Saturday, October 29, 2011

Everything is Illuminated



Everything is Illuminated
By Jonathan Safran Foer

Apologies. Not much time to write this one. I did my best.Add Video

Jonathan Safran Foer sure knows how to write a book. Or at least, he knows how to write two thirds of a book. Everything is Illuminated was like reading the literary equivalent of a M. Night Shyamalan movie. An absolutely spectacular setup with no possibility of a competent follow through.

Foer's debut novel is, if nothing else, ambitious. Foer lays out several story arcs within the novel, Each seem to inch closer and closer together as the story progresses, dragging the reader deeper into each story as they make their way toward ultimate illumination. Set in Ukraine, the arcs are an interesting exploration of humanity, love and heart-breaking tragedy. Each story is infused with a riveting blend of both dark humor and compassion for the characters involved.

The most interesting of all the story arches involves the correspondence letters from Alex, a young Ukrainian working for his father who is hired by Foer to act as translator when Foer visits in search of a long lost family secret. Alex, his grandfather and his grandfather's seeing-eye bitch accompany Jonathan on his travels to Trahimbrod, the village where his grandfather escaped Nazi atrocities.

As the arc progresses, the histories of Jonathan, Alex and his grandfather slowly begin to collapse upon themselves and the outcome is both inevitable and tragic. It is at this point where Foer should have stopped writing.

After what seems like the logical resolution to the entire novel comes a rambling chunk of experimental writing that, to me, served no particular purpose to the narrative whatsoever. What starts out so promising, devolves into a miasma of literary pettifogging. By the end of the novel I was rather unsure of what, exactly, i was supposed to take away from the novel aside from a furrowed brow and a distinct feeling of stupidity.

It's a shame, really. Until the moment the plot falls apart, I was ready to hail Foer as an emergent voice in the literary world (OK, I was ready to be yet another blogger/critic ready to voice such an opinion. I would not have been the vanguard in that respect, I admit). What could have been a novel every bit as relevant as Cloud Atlas or The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Instead it gets piled on high with other novels that could have/should have been better.

Maybe I just didn't get it.

4 comments:

Trevor said...

Shame you didn't like the ending...I haven't read it yet, but I was planning on it.

New follower: Trev @ trevsliteraryreview.blogspot.com

Ryan said...

I would still recommend it. Perhaps it was just me.

Elizabeth said...

Great blog title.

NEW FOLLOWER

Elizabeth

http://silversolara.blogspot.com

Mary Beth said...

Oh, you aren't the only one left confused, wondering what Foer was thinking, slightly disgruntled, etc. I watched the movie first and then read the book, expecting something so super-fantastic it would blow the already-fantastic movie out of the water. Obviously that's not what happened. I think Liev Schreiber did an amazing job of taking a mess of a book and turning it into such a poignant (not to mention coherent) movie. Your review is spot-on and makes me feel much better about my own reading experience.

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