Everything Is Illuminated

Everything is illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer’s literary debut, is a book composed of two narrative voices, Alex form Ukraine and Jonathan from America. Jonathan Safran Foer – the author has given his name to one of the main characters in the book – is an American young man that aspires to be an author. He is confused about his own past and he goes to Ukraine to search for Augustine, a woman who fifty years ago saved his grandfather from the Nazis. He also hopes to find material for his first book.

Alex is from Odessa. He is about the same age as Jonathan and he accompanies him as an interpreter and tour guide, in his search for Augustine and his grandfather’s village, Trachimbrod. Alex is desperate to leave Ukraine and go to live in America with his little brother. He dreams about America but in a materialistic way. The reality is that the country remains a mystery to him.

Both men are struggling to express their feelings. Alex, does not know enough words to express himself – ‘My second tongue is not so premium’ he concedes. His narrative, at the beginning, is almost impossible to read. It is hilarious and thrilling the same time. As time goes by, his vocabulary improves, his narrative becomes more clear and stronger, reflecting, one would say, the gravity of the subject. This creative use of language in the story, is fascinating.

Jonathan, on the other hand, knows a lot of words, but he is struggling to overcome the personal and cultural barriers to express his emotions. The cultural chasm is deep and the Ukraine he is dreaming, exists only in his imagination. He is confused, he wants to learn about his family’s past, but everything is so strange. He remains a helpless onlooker, unable to connect to his family past.

Everything is illuminated is a mystical book about love, a human all-consuming love. Structurally, it is strange and complicated yet it is this strangeness that make it such an interesting and imaginative read.

This is a superbly unusual book. A young American travels to the Ukraine to find a woman he believes saved his grandfather from the concentration camps. He's accompanied by Alex, a young Ukrainian who speaks English in a comical I-wore-out-my-thesaurus type way (as in "I was roosting at the beach," or, "Enough of my miniature talking. I am making you a very bored person"). Since young Alex doesn't have a driver's license, his grandfather (also Alex), who is haunted by memories of the war, is doing the driving. Oh, and the dog, the flatulent Sammy Davis Junior,Junior, is along to provide another touch of comedy.

The stories--both the imagined story of his ancesters written by Jonathan (he's a character in his own book) and Alex's more realistic one, are incredibly sad. It's an intelligent look at the unknowable "truths" that can haunt families, and how the past affects all of us. Of course, everything cannot be illuminated (Alex's word). There's SO much to this book! It will NOT have you "manufacturing Z's."