of a fine dramatic writer, once he gets away from being so consciously clever. **

There has been a lot of author/"corporate literature machine"-bashing throughout these reviews (many of them are blistering, yet critically meritorious). I think what happened with this novel is simple: it got everybody's hopes up, and was read too immediately by too many people harboring way too much expectation.
What readers need to remember is, this novel was written by a guy in his EARLY TWENTIES. Take a moment to think about that.
JSF takes a lot of risks with narrative, style, etc., and yes, most of them don't payoff, it's true--but some of them do. The author, Foer, entreats us to something that few writers (few artists for that matter) have the courage to nowadays. It's called DARING. This novel ATTEMPTS uniqueness. Instead of labeling Foer a fraud, we should all be wondering at the sheer *#@*ing magnificence his fourth or fifth novels might contain, 10 or 12 years from now.
Readers like myself who waited a year or so after its release to explore 'Everything is Illuminated' have benefited. For those who still haven't checked it out, a little advice. If you buy the paperback version, tear the front and back covers off the book and trash them as soon as you leave the store. If you buy the hardcover, do so with the jacket. Don't read the reviews. Be as flexible as you can regarding realism and historical facts. Skip around. Try your best to appreciate the pages for what they are.

This unconventional novel set in a variety of times and places is very much about the imperfectness of human beings. However, Foer manages to portray them all with compassion. Victims of past and future oppression are shown with all their petty faults and strengths, and any character with an inflated ego soon comes to admit some things to himself. This novel is very much about self-examination, and how it enables us to admit to events we cannot go back to and change and accept ourselves, faults and all.

Mildly put, I will admit that "Everything Is Illuminated" is a charming and imaginative novel, and bound to be a favorite of contemporary fiction fanatics. Something like this book hasn't really been (successfully) attempted since "A Clockwork Orange" where half of the narration is described in humorously butchered English, as the account of a second-rate English translator from Ukraine. Original? Yes. Mind-engaging and thought-provoking? Definitely. But most importantly, is it an amazing book? Suffice to say, it's an awkward toss-up.

Granted, the book is EXTREMELY hard to get into, with the opening chapter being a strange description of Alex, the Ukranian translator. You don't get used to Alex's narrating style until you read about the 3rd chapter which he narrates (Foer changes the narration at even increments. A couple of chapters are described by Alex's under-developed English, and the next 3 are narrated by Foer's beautiful prose). Some of the narration is irrelevant, however, and the letters Alex sends to Jonathan don't do much except say "I'm Alex, I suck at English and my grandfather is crazy."

It's a weird combination, Holocaust and laughter, but Foer makes it work, which is why I admire this book very much. Both Alex's narratives and Foer's present thought-provoking insights, facts, and situations that collectively add up to how wonderful this book is, despite its minor (but still annoying) shortcomings.

You might want to watch the movie, too!

If ever there was a book to get from the library before laying out money it is this one. I was bowled over by all the high praise this book got. But since I tend to distrust critics I got this from the library. So I read it and it was everything I could do to finish it. It is not interesting and deals in such dark images that it should not be read late at night or nightmares will surely result. It is loaded with inacuraces as well. Of all the characters in the book the most likeable is a dog.
For sure there will be many who would beg to differ. But if you like your books uplifting steer clear of this.

I had a hard time following what was going on in the beginning of this book but as I continued to read I learned the language of the story. It is the history of us all frightening and glorious full of death and love.

Judging from my title, you'd be correct in assuming that I really liked this book. Why 3 stars? Because, while I wouldn't go so far as to call foer a writing genius, he is good at what he does...the only problem is that he is screaming this on every page he writes. His style is one that is so obviously telling the reader, "Hey look at how clever I am! Aren't I so funny and brilliant...I'm great", and personally that's a turn-off. Hopefully that won't push away some of his credibility and turn other readers off from his future works, like it did for Rushdie (check out any reviews for his last few titles). Anyway, give it a try...I'm sure you'll like it too, even if it is hokey at times.

I went into reading this book with apprehension. The first bit of it seemed extremely confusing to me and the plot jumped back and forth. However, once I got a hang of it, I fell into the characters and their experiences. Foer's writing style is absolutely magnificent and unique. I love his rendition of the war from a small town's point of view, not just your usual Number the Stars-type World War II novel. I don't even know what else to say. This book almost made me cry, and barely anything does that. Please read this! You will love it so much!

I know JSF is supposed to be the new "wunderkind," but I have to break away from the pack and say that "Everything is Exaggerated."
The best things that can be said for Foer are that he is clearly both well-read and well-connected. First, part of this book is virtually lifted from the far-superior (and less-well-known in the US) _See Under: Love_ by David Grossman (an Israeli writer); it is virtually literary plagiarism. Second, with a brother who writes for The New Republic, Joyce Carol Oates as his writing teacher in college, and Dale Peck as a family friend, JSF starts with the benefit of being extraordinarily well-connected for his age in the world of the literati, which cannot help but play into his success. I don't begrudge him the latter, but think this is a clear playing out of the Yiddish aphorism, "you'd always rather have mazel (luck) than sechel (wisdom)."
While JSF has clear potential to be a terrific writer, that potential is infrequently realized within the context of this book. He prostitutes the Jewish experience in Eastern Europe for his own gain by writing an account of a shtetl based on little research and much sarcasm. To someone who doesn't know anything about Jewish history in Eastern Europe, I am sure that JSF's rendering has the resonance of a Chagall painting. To anyone who does, it's a virtual Jewish minstrel show and degrades the history of the Jewish people in Eastern Europe. JSF, the satirical portrait of shtetl life has been done. The writer's name is Shalom Aleichem, and what made him so great was not only his language, but that even the most bitter elements of his portrayal were infused not by self-loathing, but by love.
My favorite moment in the book does not rest on Alex's butchering of the English language, but rather on a passage in which one character recounts a massacre to Alex, who translates for JSF's character. This slow, unfolding portrayal of how history is created is terrific to read and watch. Unfortunately, it stands out amidst the rest of a book (and, truthfully, a writer) which takes itself far too seriously for what it has to offer.

Everything is Illuminated is one of those rare, thoroughly captivating, emotionally exhausting, and brilliantly wonderful books. Wise beyond his years, Foer intertwines the horrors of the Holocaust with a genuine humanity; offering no answers but challenging the reader to draw his own. The themes were both powerful, touching and uncomfortably resonant. I found myself turning the book over in my hands long after I had finished it, trying to figure out what, exactly, I was feeling.

Each page of the novel was either hilarious or heartbreaking or both at the same time. Emotional honesty is a rarity, but Everything is Illuminated laid it poigniantly across each page. There were certain instances where JSF's experimental prose style spun out of control. And there was the occasional overly graphic sex scene. Though overall, I find it had to dwell on the faults of this otherwise shimmering novel.

I've never even written an the storeian review, but with this book it was necessary. Chock full of mindless dribble and historical inaccuracies, what could have been a good book enters into idealistic allegory and boredom. This much is apparent from Foer's self-named character ("the hero"), who writes to connect himself to his past and does manage to string together a message, but is overly wordy and strings symbol after symbol into only a shadow of a heartfelt story. Sadly this takes up most of the book!

Still, the redeeming qualities were stark. The layout, for one, was creative and necessary. Every so often, the reader needs a break from the shtetl nonsense to the more sincere character of Alex. This side of the story really evokes the need for human connection and the sacrifices that requires. Alex saved Foer, friend, but with every turn of the page I hoped for cataracts.

I read this book because the reviewers said a new literary genius was on the horizon. The reviewers were liars. There is such a thing as writing above your means and Foer does it in spades. He simply does not have the experience and knowledge to really pull it off. But no doubt about it, the book is a triumph of marketing.
The fractured English of Alex may seem amusing but it's manufactured. If you have been around people who taught themselves English, as I have, you know their problem is not picking the wrong word, using "rigid" for "thorough", for example, but in the syntax and pronunciation. What they do is like the young man who wants bread in a restaurant saying to the attractive waitress, "I want some broad." Foer doesn't know this.
He also doesn't know that there were no independent Jewish towns in Ukraine. There were Jewish ghettos in the towns. So you could destroy the inhabitants of the ghetto but not the town. The town would remain in existence. Also, the invading Germans were not interested in torturing or humiliating the Jews. They just wanted them out of the way as quickly and efficiently as possible. The purpose of the executions was reprisal and to terrorize the living.
If you go to see the film be aware it has little to do with the book. All the Ukrainian characters speak Russian, not Ukrainian. I was told that was because Eugene Hutz, who played Alex, could not speak Ukrainian so the script was changed. If the story of Alex the grandfather seems unconvincing in the movie there is a good reason. In the book he was not Jewish. In the film he became a Jew who rejected his Jewishness, became an anti-Semite, became reconciled to his Jewishness, and then committed suicide. Quite a switch. Also, the ending of the movie is quite different from the book.
I want to point out that my quarrel is not with Foer but with the critics. That he could write a book, that attracted so much attention, at his young age is a fine achievement and good for him. Foer has a good heart and there are fine things in his novel. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
Since so much of the book covers ancient history, my advice is, if you want to know something about Jewish life in old Ukraine read two great authors who got it right: Isaac Singer and Sholom Aleichem.

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.

I recommend that most people do NOT read this book. If you choose to ignore me and you read the work anyway, please first be remotely acquainted with and keep in mind a few things before you attempt to do so (and certainly before you try to express an ostensibly reputable opinion on the store): **magical realism**; Jewish history, religion, culture and humor(although the last is perhaps redundant); memory; folk lore; the English language; love; the nature of histories; sex; death; pain; narrative style and voice; the multiplicity of human, and likewise Jewish, experience; imagination. I will assert, because I hope it is true, that you don't need to all of these things to enjoy "Illuminated," but you do need to be familiar with some of it. And you must be willing to spend some time with this book to enjoy it. All those with self-diagnosed A.D.D. need not bother cracking the spine. However, even if you qualify despite the rigor of what may be required of you, everything may be indeed sadly "obfuscated." Or perhaps less disappointingly, only partly obfuscated. If so, don't get angry. Don't curse the gods or creative writing programs. And certainly, if you are going to write bad reviews on the store, preface it first with your own faults as a reader. Lastly, buck up. Read another book. Even the Bible (another little book high up on the best seller's list) is not for everyone.

And for those of you out there who disagree to my approach with this review of "Illuminated", that is fine. Dismiss it. At least, please don't take the advice of any other critic here who speaks in an equally perturbed voice. Moreover, don't read it for the reviews...Actually stop reading reviews. Now.

On the plus side, this is ambitious, creative, original writing.
On the negative side, the narrative is often incoherent, and sometimes so emotionally shattering that one longs for it to end. It is also marred by a persistent "Aren't I clever?" whispering around the edges of the text.
Overall, it is worth reading if you have some spare time, but seriously flawed.

