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elenorpillips 's review for:
Everything Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Though I'm still confused on the structure of the story in it's semi-autobiographical nature, this was truly something special. It has a lot of strange and surrealist moments in a story that you wouldn't think to have them. It tests the bounds of storytelling and how reality is twisted in hard times.
It follows Alex and Jonathan. Alex is Ukrainian and is a translator for his Grandfather who works a sort of touring business. Jonathan employs them to take him to where his grandfather was from which is an obscure village that no one seems to know about. The main storyline with both of them is told my Alex who is writing this for a book Jonathan is writing, where other chapters about Jonathan's history and family are written by Jonathan for the same book. There is also another 'storyline' told through letters written from Alex to Jonathan as he reads what Jonathan writes and sends Jonathan what he writes.
It can get confusing at times, but there are so many great moments and it really makes you more aware of the writing as the book is aware of itself in a way. The story of Jonathan's lineage is probably the most 'strange' part of the book because Jonathan writes in such a loose way, unrestricted by the normal structure of history. A main part of the book and conversations between Jonathan and Alex is about the struggle of being honest in their stories. Alex takes awhile to be fully transparent in his writing and Jonathan adds his own details to his family's history. Yet both struggle to like the honesty shared throughout the others writing, both criticizing each other and making suggestions on how to make the story end better if it was a lie.
Alex and Jonathan's relationship was the main thing I found to be the most complex. When get the story of how the met but not how they got to be writing this book, we don't know exactly how close are and it is all told through Alex's perspective. The way the story ends with them makes me a little sad, but it ties in together overall with the message. You can only love when there is truth. Alex and Jonathan are only able to truly understand and love each other when they are finally truthful. And even so, it doesn't mean it will be all happy.
The writing in this book is also one of the stranger aspects but one of the most beautiful and engaging. I felt excited for each upcoming chapter and each went on just long enough to switch to the next perspective when I was starting to miss it.
As a story centered around tragedy and the suppression of truth to avoid it, it presents many very real issues today that can be very widespread and very personal at the same time. It is centered around the holocaust yet is not ever set during the main events of the holocaust. Even so, I believe it has even more impact because of that; we know what's coming, we know what's happened, we know the tragedy better than we know ourselves so we don't have to explain it.
One final small detail I loved was the transition from Alex referring to Jonathan as the "Hero" versus as just "Jonathan". It is a subtle shift, but after he does it once, he never goes back. I think this shows a big shift in Alex's character because he continuously put everyone in his life on a pedestal, but after seeing Jonathan as more human his perceptions of everyone else in his life, including himself, begins to shift.
The History portions were the most interesting to me and tied the story up so well. Foer really knows how to connect a story because everything came full circle, and every detail corresponded with the past and the future.
In the end 'truth is love and love is light'.
It follows Alex and Jonathan. Alex is Ukrainian and is a translator for his Grandfather who works a sort of touring business. Jonathan employs them to take him to where his grandfather was from which is an obscure village that no one seems to know about. The main storyline with both of them is told my Alex who is writing this for a book Jonathan is writing, where other chapters about Jonathan's history and family are written by Jonathan for the same book. There is also another 'storyline' told through letters written from Alex to Jonathan as he reads what Jonathan writes and sends Jonathan what he writes.
It can get confusing at times, but there are so many great moments and it really makes you more aware of the writing as the book is aware of itself in a way. The story of Jonathan's lineage is probably the most 'strange' part of the book because Jonathan writes in such a loose way, unrestricted by the normal structure of history. A main part of the book and conversations between Jonathan and Alex is about the struggle of being honest in their stories. Alex takes awhile to be fully transparent in his writing and Jonathan adds his own details to his family's history. Yet both struggle to like the honesty shared throughout the others writing, both criticizing each other and making suggestions on how to make the story end better if it was a lie.
Alex and Jonathan's relationship was the main thing I found to be the most complex. When get the story of how the met but not how they got to be writing this book, we don't know exactly how close are and it is all told through Alex's perspective. The way the story ends with them makes me a little sad, but it ties in together overall with the message. You can only love when there is truth. Alex and Jonathan are only able to truly understand and love each other when they are finally truthful. And even so, it doesn't mean it will be all happy.
The writing in this book is also one of the stranger aspects but one of the most beautiful and engaging. I felt excited for each upcoming chapter and each went on just long enough to switch to the next perspective when I was starting to miss it.
As a story centered around tragedy and the suppression of truth to avoid it, it presents many very real issues today that can be very widespread and very personal at the same time. It is centered around the holocaust yet is not ever set during the main events of the holocaust. Even so, I believe it has even more impact because of that; we know what's coming, we know what's happened, we know the tragedy better than we know ourselves so we don't have to explain it.
One final small detail I loved was the transition from Alex referring to Jonathan as the "Hero" versus as just "Jonathan". It is a subtle shift, but after he does it once, he never goes back. I think this shows a big shift in Alex's character because he continuously put everyone in his life on a pedestal, but after seeing Jonathan as more human his perceptions of everyone else in his life, including himself, begins to shift.
The History portions were the most interesting to me and tied the story up so well. Foer really knows how to connect a story because everything came full circle, and every detail corresponded with the past and the future.
In the end 'truth is love and love is light'.