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A review by georginabrooke
Here I Am by Jonathan Safran Foer
5.0
Really interesting study on a marriage and the distance that can build up when life gets in the way. It does feel like it might be uncomfortably autobiographical (Jonathan Safran Foer is also a smart, Jewish writer who is divorced with three children, much like the central character; Jacob.
The book is so involved in the interior mind of Jacob, even without the similarities with the author's life, it seems solipsistic, but also a remarkable study of a specific kind of anxiety (which I think I share with the main character); anxiety about one's interior mind but also exterior happenings. Safran Foer associates this type of anxiety with Jewishness, which is where I found the book less relatable (not being Jewish!).
Julia comes out of the book much better than Jacob and you have to hope this isn't some elaborate (and self absorbed) attempt at an apology in his actual personal life - can't help thinking silence might have been classier if he was at all motivated by closure / atonement.
As with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close there's some brilliant dialogue, particularly between adults and boys (and boys with boys).
"Julia could clip newborn fingernails with her teeth, and breast-feed whilst making lasagne, and remove splinters without tweezers or pain, and have kids begging for the lice comb... but she had forgotten how to touch her husband."
"Julia often thought that if they could just trace the string back to the source of their withholding, they might actually find their openness."
"For years he'd always been elsewhere, always underground behind a twelve-inch door, always taking refuge in a interior monologue to which no one – including himself –had access, or in the dialogue trapped in a locked door."
""I'm here."
He stood in the doorway until he heard his youngest son's heavy breathing. Jacob was a man who withheld comfort but stood at thresholds long after others would have walked away. He always stood at the open front door until the car pool drove off. Just as he stood at the window until the back wheel of Sam's bike disappeared around the corner. Just as he watched himself disappear."
""Here I am." (Whatever God needs or wants, Abraham is wholly present for Him, without conditions or reservations or need for explanation."
""In sickness and in sickness. That is what I wish for you. Don't seek or expect miracles. There are no miracles. Not anymore. And there are no cures for the hurt that hurts most. There is only the medicine of believing each other's pain, and being present for it."
"I looked at Julia, and in that moment I knew we never could have made it. But I also knew that she had been my best hope."
The book is so involved in the interior mind of Jacob, even without the similarities with the author's life, it seems solipsistic, but also a remarkable study of a specific kind of anxiety (which I think I share with the main character); anxiety about one's interior mind but also exterior happenings. Safran Foer associates this type of anxiety with Jewishness, which is where I found the book less relatable (not being Jewish!).
Julia comes out of the book much better than Jacob and you have to hope this isn't some elaborate (and self absorbed) attempt at an apology in his actual personal life - can't help thinking silence might have been classier if he was at all motivated by closure / atonement.
As with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close there's some brilliant dialogue, particularly between adults and boys (and boys with boys).
"Julia could clip newborn fingernails with her teeth, and breast-feed whilst making lasagne, and remove splinters without tweezers or pain, and have kids begging for the lice comb... but she had forgotten how to touch her husband."
"Julia often thought that if they could just trace the string back to the source of their withholding, they might actually find their openness."
"For years he'd always been elsewhere, always underground behind a twelve-inch door, always taking refuge in a interior monologue to which no one – including himself –had access, or in the dialogue trapped in a locked door."
""I'm here."
He stood in the doorway until he heard his youngest son's heavy breathing. Jacob was a man who withheld comfort but stood at thresholds long after others would have walked away. He always stood at the open front door until the car pool drove off. Just as he stood at the window until the back wheel of Sam's bike disappeared around the corner. Just as he watched himself disappear."
""Here I am." (Whatever God needs or wants, Abraham is wholly present for Him, without conditions or reservations or need for explanation."
""In sickness and in sickness. That is what I wish for you. Don't seek or expect miracles. There are no miracles. Not anymore. And there are no cures for the hurt that hurts most. There is only the medicine of believing each other's pain, and being present for it."
"I looked at Julia, and in that moment I knew we never could have made it. But I also knew that she had been my best hope."