I felt like Foer was pimping the Holocaust, frankly. It felt - I don't know, too self-satisfied, or self-indulgent, or something; I felt like this book was all about Foer over-flexing his artistic muscles, and it didn't sit well with me that he was using the Holocaust to do it. I know this might just be me showing my prejudice against rich, privileged East Coasters. That's definitely a part of my distaste, but I don't think that's all it is - there's something just too flowery, or too overextended - I don't know, something is wrong here.

Like... it doesn't feel real! It feels like Foer tried to vamp it all up with extra meaning, extra "deepness" shoved into every conversation and description... and I don't know, he just seemed too proud about it all.

It's mostly the pogrom scene, at the very end at the grandfather's wedding, that really gets to me. I felt like Foer tried to distill the Holocaust itself into art, and that's wrong. I found myself getting angry at Foer, for being ignorant about the reality of suffering, of murder. It seemed like he was abusing this subject, playing with all the deep and ugly feelings we naturally have for the Holocaust, and using them to fuel the his book's very artsy "crescendo"... I don't know if this is making sense. He just makes me uneasy.

I know he's the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. But all his experience is second-hand, it doesn't give him cart blanche... I don't know, my grandpa was in a camp too, and I just try to imagine what he'd make of all of this...

I don't know. I know everybody processes things, expresses things differently, and probably I should just give Foer the benefit of the doubt and enjoy his work without all this anger. Still - I am uneasy with this book.

A friend told me about this book and I will always be grateful--what a find! I listened to the audio version and ran the gamut of emotional reactions during the course of this heartbreaking and hilarious novel. I never knew the English language could be butchered in so many creative ways! the dual narrative, one going forward in time, one going backward, was a bit confusing at times, but ultimately, it worked. I look forward to m ore of Foer's work.

Pay no attention to the carping about the author's youth and the novel's disjointed narrative structure - this is a brilliantly poignant, surreal, and laugh-out-loud funny story that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it. Sure, it's not lightweight beach reading but nor is it inaccessible like some pretentious D. F. Wallace fiction. And long after you think you've forgotten all about it, you'll see some misbehaving dog gnawing at his tail and think fondly of Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior.

I've never even written an the storeian review, but with this book it was necessary. Chock full of mindless dribble and historical inaccuracies, what could have been a good book enters into idealistic allegory and boredom. This much is apparent from Foer's self-named character ("the hero"), who writes to connect himself to his past and does manage to string together a message, but is overly wordy and strings symbol after symbol into only a shadow of a heartfelt story. Sadly this takes up most of the book!

Still, the redeeming qualities were stark. The layout, for one, was creative and necessary. Every so often, the reader needs a break from the shtetl nonsense to the more sincere character of Alex. This side of the story really evokes the need for human connection and the sacrifices that requires. Alex saved Foer, friend, but with every turn of the page I hoped for cataracts.

I read this book because the reviewers said a new literary genius was on the horizon. The reviewers were liars. There is such a thing as writing above your means and Foer does it in spades. He simply does not have the experience and knowledge to really pull it off. But no doubt about it, the book is a triumph of marketing.
The fractured English of Alex may seem amusing but it's manufactured. If you have been around people who taught themselves English, as I have, you know their problem is not picking the wrong word, using "rigid" for "thorough", for example, but in the syntax and pronunciation. What they do is like the young man who wants bread in a restaurant saying to the attractive waitress, "I want some broad." Foer doesn't know this.
He also doesn't know that there were no independent Jewish towns in Ukraine. There were Jewish ghettos in the towns. So you could destroy the inhabitants of the ghetto but not the town. The town would remain in existence. Also, the invading Germans were not interested in torturing or humiliating the Jews. They just wanted them out of the way as quickly and efficiently as possible. The purpose of the executions was reprisal and to terrorize the living.
If you go to see the film be aware it has little to do with the book. All the Ukrainian characters speak Russian, not Ukrainian. I was told that was because Eugene Hutz, who played Alex, could not speak Ukrainian so the script was changed. If the story of Alex the grandfather seems unconvincing in the movie there is a good reason. In the book he was not Jewish. In the film he became a Jew who rejected his Jewishness, became an anti-Semite, became reconciled to his Jewishness, and then committed suicide. Quite a switch. Also, the ending of the movie is quite different from the book.
I want to point out that my quarrel is not with Foer but with the critics. That he could write a book, that attracted so much attention, at his young age is a fine achievement and good for him. Foer has a good heart and there are fine things in his novel. Just don't expect a masterpiece.
Since so much of the book covers ancient history, my advice is, if you want to know something about Jewish life in old Ukraine read two great authors who got it right: Isaac Singer and Sholom Aleichem.

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.

I recommend that most people do NOT read this book. If you choose to ignore me and you read the work anyway, please first be remotely acquainted with and keep in mind a few things before you attempt to do so (and certainly before you try to express an ostensibly reputable opinion on the store): **magical realism**; Jewish history, religion, culture and humor(although the last is perhaps redundant); memory; folk lore; the English language; love; the nature of histories; sex; death; pain; narrative style and voice; the multiplicity of human, and likewise Jewish, experience; imagination. I will assert, because I hope it is true, that you don't need to all of these things to enjoy "Illuminated," but you do need to be familiar with some of it. And you must be willing to spend some time with this book to enjoy it. All those with self-diagnosed A.D.D. need not bother cracking the spine. However, even if you qualify despite the rigor of what may be required of you, everything may be indeed sadly "obfuscated." Or perhaps less disappointingly, only partly obfuscated. If so, don't get angry. Don't curse the gods or creative writing programs. And certainly, if you are going to write bad reviews on the store, preface it first with your own faults as a reader. Lastly, buck up. Read another book. Even the Bible (another little book high up on the best seller's list) is not for everyone.

And for those of you out there who disagree to my approach with this review of "Illuminated", that is fine. Dismiss it. At least, please don't take the advice of any other critic here who speaks in an equally perturbed voice. Moreover, don't read it for the reviews...Actually stop reading reviews. Now.

On the plus side, this is ambitious, creative, original writing.
On the negative side, the narrative is often incoherent, and sometimes so emotionally shattering that one longs for it to end. It is also marred by a persistent "Aren't I clever?" whispering around the edges of the text.
Overall, it is worth reading if you have some spare time, but seriously flawed.

I felt like Foer was pimping the Holocaust, frankly. It felt - I don't know, too self-satisfied, or self-indulgent, or something; I felt like this book was all about Foer over-flexing his artistic muscles, and it didn't sit well with me that he was using the Holocaust to do it. I know this might just be me showing my prejudice against rich, privileged East Coasters. That's definitely a part of my distaste, but I don't think that's all it is - there's something just too flowery, or too overextended - I don't know, something is wrong here.

Like... it doesn't feel real! It feels like Foer tried to vamp it all up with extra meaning, extra "deepness" shoved into every conversation and description... and I don't know, he just seemed too proud about it all.

It's mostly the pogrom scene, at the very end at the grandfather's wedding, that really gets to me. I felt like Foer tried to distill the Holocaust itself into art, and that's wrong. I found myself getting angry at Foer, for being ignorant about the reality of suffering, of murder. It seemed like he was abusing this subject, playing with all the deep and ugly feelings we naturally have for the Holocaust, and using them to fuel the his book's very artsy "crescendo"... I don't know if this is making sense. He just makes me uneasy.

I know he's the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. But all his experience is second-hand, it doesn't give him cart blanche... I don't know, my grandpa was in a camp too, and I just try to imagine what he'd make of all of this...

I don't know. I know everybody processes things, expresses things differently, and probably I should just give Foer the benefit of the doubt and enjoy his work without all this anger. Still - I am uneasy with this book.

A friend told me about this book and I will always be grateful--what a find! I listened to the audio version and ran the gamut of emotional reactions during the course of this heartbreaking and hilarious novel. I never knew the English language could be butchered in so many creative ways! the dual narrative, one going forward in time, one going backward, was a bit confusing at times, but ultimately, it worked. I look forward to m ore of Foer's work.

Pay no attention to the carping about the author's youth and the novel's disjointed narrative structure - this is a brilliantly poignant, surreal, and laugh-out-loud funny story that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it. Sure, it's not lightweight beach reading but nor is it inaccessible like some pretentious D. F. Wallace fiction. And long after you think you've forgotten all about it, you'll see some misbehaving dog gnawing at his tail and think fondly of Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior.

I didn't know what to expect with this book. (It was recommended by a very trusted friend.) So I read it without any notions of what it might be, or who the author is, or anything. It wasn't until I was finished, and did a little research, that I learned this is a "big, important book" and that the author is, to my disbelief, 24!!!! I have since called to thank my friend about a dozen times. All I can say is that I kept reading parts out loud to my wife---laugh out loud funny parts, and parts that made me choke up with tears. I read it to her in bed in the morning, and in the kitchen before we went to work, and at the dinner table, and before going to sleep. And honestly, I'd rather just quote long parts of the book than write this review of it, so you could see for yourself. That's the kind of book it is. Read it.

I bought Everything Is Illuminated because I needed a summer reading book and I had heard great things about it. It's the kind of book I don't normally choose, because of the subject matter and the format. I assumed it would be boring, but since I had little else to read, I decided to give it a shot. The story follows a twentysomething American named Jonathan (Foer makes himself the main character even though the story is fictional) who goes to the Ukraine to look for a woman who he believes saved his grandfather's life during World War II. All he has to help him is a photo of her with her family and his grandfather, her first name, and the hope that she's still alive. His guide/interpreter is a young man of the same age named Sasha, and since he doesn't have much training in English, he has a tendency to butcher the language when translating phrases. Sasha's grandfather is the driver, and they soon learn that he has more to do with the search than they initially thought. The book really has three stories: the first is "written" by Sasha and is pretty much just an account of their search; the second is written by the "hero," Foer, and is a retelling of his family history and how it ties in with the search; the third story is composed of letters from Alex to Foer, and it talks about their joint effort in writing the story, and about their lives after the search. Even though the format seems confusing and a little disorganized, it flows together very well and helps to keep the reader from getting distracted and bored.

While the story starts off slow for the first few pages, and requires a little bit of work to understand Alex's mistranslations, the story soon picks up and the reader gets used to Alex's mistakes. What makes the book easy to read is Foer's style and subtle humor. He is creative in using a foreign character with imperfect English to narrate two thirds of the book, and sometimes it's more fun to read the mistakes Alex makes in his expressions than it is to actually follow the story. Foer also keeps it interesting by running three stories at once, so that the reader can switch from one to another without confusing them or getting bored. He is descriptive in his writing, but not too much. He makes observations about characters that are uncommonly made by writers but at the same time are real and easy to relate to.

