A seemingly light novel about not so light themes, Foer does a successful job of being funny and moving at the same time. A young Jewish American (named after the author, Foer) goes to Ukraine in search of a woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. There is only an old photograph, and the name of an obscure village, to go by. He enlists the services of a tour company, and he is given a quirky old man as driver and his grandson, as translator, plus a dog with a personality. While the main theme is the search, the novel is actually a tapestry of stories of several characters spanning several generations. These are put together through letters between Foer and Alex (the translator), a sincere, if a bit naive young man who writes horrendous but immensely funny English, memories of the grandfather, and the plot of a story that Foer is writing.

I enjoyed this story, not just because of Alex's laugh-out-loud way of expressing himself in English, but because of its element of magico-realism. There is a dream-like quality to the events and the characters who lived in the village before the war destroyed it forever. The novel evokes a haunting, nostalgic feeling, but there is an underlying sadness in the recurrent themes of love, desire, happiness, destruction, and loss. The novel, in fact, turns out not to be a funny and light one. ( )

(unabridged audiobook): This is the story of Jonathan the American and Alex the Ukrainian, who are both writing novels and sharing them with each other chapter by chapter. The stories switch off regularly: first a portion of Alex's novel about his time working as translator for Jonathan as they journey through Ukraine looking for a woman who saved Jonathan's grandfather from the Nazis during WWII. Next is a chapter from Jonathan's novel about his ancestors in Ukraine. Lastly is a letter from Alex to Jonathan to discuss their novels-in-progress. There were two readers: one playing Alex and reading his novel and letters, and the other reading Jonathan's novel. Alex's frequent malapropisms are quite funny, in no small part due to the talented reader, but the back-and-forth of translation often leads to an obnoxious amount of repetition. Jonathan's novel is, sadly, a complete waste of time. I'm not sure how much of this is due to the awkward, boring reader and how much is simply overwrought prose. ( )

As a fan of the Plain Style, I found this thoroughly engaging and entertaining novel, a bit too "Look at me! Aren't I smart!"
I prefer my authors to not draw as much attention to themselves as Jonathan Safron Foer does,here. If that sort of thing doesn't bother you as much as it does me, I would definitely recommend it. ( )

A beautiful book--definitely one I want to read again. It is hard at times to follow the storyline, but well worthwhile. ( )

This book honestly changed my life. When I first read it, I hadn't even thought of reading books as literature, and enjoyed it mainly for its humor. I've read it several times since, and get a new meaning each time. It is the ultimate poetic prose, following authors such as Faulkner and Garcia-Marquez, with a fresh outlook. What is most special is that somehow, Foer has found a way to bring magic and bewilderment into the 21st century, in an age when anyone in the world can know anything. The main character's landscape is that of a removed foreign country whose history (and his own) hides beautiful and unsettling secrets. The entire other half of the book is like a puzzle in which each piece contains a poem. A must-read. ( )