Another tool Foer uses that kept the book interesting was his ability to change the tone throughout the book without making it obvious. For the first half of the book, the tone is light and humorous, and jokes or witty remarks are found in practically every line. But gradually, as the stories progress, the humor starts to fade and the jokes become more sparse, until almost none are made. It helps the reader to feel like part of the story, to feel like the characters do as the story turns from a fun account of a little adventure to a very scary yet very real account of World War II and the people who lived through it.

I was very reading at one time in the past this works in book group with Balki, Latka, Botrat and most famous notable comedian Yakov Smirnoff and Festrunk Brothers! We were all so loving Johnathan Safro Foer's writings styles and found many many moments to enjoy from the reading! Go and spend great currencies on this most genius of work. You will be extolling!

everyone says the reviews for this were way overrated, and the reviewers should be blamed for that instead of the author. yeah, it was a bit stuffy at times, but there was too much humanism to accuse Foer of being pseudo intellectual. there were a lot of lists of details that may seem gratuitous but i saw them as trying to give an accurate feeling for the idiosyncrosies of a certain culture. my favorites include the book of dreams and the different kinds of sadness. but the clincher is vernacular. it's not easy to write in voice like this, just ask irvine welsh or anthony burgess. additionally, i've been living overseas for the past few years, including europe, the balkans, and even the middle-east, and that's how people who learn English as a second language through academics sound. for all of you who've never been to europe or otherwise, the rest of the world has a much larger english vocabulary than the average ignorant american.

Literature allows you the luxury of digging deep into the lives of others without getting your hands dirty. It lets you vicariously experience events of the past, the lives of others far removed from yourself, while keeping a safe distance from the risks of actual emotional involvement. It's a one-way mirror that lets you peer unguardedly at a person, study him, gawk at him, emphathize with him, hate him, feel with him.

With Everything is Illuminated Foer breaks the one way mirror in his tale of life in a Ukrainian Jewish shtetl, and the end of all that life. He robs you of your right to experience the atrocities from a distance. You can't coolly view the plight of the characters, far removed from their lives. You're right there, shell-shocked. You're forced to gaze disbelieving at the raw brutality of a world where entire towns can be wiped off the map.

Fiction, or at least good fiction, is reality compressed. You get what is sometimes sometimes a lifetime's worth of illumination put into one work and see some aspect man in general, of a man in particular, of yourself in particular, or of the world in which you live. You in turn are illuminated, you understand what you didn't before. (Chances are, you probably won't get that with the pulp novels they sell at WalMart.)

Foer paints his portrait of reality in detail that is simultaneously raw, painful, lovely, insane, hilarious, and dirty. He takes you by the back of the neck and shoves your face right into his painting, forcing you to behold the world's chiaroscuro of unfathomable beauty and raw evil.

The story, a mixture of creative fiction and autiobiography, unfolds as Foer treks across Ukraine in search of the woman who helped save his Jewish grandfather from the Nazis. He is accompanied by a linguistically inept translator, a grouchy and profane old driver, and a flatulent deranged dog named Sammy Davis Junior, Junior.

The plot is revealed in letters between Foer and his translator, each of whom is also writing a separate narrative. Foer's freewheeling history is at once imaginative and mimetic, a mixture of fantasy and photographic realism. Be sure that you keep a box of tissues and a punching bag handy.

There are times when an author can maximize on one aspect of novel writing that he or she creates a worthwhile read. Sometimes it's a strong plot, sometimes it's compelling characters. Very rarely have I discovered an author who maximizes every aspect of writing as Safran Foer has.

This novel is a wild story replete with characters who are characters, humorous dialogue, compelling emotional passages, powerful themes and even cleverly employed diction and structure (the cover itself is a testament to this). The main character shares the author's name, and he travels to the Ukraine in search of one woman who hid his grandfather during the war. His guide is a young Ukrainian, Alex, and together with Alex's grandfather they set out across the Ukraine. This story is one of growth for every character, and it plays out so seamlessly and heart-wrenchingly that it makes you, the reader, grow too.

Apart from a sometimes unlikely plot the weaving together of a traveler, his interpreter with family, the author's family's history in a village in Ukrain is guarenteed to get to you, all the way up to the awful truth.

I had read such effusive reviews about this book that I was quite anxious to read it (but able to wait until I could get it at the Strand for 30% off). Anyway, I'm not sorry I waited. The book honestly has some moments of inspiration and contains some beautiful writing...even, a few times, hits upon some truths. All of this suggests that the author has a promising future as a writer ahead of him. HOWEVER, the shortcomings of this novel were so distracting that for me they overshadowed the positives. The "historical" parts are so riddled with anachronisms and wrong information that I could not take them seriously. Clearly the author is not very familiar with the history of the Soviet Union or Ukraine, nor with Jewish culture in the region. That's fine, but if you're going to write about something, at least get your BASIC facts straight.
Another major compaint: I couldn't bear the fatuous, precious tone of the "mystical/magical-realist" sections of the book, although I did enjoy Alex's narration quite a bit, I also am familiar with the Russian language and know that the translation "problems" are grossly exaggerated; I did enjoy the style, though, and the evolution of Alex's character.
Overall, I couldn't recommend this book to any but the most avid readers who just have to read the latest "thing" and see what all the fuss is about. I personally think this is an overrated book, but it does have its moments.

I have no sophisticated view to add here, just a personal reaction to it: Started out watching it because there was not much else on TV and it was quirky enough to appeal so I stayed with it, and shortly became incrementally drawn into it. The oddball humor was refreshing and its twists and turns amusing but, at some point---I don't know exactly where---a vaguely distant background theme began to move to the fore. References to "WWII", "SS", "occupation" and related tidbits began to coalesce center-stage and, by the time the characters were approaching an eye-filling field of flowers, the mood had definitely changed. From then on, 60-odd year old history came wrenchingly alive, nuanced and affecting and, for this viewer, 'memorable'. How others will regard this film, I can't know, though I suspect older viewers' understanding may be deeper than that of younger ones. In any case, I was sufficiently drawn to this film to seek out my own DVD of it.

I want to respond to some of the criticism I have read on this site regarding one of the most intriguing books I have read in a very long time. People seem to have had problems because there are multiple narrators, which at least at the beginning is very confusing, and the book at times seems overly expansive and "uneditted". I am not one of those people who defends a books with, "well, you just didn't understand it" because that is trite. However, there are some things to think about in considering an evaluation of this book.

First, if you don't like alinear plotlines, this is not the book for you. The book does not focus on a single plot but rather the act of rewriting history and life, thus the multiple character perspectives and narrative voices. The book is highly concerned with history, truth, personal experience, and how we creatively digest these things in our lives.

The book is also very self-conscious of writing: every character is an author, and scraps of paper seemingly float throughout the book between characters. Because of this emphasis on the literary, there are clippings from books written by characters, which at times can be lengthy but are always worth reading and considering, especially in the context of understanding pre-WWII Jewish villages in Eastern Europe and in delving more deeply into the most personal apsects of individuals and their shared heritages. The book is beautiful, fascinating, and addictive. Every time I put it down, I was left dumbstruck, contemplating the limitations of human expression and our endless capacity for love. What more can you ask of a book?

This was recommended by someone who knows what she's talking about, so I was shocked at how much I disliked it. The plot is a bit stale, but good enough. The writing is effective. But the characters simply aren't true, especially the Eastern Europeans. Having lived and traveled throughout that area, the stereotypical bad English rang false with me. (Of course, for all I know, this is a fictional account of a real-life experience? Then I just seem an idiot.) But no matter, the novel simply held no lure for me. I lasted 100 pgs, but then let it go.

I am on an extended trip through Eastern Europe and Russia and thought, "Well, let's bring this one along to read while I'm in Kiev, where my grandmother was born in the late 1890s."

I am now half way through the book and came onto the store to look at the reviews to decide whether to summon the desire to finish reading it. I have rarely read something so self-reflexively "clever" where every word and every phrase and every "semi-magical-realist" scene must have appeared to the author to be "fine writing" and "unusual juxtaposition" and "sparkling narrative." No, it isn't. It's derivative Marquez, it's all been done before better.

Long ago I fell in love with the word "meretricious" but never thought I'd have an opportunity to use that delightful word in any meaningful way. Well now I can: the book is entirely and thoroughly "falsely attractive" and "superficially significant." (1). And, unfortunately, the writer deluded himself into believing that he'd discovered "a voice." He discovered what ventriloquists discover: that with enough practice, they can transmit what appears to be a "voice" to another "speaker." Congratulations, Mr. Foer, you're a literary ventriloquist.

There are enough other reviews that describe in great detail the plot and narrative deficiencies of this book. I won't repeat them. I have learned that when a book gets a cumulative rating of "3+" or a "4" on the store it is important to look at the distribution of the ratings and that when a book has a significant number or "5"s and "1"s and "2"s the reader is well-advised to consider carefully the full range of those reviews.

Well, I finished it and, if anything, believe the book is worse than I thought at the half-way mark: sequences become even more arbitrary, the descriptions of sex acts become first repellent and then, strangely inert, and we have a sudden outbreak of "vomit": gold pours forth from a bag like vomit, the bombs that fall on the stetl fall from the sky like vomit. Nazi bombs do many things to Jewish stetls but they do not fall on them like vomit. And lo, there really is a "ventriloquist" at the end of the book, when Foer's grandfather goes to his mummified great-grandfather for help, great-grandfather having been mummified with the disk saw in his head and used now as the stetls' sundial....still with me? And finally, the translator whose mangled malaproprisms become increasingly irritating somehow displaces his father early once evening only to find his grandfather kill himself in order to "free his grandson from the burden of history." Wow, that's one way to do it.

Simply terrible writing, terrible and implausible narrative structure, and an ending so patently magical-realist in a second rate sense that I was just glad when the book was over. Truly, Foer got over on this one. But now he's the famous writer and I'm not--doesn't make him a good famous writer....

I was just reading a passage from this novel over the phone to a friend and decided to broadcast my enthusiasm for this novel further by writing a quick review. Skimming through other readers comments I'm surprised at the venom contained in some, could it be .... god forbid, jealousy? This is a novel, some people will love it (I did), others won't, and that's fine, that's how it is with novels after all. I hope anyone coming to this page is willing to read and decide for themselves, I for one believe you will be glad you made the effort. And for those of you who are enraged by this guy's success, how sad. And Jonathan Foer, if you ever read this, congratulations and thank you.

I loved this book! The language, the style, and the humor made it worth every second of reading it, and since I've owned it, I've read it 3 times.
I am, unabashedly, a stylist, and I love the way Jonathan Safran Foer plays with words and language to tell his story--especially his use of a Ukranian narrator for much of the narrative.
I find this an astonishingly good debut novel, and I hope that others will find the same pleasure in it that I was able to.

I am absolutely amazed by the reader-reviews (written for the most part, I am sure, by people who are NOT [published] authors...) which offer statements like : "This is a flawed book, but still, it's pretty good..."

All books are flawed, all art is flawed, all people are flawed. Ergo, there is no `perfect' art. But if the purpose or function or art is to move, incite, excite, and stir people, then J.S. Foer's EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED is as near-perfect as art can get in this life.

I can't even think of enough adjectives to describe it... powerful, tragic, hysterical, disturbing, enchanting, sorrowful, ecstatic, stunning, graceful, scary (the gradual buildup to the climax of the novel in three separate narrative threads, coming together in the most unexpected way ...), crushing, heartbreaking, inspiring, brilliant...

I hope you're getting the general idea?

It's so unconventional, so refreshing. I hope to God he keeps writing! I'm not sure how he does it, not being a writer myself [but then again perhaps even authors cannot always `figure out' other authors, being only human (thankfully) as they are...], but it seems all the characters' emotions are fully exposed, like raw nerves, wide open, by the end of it (and some are exposed well before the ending), so that the reader is FEELING all of these intense emotions right along with them... you'd have to be made of stone not to be profoundly moved by this novel. And it makes you think, and think, and then think some more, days and weeks after having read it. It's haunting in the real sense of the word. The book won't let you go. The blurring of reality and fiction , for example, Foer as both author and protagonist [although Alex may indeed be the protagonist - but who really cares who fills that function? You care about ALL of them]; the fact that Trachimbrod actually existed in what was Poland (pre-WWII), but is now Ukraine(post-WWII), and was wiped off the face of the earth in March 1942...

It's so incredibly moving that the word `incredible' is nearly useless here. 'Moving' still works, thankfully.

I truly wish I could think of fitting superlatives for this beautiful story.

This could have been written by someone age 90, and it would have been astounding; then you find that the author did the first draft at age 20 and finished it at age 24 or so... It's mind-blowing.

He's not afraid of revealing the strongest feelings, emotions... they are presented so boldly that the reader must either plunge in and become completely besotted, or turn away, because the sorrow is too horrible, and all too real. We know these things happened, a mere sixty years ago.

But there is triumph, as well. Alex will be all right, thank God, and so will Iggy, and so will (we hope and presume), Jonathan, although he's the least-revealed person in the book. I HOPE he is all right, that character! I believe he is .

So much love, so much beauty, so much sadness, all wide open. It made me feel more alive, reading it, and it's one of those books which for your whole lifetime will be burned into your brain, heart, and soul. I've been much happier for it, and invite others (challenge others) to experience the same thrill. Read it. You won't be sorry.

This is JSFs first book but after I read (and loved!) it I started seeing his name everywhere in magazines and online. He is a young writer who seems to be bursting onto the scene full force with the creative gusto and wide open sentence strokes that made Dave Eggers popular. There are points where the writing zips and zings off and leaves me wondering what exactly is happening but that is a small price to pay for the surprising plot twists and manipulation of language which JSF is gleefully twisting into a novel. I enjoy writers who use magic realism, for example Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Zora Neal Hurston, and I liked this book for the same diversion from reality that well, illuminates an issue with new light. This is a story of what is lost and found in both our individual families and our universal past and it comes alive through a youthful lens. I didn't get more than 5 pages into his second book, but I'm re-reading this one and pass it on to all my friends.

I will be honest, I fought to get past the first 26 pages. It took me 2 months to get that far. Once I was introduced to the "Hero", I couldn't put the book down. This is a story about life, love, hate, murder, acceptance. It will convict you while at the same time enlighten you. This book has been perceived as greatness and it has been touted as a great disappointment. The truth is, you need to read this twice. The first time reading it, is like a sucker punch to the gut. The second time, is like catching your breath after getting punched and understanding that you needed the punch to better understand there is a world besides the one you live in. The way Foer hacks the english language is perfect.

I think a Jewish person would have a better appreciation of the writing and humor of the great great great great grandmother story in this novel. I was interested in the Ukraine and this book turned up in my search. Many horrible deaths occurred in the Ukraine during the war. The novel told the story of Jewish killings. There were also millions of people killed who were not Jewish but there was no mention of all the other war horrors

The story of the great great grandmother and grandfather is much fantasy and the dialog between characters simplistic. My favorite character was the translater, Alex. He had great insight and wonderful languare skills. There are some funny and insightful parts of the book for everyone.

There's a good reason that all of the reviews in the media have been so unbelievably praising of this book---calling it a work of genius. It is one! It's a shame that people get so jealous. So what? He's young? So what? He got a big advance? He deserves it! The guy wrote a great book, which I read in one sitting, and have since bought copies of for the people I most love. And they've loved it. I've talked about this book to just about everyone I know, and I've read a whole ton of reviews, and I've yet to encounter anyone who hasn't felt the way I did. Except for people on this site, of course, which makes me wonder what the motivations are.

If you read Eggers' A Heart Breaking Work of Staggering Genius and adored it and then read You Shall Know Our Velocity and hated it, you might not like this book. Safran Foer is not imitating Dave Eggers, but like Dave Eggers, Safran Foer's style is highly experimental and playful with language. Like the construction of Eggers' second novel, however, Safran Foer's style errs on the side of being so playful it goes pointless. There are moments of small wisdom, but I do agree with one the store reviewer that this novel ought to have been workshopped a helluva lot more.

I don't want to think too hard about this one. The plot is promising. Initially, the mangled-English Alex-narrator sucked me in, but after page 100, I couldn't bear it or Alex. Nor could I bear the splicing of Trachimbrod circa 1791 and Grandfather-Safran-who-may-or-may-not-have-loved-the-Gypsy Girl. I wish the author had stuck to one narrator. I fail to see how incorporating such divergent modes of expression makes an "illuminating book." I felt incredibly distant from all the characters, especially Alex and Jonathan and kept waiting for the moment I would care, so I kept reading. I finished the book and still don't.

I don't feel enlightened or transported. As one reviewer on the flapjacket remarked, "seared in the fire of something new"--that I am not.

Sure, he's young (28, I'm twenty-five and I haven't written a book yet) and it's a noble first effort. Maybe the second one novel is better. I won't be buying it.

I just finished "Everything is Illuminated", and although I don't feel as though the book "illuminated everything" for me, I feel a sense of excitement having read this book. Why? I'm not sure. It was funny in parts, and quite engrossing in other parts, also rather frightening in others. But the stories never seemed to gel. I'm not sure I understand what is was all about. But that didn't stop me from loving this book. The writing was brilliant, the characters interesting and the style inventive. Don't read this if you like straight narrative and obvious plot. This book is definitely a matter of taste.

Thankfully I missed the hype of this book when it came out. I was introduced to it by a couple of close friends who insisted that it was a must read, so I decided to give it a shot. Overall, I have to say I was mightily disappointed by it. Jonathan Safran Foer has the ability to be a great writer but this is defiantly not a great work of fiction. Foer uses all sorts of lame plot devices that are all over used. It seems like the story was told out of order not for necessity but simply just to try to be "cool".

I did not find any of the characters really appealing or interesting at all. It would be a lie for me to say that I did not feel anything for them- I generally came to hate almost all of them. The character of Jonathan Safran Foer just seems like an idiot. And Alex is not very interesting at all. The first half of the book he just seems to be used as a comic device and then suddenly at the end we are supposed to care about his life.

Overall, I just felt let down at the end. It doesn't feel like this novel has anything to say and is only interesting to people who think WRITING IN ALL CAPS WHEN SOME CHARACTERS TALK, lots of sex, and tons of flashbacks make an interesting story.

JSF is an incredibly original, imaginative and funny author. I would not describe this book as a Holocaust book, in fact, I don't know how to describe in the amount of space I have here. But if you're looking for a thoughtful, unique and hysterical read, pick this one up.

I was very excited to start reading this one as soon as I finished "Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud" which I just loved. This book shared a lot of similarities but was definitely more rough, less refined. His style of shifting time periods and narrators, which worked so well in his other novel, just didn't seem to work for this one. There were parts that I liked, namely the narratives from the broken-English-thesaurus-abusing Alex, but even these got somewhat old. I found reading this book to be tedious and not enjoyable. I will still watch the movie when it comes out because the story itself is interesting, but I can't recommend this book. Clearly, Foer was still working out the kinks in his writing with this debut novel. I'll hold off for future efforts. Skip on this one.

Reviewers go nuts over debut authors, especially if they're young and attractive. Perhaps it's peculiar to America, but at any rate it results in one over-rated and over-hyped book after another, year in and year out. I loathed the humor here, found it tired and obvious; ditto the magic realism. The advertising juggernaut had made me suspicious that there was much less here than was flaunted. Reading it, I found that to be the case. As BR Myers says so well in A Readers Manifesto, why not read a richly observed novel by Balzac instead, rather than another so-called "must read"?

I read the Recorded Books Unabridged Audio CD version of this book, and I'm convinced now that was a major mistake. Not every book translates well to the CD form. My favorites are nonfiction books such as histories and biographies. This rendition is an example of why it's frequently better to read novels in their original form, on paper. The CD form (like the movies) allows for too much interpretation.

On this CD, Alex sounded like a clown with an accent one would find in a comedy club; the history of Trachinbrod came across as pure foolishness and a waste of time, sound and space; grandfather as a bellowing maniac. I'm aware that the novel has been called brilliant and that it is highly praised by many. Perhaps on paper that is true, but I found it nearly impossible to listen to the CD.

As far as the plot is concerned I found it tortured and confusing. The holocaust story that emerges at the end is a tale of great sadness and pain but it's not enough to save the nonsensical plot and overly clever writing. I was reminded of Styron's Sophies Choice, which was a much, much better book.

If you plan to read this book, skip the CD and read the novel.

This is by far, my favorite book of all time. Foer has an amazing ability to cover all the ranges of human emotion, from comedy to intense pain and sadness. The characters are so beautifully developed and complex; unreal enough to make them magical, but real enough to make you wish they were alive. Granted, the book is a little slow in the beginning, it took me quite a few weeks to read the first 2/3rds of the book, but then one night to read the last 1.3rd. Foer sets up a story that spans over many generations, which all comes rushing together at the end with a terrifyingly beautiful force.

To sum it up, this book is everything you could wish and fear life to be.

What astounded me about this book was how convincingly Foer wrote the character of Alex. His narration is hilarious from the first page, but it avoids getting tedious because his broken English smooths over as the novel progresses, and Alex grows increasingly multi-dimensioned and mature.

This is a terrific novel for book club readers. It's amazing how different people see/read different things into it! The lead chapter is fall-over funny but you begin to suspect by the end of the next chapter that this is not going to be a funny book, in its entirety. In truth, it's mostly a sad book -- one that takes a some thinking about the characters, who they are, who they were. Don't miss this one, particularly if you like Jewish stories; it's a keeper!

I would be very surprised and disappointed if this book doesn't win the National Book Award. The only other excellent book this year was Atonement, and that, of course, was by an Englishman. People speak of Everything is Illuminated as being an important Jewish book, but it's really an important American book. There have certainly been other good books published here this year, but nothing so audacious, nothing so new and true. Last year was Franzen's, and rightly so. He wrote the most ambitious, deeply felt novel in America. This year is Foer's.

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...

Alright, I will admit I've only read the New Yorker short story. But that was awful - mannered, self-absorbed and completely false. I find it hard to believe that the novel can be much better. I have spent years working in Ukraine, speak Russian and Ukrainian, and I found the character of Alex simply ridiculous. Evidently Alex's butchering of English is supposed to be humorous, but unfortunately none of his dialogue sounds anything like a native-Ukrainian speaker attempting to speak English. Caricatures are not funny when they're painfully off-key. I'm shocked that this is the book of the season. If you want a good, funny, real novel about Ukraine try "Death and the Penguin."

Everything Is Illuminated is quite a challenging book. It has a unique narrator's voice and narrative structure, a complex plot that travels back and forth over 300 years of history, and an enormous cast of distinctive and often doomed characters. It is also the story of two young men on a quest that will mature and change them in ways they cannot forsee. The tale is complicated, tragic, comic, devastating, romantic and completely rewarding. By the end of the book you too will agree that Everything Is Illuminated.

... from better, albeit less-known, sources.
I liked this book better when it was called "See Under:Love," was written by David Grossman, and was a dark, original and brilliantly subtle work.
The bravura reviews that heralded this book as it splashed onto the best-seller lists speak more to the author's connections and the inbred qualities of intellectual taste-making than they did to any actual literary merit. Is it awful? No -- but in large part because Foer has had the good taste to steal from the right sources, not because he himself has done anything particularly creative or insightful.
If T.S. Eliot was correct when he quipped that "great artists don't copy, they steal," the Foer is, without question, a great artist. By any other standard, he's just greatly lucky enough to have had enough connections to garner this book some hype.

Too much hype. This was a pretty entertaining book that earned far too much overzelous praise from a desperate reading public. The sad thing is that there are so many godawful books getting published that a novel like this that showes some promise is dubbed genius in comparison to the hack market. The "circle of life" plot is too predictable and after half of the book I was ready to hustle things to a conclusion. Mr. Foer can indeed be funny, which is the hardest thing to do, so I'll keep tabs on him even though I'll advise people not to expect too much from this effort.

Wow.
Funny. Tragic. Experimental. Original. Different. Brilliant.
It resonated with me in a way that no bok has in a long time.
It's written in such an original voice, it is almost impossible to believe the author is so young. It's obvious he loves his craft and enjoys it. I enjoyed his masterpiece.
It's not for everyone, I think. But my god, I thought it was wonderful.
:)

This book is incredibly funny at times, but I just didn't get it. If you put a gun to my head and told me to tell you what actually happens in this book--how it unfolds, I would just say my last prayers. I don't know what happened because I could never tell who was talking to whom. I heard that Burroughs wrote "Naked Lunch", then cut it up and pieced it back together haphazardly. I'm wondering if JSF did the same. I'm not one of those sissies who needs the familiar to be OK either. I admire the unconventionality of the novel, but I just could not follow it. I happened to catch a local radio broadcast of this author being interviewed and he said he wrote the book for people who were willing to work at following and understanding the story. Apparently I am not one of those, allthough I tried.

I recommend this book to everyone I know. I know it's so cliche, but this book literally makes me laugh and cry every ten minutes. The first time through, I couldn't even leave my room and read the entire thing in one day! Back in those days, I was very big into reading, but I just don't have the time to read for pleasure since I started college. This book is worth finding the time for. Somehow, I've found time to read it a number of times already even amongst the busyness. It made me appreciate life more than I already do, made me look at my relationships in a new light, and was still just so entertaining and hilarious. It's silly, but it really did help me grow as a person and even as an artist. It's such a special read, really, and very inspiring.

I recently lost my copy, and I'm ordering at new one. This is a MUST OWN.

Like many people, I read this book due to glowing reviews. The book was off to a very slow start, but I trudged on... all the way til the ending! There were good aspects of the book - I actually liked Alex's broken English, gave me something to chuckle at and showed Foer's creativity. But some of jokes got old (how many times do we need to hear about the dog farting?) and details of sexual exploits can certainly be left out.
I was glad to finally finish the book, but I was upset that nothing was really illuminated.

Jonathan definitely has talent, there's no doubt about it. Certain sections of the book are stronger than others but overall this is a very, very well written book. And when you consider the fact that this is the author's first novel, you appreciate it even more so.

I really wish I liked this book more. Having heard over and over again what a prodigy Foer is, and having been more than a little intrigued by the release of the upcoming film version (starring Elijah Wood and directed by Liev Schrieber) I had high expectations. While it kept me turning pages, I found my interest lagging about halfway through. While it isn't without its poignant moments, I was too distracted by the author's showmanship (look at me, I'm a talented writer and I'm under the age of 30 ... aren't you impressed???) to really focus on what the author was saying or the emotional journey his character's were going through.

Not recommended.

I write in the wake of the feeling of being had. Look, I don't read what anyone would describe as a lot of contemporary fiction, but unless you're morbidly persuaded by media blitzkriegs I'd recommend that readers looking for the new literatteur avoid this title. The initial encounter with Alex's pidgin is certainly funny and deftly sustained enough to distract from its actual unoriginality (and, since its comic fire fails relatively quickly, its ultimate uselessness), but besides this, the book's main virtue, there's little to reward the reader's continued interest here. Although some bright and lyrical ideas occur every once in awhile, the elan of the story falters constantly. I found myself falling back on the hype that motivated my purchase to keep reading beyond page 150 or so (roughly half way)--a sure sign I've been swindled. Most of the supposedly "irreverent" (from Nathan Englander's cover blurb) passages are merely crude, and are usually insufficient to surprise the expectations of the general reader (I presume) or are incongrous with the characters' character. The convulsions of the chronological sequence seemed pointless; the magical realistic metaphors seemed generally gratuitous. I could go on, but don't want to sound too cranky. I only want to point out that there's probably no way we would've been sold this mutt sub-apprentice work unless, as is imputed in other reviews here and elsewhere, the author had the obscene connections to get it not only into print, but so prominently into print. Are the typographical manipulations supposed to indicate invention or attract or distract attention like some flashing marquee? Is it that the Jewish/Holocaust subject, homosexuality, and the annoying internal criticism pre-empts any external criticism and thus renders it market-proof? Who knows. I guess it depends how intense a light you like to view things with. And his next one could be great. But this little book has been hyped to a height it could only--and does--fail to attain.

As a trendy hipster I consider myself a consumer of new exciting authors. Although Foer has become a bit of a buzz worthy, name dropper author if you want to appear well read, he is incredible. This may well be my favorite book of all time. Could I give more than five stars?

This is the second Jonathan Safran Foer book that I read. I loved his most recent book Extremly Loud and Incredibly Close. I thought that it was wonderful. Eerything is Illuminated is not really like his second book. I dont hate this book but its definantly not one of my favorites. I finished it becuase I had to know what happened to all the characters. I will say that the hardest things about this book is getting into it and being able to stand the way that the main character talks. I have to give him credit because the plot is rather cool and the characters lives are very detailed. This book is kinda hard to get through but it is worth reading....

I really enjoyed reading this book. I felt like I could relate to it better than any other book I've read recently. A very interesting and unique style of writing allows this book to go places to reach its readers that other books are unable to do. After the first 40 or 50 pages I really wasn't that into it yet, but I kept reading and quickly got hooked. I think I read the last 100 pages in one sitting.

Young man with thesaurus writes "funny" Holocaust novel. Gullible public, eager for "prodigy," obediently follows publishing industry prompts. Book is not funny. Book is fatuous. Very little is illuminated. Gullible public, having been instructed that book is "brilliant," leaps to defend its assigned genius. Outcry and debate only increase sales. Publishing industry smiles

This is another book I just did not get. I am starting to feel like a bonehead, or an intellectual midget. This guy is supposed to be some young superstar, but I think he'd be better off waiting tables. I thought Alex was funny, but I tired of his goofy English after about 2 pages. Okay, JSF, we get how clever you are, and how ha-ha-ha funny. Nope, this one wasn't for me. I guess you can't win 'em all.

I lived in Ukraine for two years, and every time I read this book it brings me back to a wonderful era in my life. Besides that, this is a hilarious and heart-wrenching debut. I've lost count how many times I've read it, but it doesn't matter: It's just as good every time.
Great stuff.

If you have a penchant for elaborate language, a love for new experiences, and a sensitivity to life's struggles, you will find hope and deep beauty in this story.

I recommend finding a place of solitude and spiritual transcendence before delving into this as you will inevitably flip back to the beginning once finished and have to read it again.

Be careful however, some people I have recommended this book too have had the opposite experience. It's worth the risk because if this book connects with you, you'll feel fulfilled and, as the title indicates, illuminated.

I would have given it a negative number...
This book is an excellent example that not everything written is a novel, even if it is 300 pages long and has lots of words in it.
The title is drawn from a single scene and has nothing to do with the rest of the book. But it is not a surprise, really, since the book has two storylines which never meet and it is impossible to guess what the separation of the storylines is supposed to contribute to the novel. So why expect any reason for anything, including the title?
The book is supposed to be a funny or at least a positive story. The sole source of smile, however, is Alexander's broken English which has nothing to do with real accents or non-native speakers (JSF admittedly let his imagination loose; so he doesn't even bother checking any aspect of a language he is mocking or to get a firstname right -- it is Alexandr, not Alexander, in Ukrainian). But what is exactly the point of roughly 100 pages of broken English? We will never know.
My guess is that this book is about how young Americans with Jewish background try to make sense of the Yiddish world that disappeared. I have been waiting for novels about this; obviously the editors as well. Too bad we disagree on the quality of this particular piece of work.

I have been recommending this book to everyone I know. It is challenging, in every good way. It makes you think, without making you feel like the author's student. In fact, unlike nearly every other book I've read this year (The Lovely Bones, Middlesex, etc.), this book actually assumes intelligence on the part of the reader, and trusts the reader enough to do some pretty daring things. I am so incredibly eager to see what Safran Foer comes up with next. I believe he is the most promising writer in America, in whom we should put our faith.

I put off reading this book for the longest time, because everyone at the bookstore I was working at was talking about how great it was, and it was going to be made into a mainstream movie...I usually don't like those types of books.

I was still a little skeptical as I read the beginning - wasn't sure if I was going to like it. But upon finishing the book, I have to say it is one of the best books I have read. I'm so glad I finally came around!

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.

You sometimes wonder where the geniuses in our own lifetime are, when you read about Picasso painting a masterpiece at an extraordinarily young age, or musical prodigies like Mozart. Well, 24 year old Safran Foer is just that. Everything Is Illuminated is nothing short of brilliant: with superb writing and wonderful storytelling, the novel is vibrating with pure heart and soul. A true wonder of a book that everybody should read!!

In addition to telling a gripping story, Foer is blessed by the ability to bring the reader to either laughter or tears with a few chosen words. He has woven historic truth with the truth of spirit to show that human beings create both the glorious and the horrific, sometimes at the same time. And more powerful than redemption or forgiveness is the actual journey toward this end. I marvelled with the turning of each page that such a young person was posessed of such wisdom and such literary craft.

...
This popular book deals with a tragic chapter in Jewish history. But it also hides historical ignorance and distortion behind the veil of fiction and perpetrates stereotypes about Ukrainians. Few examples are below:
"It surprising me that no one saved her family," I said. It shouldn't be surprising. The Ukrainians back then, were terrible to the Jews. They were almost as bad as the Nazis." (p. 62). On November 4,th 1942, the Nazis killed 137 residents of Klubochin, a Ukrainian village located a couple of miles from Trochimbrod, as a reprisal for actions of Ukrainian pro-Soviet partisans. These partisans supplied weapons to a group of Jewish resistance in Trochimbrod and helped the Jewish survivors who escaped from Trochimbrod. The Nazis executed not only whole families but also whole villages for any help, like food or shelter, given to partisans, Jews, or POWs. The Nazis wanted to exterminate or enslave the absolute majority of Ukrainians, whom they considered racially inferior. More than three million Ukrainians were executed in villages and cities, killed in concentration camps, died from forced labor, starvation, infectious diseases, and cold, as result of the deliberate Nazi policy. The number of Ukrainians who fought the Nazis during World War II was several dozen times higher than the number of collaborators.
"I had never met a Jewish person until the voyage." (p. 3). "I have never seen a Jew before. Can I see his horns?" (p. 107). At the time described in the book, the popularly elected mayor of Odessa, where the Ukrainian translator lives, was Jewish. ...
Poor knowledge of English by the Ukrainian translator (pp. 1-276). It is quite typical situation, because Russian was the first foreign language every Ukrainian had to learn in the Soviet times. Even English language teachers, with few exceptions, never met native English speakers or read American newspapers because this was not permitted. ...
Trochim Brod, Brod, and Sofiowka (pp. 8-9, 15) are Slavic words. For example, "brod" means "ford." The Ukrainian region, where this story takes place, was part of Poland, the Russian Empire, again Poland, the Soviet Union, and now Ukraine. Sofiowka was named after a German-born mother of a Russian tzar who permitted establishment of Jewish agricultural colonies in the beginning of the 19th century.
The "N." word (p.24) is not offensive in Ukrainian language. The term is widely used in official publications in Ukraine and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
"Lvov is a city like New York... Everything was concrete..." (pp. 30-31). In fact, Lviv (in Ukrainian or Lemberg in German) resembles Vienna, Prague or Krakow in its architecture, because it was a part of the same Austro-Hungarian Monarchy for a long period.
"Look it up in the history books" (p. 62). There is not a single comprehensive book in English about Ukraine or Ukrainians in World War II.
The list can go on and on. This book paints Ukrainians in the darkest colors. I would recommend instead Isaac Babel's Diary, which describes another war in the same part of Ukraine without reliance on stereotypes.

When you pick up "Everything is Illuminated," you should not only prepare to fall in love with a story, but fall in love with the characters. In Foer's World, no one is safe from the flurry of emotions that sweep over you when reading: the childlike innocence of exporation, the laugh-out-loud witticisms, the unexpected turns that leave you reaching for a tissue, the touching prose that makes you question everything you thought you knew. Like Rushdie, Follett and Chabon, Foer's world is fiction that cries out "I am reality."

(...)

I continue to feel amazed that such a young author can write with such wisdom, depth, clarity, and maturity. Insight into the human condition, amazingly colorful characters, and lyrical historical story telling are three strengths of this book.This was my favorite read of 2007, and if you've not read it, it is a must. Reminiscent of Philip Roth, but with more hope.

This book was a bit difficult to get into at first because it is written from the viewpoint of 1) a Ukranian who is a novice practicing the English language (which is clever and funny) 2) letters between him and an American and 3) flashbacks. All of these are enjoyable in themselves, but once you get the idea of where this is going it becomes more cohesive and you become more drawn into the story- which is really incredible. I laughed out loud and I cried in private and it was all worth it. I'm going to read it again.

It took a while, but I slowly became more and more interested in how all the different strings would tie together. Getting there is a bit of a battle sometimes but still worth it. I mostly enjoyed Alex's letters to Jonathan. Its wacky in parts, confusing in others, and funny in the rest.

I put off reading this book for the longest time, because everyone at the bookstore I was working at was talking about how great it was, and it was going to be made into a mainstream movie...I usually don't like those types of books.

I was still a little skeptical as I read the beginning - wasn't sure if I was going to like it. But upon finishing the book, I have to say it is one of the best books I have read. I'm so glad I finally came around!

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.

You sometimes wonder where the geniuses in our own lifetime are, when you read about Picasso painting a masterpiece at an extraordinarily young age, or musical prodigies like Mozart. Well, 24 year old Safran Foer is just that. Everything Is Illuminated is nothing short of brilliant: with superb writing and wonderful storytelling, the novel is vibrating with pure heart and soul. A true wonder of a book that everybody should read!!

In addition to telling a gripping story, Foer is blessed by the ability to bring the reader to either laughter or tears with a few chosen words. He has woven historic truth with the truth of spirit to show that human beings create both the glorious and the horrific, sometimes at the same time. And more powerful than redemption or forgiveness is the actual journey toward this end. I marvelled with the turning of each page that such a young person was posessed of such wisdom and such literary craft.

...
This popular book deals with a tragic chapter in Jewish history. But it also hides historical ignorance and distortion behind the veil of fiction and perpetrates stereotypes about Ukrainians. Few examples are below:
"It surprising me that no one saved her family," I said. It shouldn't be surprising. The Ukrainians back then, were terrible to the Jews. They were almost as bad as the Nazis." (p. 62). On November 4,th 1942, the Nazis killed 137 residents of Klubochin, a Ukrainian village located a couple of miles from Trochimbrod, as a reprisal for actions of Ukrainian pro-Soviet partisans. These partisans supplied weapons to a group of Jewish resistance in Trochimbrod and helped the Jewish survivors who escaped from Trochimbrod. The Nazis executed not only whole families but also whole villages for any help, like food or shelter, given to partisans, Jews, or POWs. The Nazis wanted to exterminate or enslave the absolute majority of Ukrainians, whom they considered racially inferior. More than three million Ukrainians were executed in villages and cities, killed in concentration camps, died from forced labor, starvation, infectious diseases, and cold, as result of the deliberate Nazi policy. The number of Ukrainians who fought the Nazis during World War II was several dozen times higher than the number of collaborators.
"I had never met a Jewish person until the voyage." (p. 3). "I have never seen a Jew before. Can I see his horns?" (p. 107). At the time described in the book, the popularly elected mayor of Odessa, where the Ukrainian translator lives, was Jewish. ...
Poor knowledge of English by the Ukrainian translator (pp. 1-276). It is quite typical situation, because Russian was the first foreign language every Ukrainian had to learn in the Soviet times. Even English language teachers, with few exceptions, never met native English speakers or read American newspapers because this was not permitted. ...
Trochim Brod, Brod, and Sofiowka (pp. 8-9, 15) are Slavic words. For example, "brod" means "ford." The Ukrainian region, where this story takes place, was part of Poland, the Russian Empire, again Poland, the Soviet Union, and now Ukraine. Sofiowka was named after a German-born mother of a Russian tzar who permitted establishment of Jewish agricultural colonies in the beginning of the 19th century.
The "N." word (p.24) is not offensive in Ukrainian language. The term is widely used in official publications in Ukraine and other parts of the former Soviet Union.
"Lvov is a city like New York... Everything was concrete..." (pp. 30-31). In fact, Lviv (in Ukrainian or Lemberg in German) resembles Vienna, Prague or Krakow in its architecture, because it was a part of the same Austro-Hungarian Monarchy for a long period.
"Look it up in the history books" (p. 62). There is not a single comprehensive book in English about Ukraine or Ukrainians in World War II.
The list can go on and on. This book paints Ukrainians in the darkest colors. I would recommend instead Isaac Babel's Diary, which describes another war in the same part of Ukraine without reliance on stereotypes.

When you pick up "Everything is Illuminated," you should not only prepare to fall in love with a story, but fall in love with the characters. In Foer's World, no one is safe from the flurry of emotions that sweep over you when reading: the childlike innocence of exporation, the laugh-out-loud witticisms, the unexpected turns that leave you reaching for a tissue, the touching prose that makes you question everything you thought you knew. Like Rushdie, Follett and Chabon, Foer's world is fiction that cries out "I am reality."

(...)

I continue to feel amazed that such a young author can write with such wisdom, depth, clarity, and maturity. Insight into the human condition, amazingly colorful characters, and lyrical historical story telling are three strengths of this book.This was my favorite read of 2007, and if you've not read it, it is a must. Reminiscent of Philip Roth, but with more hope.

This book was a bit difficult to get into at first because it is written from the viewpoint of 1) a Ukranian who is a novice practicing the English language (which is clever and funny) 2) letters between him and an American and 3) flashbacks. All of these are enjoyable in themselves, but once you get the idea of where this is going it becomes more cohesive and you become more drawn into the story- which is really incredible. I laughed out loud and I cried in private and it was all worth it. I'm going to read it again.

It took a while, but I slowly became more and more interested in how all the different strings would tie together. Getting there is a bit of a battle sometimes but still worth it. I mostly enjoyed Alex's letters to Jonathan. Its wacky in parts, confusing in others, and funny in the rest.

It is so rare to find a book that moves you to laugh out lound and cry, all within a limited number of pages. This book caused me to do both. The conversations between Jonathon and Alex and hysterical. The depth of the characters and what they discover about themselves during this adventure are profound and moving. Absolutely must read this book

This book is hilarious and innovative. It took me three attempts to really get into it, but I'm glad I persevered because it's one of the funniest books I've ever read. It's also sad and a lot of other things, but you'll have to read it to find out about those.

This story is a wild ride--Jonathan Safran Foer recreates the English language to tell a tale as funny as it is horrifying! A simple plot is emphasized in the telling. JSF spins magical realism along the lines of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. This is a VERY quick read--you won't want to put it down!

Incredibly written. I'm so glad I stumbled upon this book. I've never read anything like it, and have recommended it to several of my friends and family. It would be really hard to describe it, so if you enjoy reading books that aren't the "norm," then you will love this one! I'm looking forward to starting Jonathan's other book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel.

...
...the American in this story is the "hero" not only in word but in deed. He becomes the voice of reason, of civility and civilization, the spokesman for "common decencies," etc., etc., while the Ukranians are hopelessly uncool, child-beating, anti-Semitic idiots. We are cajoled into feeling for them of course, but it's more a kind of paternalistic pity than genuine identification. Alex's English is not funny because the English language is the butt of the joke, ..., but because he is made into an ignoramus. He thinks Michael Jackson is cool while we Ivy League-educated Americans think Radiohead or some other such tripe is cool. The point where this caricature goes over the top is when Alex thinks that "War and Peace" are actually TWO separate novels by Tolstoy. Get it? "War" and "Peace"! Hardy har! Hilarious! Genius! This despite the fact that he knows Russian. This despite the fact that Russians and Ukranians, unlike their brain-dead American counterparts, actually have a profound love and respect for literature and poetry, and know much more about it (certainly of their own heritage) than Americans do. And their schoolchildren also had a much better grasp of science and math, at least during the Soviet period. ...

To answer those quandried about "spleening" -- methinks Foer's character functions it to mean "chastize" or some other term of reprobation.
As for the narrator Alex's use of this kind of misassembled English, Foer stole it from the Wild and Crazy Guys skits of SNL (who stole it from others poking fun at Polish/Czech "accents" by having them speak with a Thesaurian formality). The SNL skits were funny coz they lasted 5 minutes max. Foer's is decidedly NOT funny coz it last hundreds of pages.
And would those one-star reviewers complaining about how Foer's just another corporate packaged, good-looking guy take another look at the guy's dust jacket photo. The guy's a frickin geek mensch or whatever that word is (and this coming from a geek mensch or whatever that word is).
A confusing inpenetrable read that had me pining for whatizname's _The Corrections_.

Incredible. Brilliant. Wow. Yes, genius. GENIUS. This is good. It is good that we have a writer like Jonathan Safran Foer who commands debilitating laughter with the same and uncommon ease with which he draws out tears, it is good that this is a book that has something to say, it is good that what Jonathan Safran Foer has to say is good. When you finish Everything is Illuminated, you will catch your breath, wait for your heart to slow down, and slowly come to the realization--like recovering from a coma, like waking up from a nightmare, like surfacing from a pool full of sewage into the light of day--that everything is, indeed, perhaps, just maybe, illuminated. And that is good.

The contemporary scenes in the book, narrated by the Ukrainian interpreter, got me through the book. The scenes from the past were weird and self-indulgent. The book comes together as you move through it, but I'm not sure it's worth the journey.

First, to be clear, I'm not the reviewing type; I've never submitted a book review to the store.com before. However, after fighting to finish this glorified toilet paper, I can no longer remain silent. "Everything Is Illuminated" may be the worst book I've ever read. I pride myself on the fact that I always finish the books that I start...but finishing EII was like climbing Mount Everest without oxygen and finding out that my sherpa lied to me and guided me to the putrid peak of a garbage dump. It may be true that Alexander's broken English in the first few pages is a cute story-telling technique...but that's where the charm of this pseudo-post-modern failed-experiment ends.
The book is most annoying when the author, young Jonathon, writes long passages of dialogue with no punctuation or character identification. I would rather read the phone book than try to figure out who's saying what again. Kathy Acker's "Don Quixote" is easier to follow than the passages in EII. It seems like Safran Foer learned three or four literary devices and was trying to show off for his English teacher (who may or may not be on acid).
I must admit that I stayed up late reading this book...as I noted earlier, I don't quit on a novel...but the only reason I burned the midnight oil this time was to put myself out of the misery of continuing. I held my hope that the majority of the positive reviews may have some legitimate basis. As I read into the wee hours, however, I realized that I had been swindled. If everything is illuminated, I would prefer to stay in the dark.

As others have said, the book is beautifully written. Both in the magic realism sections and the faux English ones. This almost disguises the fact that the plot is predictable and telegraphed rather too early in the book. But not quite.

This is the first time that I hated the book and loved the movie which makes me appreciate even more the amazing job that Liev Schreiber and his team had done interpreting this book to make it into the movie. I could not finish the book. There are too many flashbacks, going back to the WW II time, then even deeper, and then you are lost and unable to tie all the flashbacks and people in them.

I recently received a barnes and noble gift card and decided to buy two books, this one being one of them. As I kept reading I couldn't help but keep wondering "when is this book gonna get good?" but almost 100 pages in I noticed that it still hadn't. Decided to return the book and get another one. I'm no writer myself but this book was immature and it lacked connection. All I was happy about was that I was able to get an exchange on it and not waste my money with this book.

I read this book while at my dad's bedside in his hospital room. I kept laughing aloud, so people kept wanting to know what I was reading. I have read other books by this author based on loving this, and have not been disappointed.

Astonishing how hype has taken ovre free thinking in America. The book is imaginative, but it's also a mess. You can tell the writer's young and you can tell it was rushed. You can also tell who's reading it based on these reviews: bored people who have stopped caring about challenging literature in America.

This book really doesn't deserve the heaps of praise it has received. The only redeeming quality of it is the way it was laid out - the technique of storytelling by moving from letters to memories to narrative (repeatedly) is intriguing and a great way to tell a story.

However, the rest of it was lifeless. It has been about a month since I read it, and the only impressions I've been left with are these: 1) the author is obsessed with sex, 2) he goes for either shock value or over the top emotion to tug your heartstrings (without the appropriate buildup, and either attempt falls flat), 3) he resorts to adolescent humor and stereotypes in order to get laughs, and 4) what was the plot again...? The other major thing I came away from in the book was that the author is pretty much your stereotypical 20-something American that really doesn't know anything, but knows how to write in a "hip" way that will get him some street cred. Example: When the reader is treated to a glimpse of the writings of a 1700's era woman, her list of great sadnesses include such things as "sadness about her body" (spelled out in 4 different superficial ways) and "sadness about makeup." Ermm...I really think a woman living in the 1700's would have many more concerns rather than just makeup and her body. The whole book is full of flaws like this - the author's modern upbringing prevents him from fully being able to write from a historical perspective, and the result is shallow, unbelievable characters.

Other than a few cheap laughs, the book was really boring and I couldn't wait to finish it and move on to something else. Definitely not worth the hype, save your money.

I've enjoyed Foer since stumbling across "Extremely loud and incredibly close". "Everything is Illuminated" is slightly different, for although it touches on another tragedy (the Holocaust versus 9/11 in "Extremely"), some of the chuckles are more nervous laughter rather than outright guffaws. Nevertheless, this is well written, partially borrowing from Elie Weisel, partly Mel Brooks.

This book is a true work of art. It is so much more inventive and courageous than anything else that was published this year, and also so much more funny and sad. It isn't easy, but that's because it is trying to do so much. And since when did books have to be easy? I haven't had so much fun reading a book in years. I'm getting this for everyone for the holidays.

(Possible spoiler ahead) I read this book in a book club a few years ago and absolutely hated it. There is nary a truth to be found in it. Instead you get the pastiche of truth. This is a grossly immature work of fiction. If I recall correctly, toward the end there is a span of pages with barely a word aside from rows of punctuation. Perhaps this is an effort to give the reader a sense of the feeling of illumination. Instead it comes across as a painful sign of having a complete lack of ideas. Not to mention Dave Eggers did the same thing in 'A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius'. But the truth is, a good writer will give you that moment where you look up from the page, totally in awe, and you will revel in the change of your world view. This stuff here is not that stuff.

It's hard to describe the hilarious finesse with which Foer captures the idiosyncracies of his Ukrainian narrator. The nonlinear narrative, swinging back-and-forth between past and present, sense and nonsense, curves its way towards the underlying tragedy of the tale. A book worth reading simply for its writing, although the story is unique and illuminating.

Those of us who know literature can spot a new talent,this is one. Foer has a distinct writing style, filled with artistic metaphors wrapped in a package that is widely appealing, mentally stimulating, yet plain humourous. Although Foer's style is different from Dave Eggers, it carries a similar underlying tone of sarcastic humor. I think Foer's writing will be around awhile.

I was immediately put off by Alex the narrator. Yes he has a unique voice, but the author is trying too hard to be clever with him. It might be funny for 5 pages, but not 45.

And Foer, the character, writes his "novel within the novel" about a Ukranian Jewish community that is a caricature of a community. Perhaps this is intended, but I didn't care for it. Maybe if I was intimately familiar with the culture's foibles, I would find it immediately funny. But since I'm not, I had no sympathy built up to enjoy the caricature -- to laugh with it, and not at it. And again, since it tries too hard, I couldn't even do that. And possibly I missed the author's intentions entirely -- was this part to be taken seriously but lightly, with the magical realism going on?

Maybe I haven't given it a chance, or didn't "get it", but I don't like suffering through things I don't care for these days.

Somewhere, buried in Everything is Illuminated is a poignant, moving, original story about a man searching for the woman who saved his Grandfather from the Nazis. Aiding him in his search is the most endearing character in the novel, Alex, who writes English by always searching for a thesaurus term to replace the plain original word - resulting in a highly entertaining brand of comically prolix English. This device is the best narration technique in the novel (although not, as many critics in the blurb claim, a linguistic achievement on a par with Burgess in A Clockwork Orange).

The rest of the novel, however, is taken up with an aggressive array of flashy modern narrative devices - magic realism, hysterical realism, Jewish confession etc., all of which blast the reader with great 'look at me' demonstrations of the writer's virtuosity, but lack any sense of pacing, rhythm, balance and poise.

The principal gripe I have with modern novels such as this, is that in such a competitive, overcrowded market, young writers feel pressured to burst out with something dazzling and innovative, often invoking a range of literary techniques (as Foer does) without really understanding how they can be used most effectively. If the New York publishing scene was less preoccupied with hyping up flashy new bestsellers, and let talented young writers develop slowly, modern novels might have a chance to display some of the quiet literary inspiration that is the hallmark of past masterpieces.

Good book if you have never read Singer, Marquez or Rushdie. If you think the reviews for EII sound good, read "When Shlameil Went to Warsaw" by Singer, "100 Years of Solitude" by Marquez and "The Moors Last Sigh" by Rushdie and see the source of most all of JSF's "ingenious" devices.

everything about this book made me sad -- that wonderful literary sadness. the structure of the novel is so beautiful and symmetrical and interesting that it truly enhances what would otherwise be an ordinarily tragic tale. a funny, haunting novel.

For all of those who lack the dicipline to read a novel that uses language so effectively, this book is terrible. To those of us who enjoy the challenge of a novel that is complex in it's narritive, and developes haunting and beautiful images of love and family, this book is absolutely outstanding. I eagerly await Foer's next work. He is his generations's Tom Wolfe.

There are one or two parts that are amusing in a Monty Python sort of way, but I found it hard to manufacture the interest to carry on turning the pages. Endless literary and type setting devices are used to bludgeon the reader into admiration of this pseud's genius. The plot is Byzantine to the point where it vanishes into its own cleverness. Vulgar and sexual references are inserted seemingly at random.

If you're the sort of person who thinks that Damien Hirst's calf preserved in formaldehyde with 18-carat gold put on its horns is great art worth £10.3 million then you'll love this book. Personally I think the calf is a con and "Everything is Illuminated" is an odd, pretentious and non-sensical book; however, I do admire both Hirst and Foer for convincing the cognescenti that only terribly clever sophisticates truly understand their "art".

well i don't know too much about literature but i do know what i like and i loved this book. i've read about three times since i first bought it and everytime i like it even more. it also took me a while to understand the way the novel was set up. extremly enjoyable.

This book is ok. It is interesting and entertaining enough to keep the reader engaged, but I don't think it's spectacular. At times, it seems to ramble. Overall, it's an average book, good but not great.

I think Everything is Illuminated is an amazing book. Imagine, a book about the Holocaust that will make you laugh out loud. Jonathan, a young American writer decides to travel to the Ukraine to learn, perhaps, about the woman whosaved his grandfather's life, helping him escape to America during World War II. He doesn't speak Ukranian, and thus must hire a translator and a driver to take him to the village where his grandfather hid before escaping. This is where the hunor comes in. The translator/guide is also a young man, one with a bizarre knack for just missing the meaning of all of the English words he has learned. He tells his story, as Jonathan tells the story of his ancestors. The translator's story is incredibly funny, and Foer demonstrates a marvelous mastery of the English language to be able to mangle it so well. Jonathan's story has a bit of magical realism thrown in--babies born from rivers, that sort of thing. If that is not for you, perhaps this isn't the novel for you. The translator's story, well, for the most part, that is pure comic relief, until he is forced to face demons of his own. Everything is Illuminated is a moving and unique tale. It is fresh and full of life and somehow manages to make you laugh and cry on the same page.

The book was ok at best. The book - as other reviews hint on - has way too much positive hype behind it. Yes, the writer is showing promise and I really liked how the story is 3 tales combined, but, in the end, the book just comes up way short. In my case i am still wondering what Foer was even trying to say/accomplish with the book.

Looking for something to change you - go read A Heartbreaking Work of Stagger Genius or You Shall Know Our Velocity (both by Dave Eggers) they are a far better use of your time.

I'm amazed at the number of people who didn't like this book. I'd never even stopped to consider that it was anything but one of the best books I'd ever read, and I hadn't read any reviews of the book until now. All I can say is that I loved the book--it moved me to both laughter and tears, and that I think is the best praise any book could hope to recieve, and the best that I can give it.

Alex the Ukrainian's dialog is written with such obvious and desperate attempts at comedy, I couldn't take it any more.

It wasn't even funny on page one.

I'd rather not read an entire book constructed of amateurish caricatures pulled from the coddled mind of a precocious 20-something.

Not my idea of a good time.

there are lots of things wrong with this book but the funniest thing was the New York Times Book Review that quoted the main characters mangled english, a paragraph's worth, as an example of how funny and brilliant it was. it was not funny. it was not brilliant. it was embarrassing.

I have never snorted so much on the bus as when reading Alex's half of the book. I was less into the half about Brod & her descendants, although there was a poetic symmetry which I can appreciate- it got a little boring waiting for Alex to return- I was completely in love with him.

this book is positively fantastic! foer writes with great humor and style, but more impressive is his amazing insight. This is such an ambitious book in every way. I can't believe it didn't win the national book award!

I haven't read through all of the reviews, so I could easily be repeating what others have said. I was pulled in by the positive reviews, the branding of the author as genius, and the wide heralding of the great American novel finally having been written ... then I read it.
About 50 pages into the book, I gave up on the hype and just wanted to enjoy the book ... but that's not even possible. It is repetitive (dogs farting isn't really funny once, but many times becomes tiresome), and the supposedly fresh voice of broken English becomes old very fast.
I generally disregard negative reviews from customers as everyone has different tastes, but this is a bit different since it's barely understandable in many places. If you're looking for a fresh voice in fiction, try Tracy Chevalier, Manil Suri, Ben Rice, or George Saunders. Stay away from this: you've been warned.
I know that many will not find this "helpful," but come back and read this again after you've suffered through this mess of a book.

It's true: You can't judge a book by it's cover. I bought this when I was visiting Manhattan, and thought the cover was neat. I quickly skimmed the inside flaps and thought it might be an interesting read. I just finished it the other day, and it was a waste of time and money. The whole time reading, I kept waiting for the book to get to it's point. Characters were introuduced and then dismissed without explanation. If anything, more knowledge on sex was the only thing I got out of this book. It has no ending. It just ends, leaving you wondering what happened to this, this and this. A very disappointing read.

This book made me laugh, cry, wince and sit in wonderment. i reread pages, sentences, just to grasp the last juices it was willing to grant me! It was exceptional and I long to read other books that move me this much! Thank YOU

I can't think of a better example of the badness of generation-x's self-important sense of its self than this book. What is being tauted as bold and complex and original in this book has either already been done, numerous times, or is just plain sloppiness on the part of an undisciplined writer. It's all bling, bling, bling. No bam! No kablooey! No wow.

Despite the publisher's comments, don't read this book if you're interested in WWII, Jewish issues, European history or family relationships. If you're interested in moronic sex scenes, flights of fancy worthy of the worst high school writing, rape, repetitive scenes and an idiotic plot (if you can even call it a plot) - buy this book.

Besides the fact that the book is dull, stupid, thin on plot and fizzles out pretty fast, it is also not true. The Russian broken English is completely made up. No Russian ever spoke English this way. It's a fake. And since the main point of interest is authentic portrayal of a Russian guy in his native environment -- the book cancels itself. It's nothing based on nothing. I am sorry that millions of Americans will read this and think this is how Russians speak and behave.

listen, this guy came to my school and read and spoke. he is so brilliant. if you did not like this book it is because you over-read some genius things. This book will change your life if you read close enough.

In the ideal world a new book would be written because a person has something to say, not because he wants to become a writer. Mr. Foer just takes a topic that he knows many people will find interesting, adds a little mysticism and love to it, mixes well, and voila. We have a new "brilliant" novel. Granted, the language is mildly cute, but it wears off pretty soon and once you realize that there is no original thought in this book, you start paying attention to detail.

And that's when you see a Jewish girl in the early XIX c. using cosmetics. Let's forget for a moment the fact that lipstick in its present "writable" form certainly did not exist in 1803. But using cosmetics? Or drinking iced tea? In Europe? Why not add a julep or two while you are at it? Jewish men and women never danced together. In this book not only they do, but they do it "groping". The list can go on and on.

Oh, and my own personal favorite. Had Mr. Foer spent but 10 minutes on the Internet, he'd be able to find out the WWII came to the USSR (which included Ukraine) on June 22, 1941, not on June 18 as he keeps insisting. And had he only looked at the map of Europe he would've realized that the Germans did not need 9 months to reach Ukraine, they stepped into it right on day 1. And in about 2 months most of it was already occupied.

Personally, being Jewish and having grown up in Eastern Europe, I find this level of ignorance a little offensive.

Bottom line: you want to read about Jews in WWII - read Isaac Bashevic Singer; you want to read about mysticism and love - read Paulo Coelho; do not waste your time with Jonathan Foer.

I too was excited to get the book and dive right in. What a disappointment. Yes, the book is funny at times, but talk about confusion...as others have stated, one reads and then questions what is really happening in the book. There are too many good books out there to have to struggle with this one, therefore I gave up and moved on to better, more enjoyable reading.

ok, most of you reading this book are cerebral enough to have also been force fed the musical equivalent of "The Strokes" Is This It? oh, yes these young men are "gonna save rock n' roll"; the next "nevermind" yada yada...
um yeah, OK. what few can seem to admit, it really isn't very good.
as so is this book. the hype machine at work here would also explain how Razorfish got funded and people *actually* pay to go see movies with nicole kidman in them, particuarly "Moulin Rouge"
so, drop this title at the next cocktail party if you dare, but really, isn't you self-esteem strong enough form your own opinion to admit that this is a mediocre book at best?
hopefully the store.com will bundle this book with The Strokes
"Is This It?" and call it the "What the New York Times told-you-is-so-cool" super saver fun pack.

Much has been written about the cleverness of this book and the mangled English of one of the narrators. Let me add to the verbiage: how far can one joke stretch?
There's a lot of desperation among readers of 'serious' fiction. The thought of a literate, ambitious young author willing to take chances and make fun of sacred cows (the holocaust in this case) has proved to much. Well, I may be desperate, but I'm not going to lower my standards. I found this book tedious to read, much like the experience of watching someone else's precocious child 'entertain' party guests: fun for a moment, but soon causing a feverish hope that the clever child can be sent to bed, so the adults can talk.
And let's be honest: the skewering of 'sacred cows' has become so common that the term itself is without meaning now. There's nothing brave in doing so -- it's become a standard literary, and marketing, conceit.

I am fascinated at all the great reviews of this book. I tried to read a lot of them so I could understand what people found intersting about it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion...and I am to mine, so here it is. I rarely give up on a book. This and "The Corrections" are two books that were so awful, I could not finish. It was confusing and frustrating. It was not "telling" me a story, the author, in my opinion was writing junk on paper.

Every page was a struggle. I put it back on my bookshelf and chose something else.

What a disappointment. So much hype yet so little follow through. I don't know what all the critics saw in this novel, but all I saw was a young, smug, pseudo-intellectual, half-talent trying desperately to show off how literary he can be without actually telling a good story. Man, you gots to save your money. Many good books out there, this ain't one of them.

This is probably one of the worst books I have ever read.

Foer's attempt at magic realism is embarassing. Do yourself

a favor and read anything by Isaac Bashevis Singer to see how

it is really done.

This is one of those books that I think of as an "Emperor's New Clothes" book, one that everyone oohs and aahs over because they think they're supposed to, so they'll seem smart and deep. Well, call me a shallow dummy because the time-jumping plot is confusing and many touches, such as Foer's grandfather's sexual prowess, are baffling and unnecessary. The language, supposedly whimsical and mystical, annoyed me to no end. The only vaguely entertaining parts of the book are Alex the translator's sections, and they are threaded with an undercurrent of mockery (on the author's part). The only reason I managed to plow through this book is because I read it while I was on vacation and it was the only reading material I had. Save your money and read his far more talented wife's book, A History of Love.

I tried to read this book on several occasions but was put off by its pretentiousness and could never get past the first couple of chapters. The narrative was impossible to follow and the post-modern references to the author as part of the story simply didn't work. I thought the subject would appeal to me as my family comes from the Ukraine. But in the end what I could discern from the prose actually was quite insulting to both the modern and historic Ukrainian culture.