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. ( )

Read this book ( )

I really enjoyed reading this book. Of course, we learn of the irrational hatred and the genocide perpetrated against the Jews. This book made me cry more than once. However, there is a fair amount of misogyny going on in the book as well and this was the drawback for me. I can't decide if he was pointing it out in addition to the racism or was he just unconscious of it totally. For example, Brod stays with her abusive husband, women are called cunts and smell bad, and a Nazi shoots a hugely pregnant woman up her vagina and it doesn't kill her but they leave her to die an agonizing death. Sounds super hateful to me. Am I missing something--is he pointing out the horrid treatment women receive because he disapproves? Or is it just taken for granted which is how it comes across to me? Otherwise, excellent novel. I look forward to reading more of this author's work. ( )

Three voices (at least) in one at times make this a confusing read. It is clever, but when I can't seem to know who's talking, it makes the reading experience more difficult than necessary. But it is a very funny and very sad book, and I can't wait to see the movie when it arrives as a DVD in my mailbox sooner than later. ( )

This is a bit difficult to read, but sooner or later, the quirky English will amuse you, and as the story goes deeper, it will hook you in. There are many beautiful lines scattered all throughout this magic realist novel, but the ending felt rushed; it was as if the author realizes he is about to end the book, and everything was crammed in an attempt to shock and move the reader. It does the job, but one only wishes he took the story and spread it throughout, to make this promising novel less tiresome to read.

In the full-length novel version of his short story "The Very Rigid Search," originally published in The New Yorker, Foer tells the interwoven stories of Jonathan Safran Foer, "the hero," and his family, and the story of his tour guide, Alex, and his family. Jonathan travels to Ukraine to find the village in which his grandfather grew up prior to World War II, and to try to locate the mysterious Augustine, a woman in a photograph his grandfather has kept for the fifty years since the war. Everything Is Illuminated is the story of a young man's search for his roots, and for the truth behind his family's secrets and mysteries, but it is also the more universal story of love, loss, and longing... and of permanent consequences of the choices we so lightly make.

From start to finish, the story is melancholy and mournful. There are humorous bits, but even the humor has a sadness to it. Having read now both the novel and the short story, it seems to me that the humor of the short story is no longer the point in the novel, and most of the humor tapers off about midway through the book. What humor there is, however, does not interfere with the mournful nature of the narrative, but instead enhances it by establishing an opposition and by reinforcing the steps we take to cover up our sadness.

Foer's narrative is brilliantly constructed, and draws on the themes and forms of such rich genres as magical realism, Yiddish literature, memoir, and anthology. Foer blends the best elements of all these genres to weave together his characters' intricate stories and histories. More impressive, though, is his ability to maintain such consistent tone. (I have only read a few books ever that maintained such consistent tone throughout; Lolita is one that comes to mind.) Tone lends itself to meaning, and one comes away from this story feeling both saddened and hopeful -- saddened by the mistakes of the past and the weight of memories, but hopeful for the free choices to be made by future generations.

I am doubly impressed that so young an author has such insight into life in both the "old world" and the new, and such ability to enliven characters of all ages. A certain suspension of disbelief is necessary to fully appreciate some of the village legends that are retold throughout the novel, but none of the characters exceed the scope of believability. All seem real enough, and make choices that seem natural and uncontrived -- Foer paints a striking portrait of Alex's grandfather, in particular, though he seems to play such a minor role throughout most of the book. At the end, everything is illuminated.

I loved this book. Written as letters between the narrator and his Ukrainian translator, it is a moving story about searching for identity in one's past. While the letters from the translator annoyed me at first, it was only because they were so close to being exactly what you would get if you through a different language into an electronic translator. The character development was phenomenal and I loved how the changes in the writing reflected that. Highly recommended read. ( )

As Foer's debut novel, this is a good, interesting read and I could see the beginnings of the style that he developed for Extremely
Loud and Incredibly Close. This is a more conventional (for Foer) literary style and parts of the book are heavy going. It's a warm, witty read, complete with fully-rounded(if odd)charaters. Foer's use of his own name of central protagonist gives the book a memoir feel (although it is fiction) and helped draw me in to the story. ( )

My problem with this book was mostly trying to make sense of the author's book within a book - the tale of the shtetl that his family was from. It was in the style of Shalom Aleichem, Wise Men of Chelm, especially at the beginning. It was difficult for me to connect the stories in that book to the present day events, which would have made more sense out of the book for me. The style was also very affected at times.
I did enjoy the other voice in the novel, the Ukranian tourguide, with his thesaurus infused English. But, it did seem that he matured much too artificially by the end of the book. ( )

Everything Is Illuminated is different kind of love story, and it encompasses love in all it's many forms. Alex Perchov, a young Ukraniana, "a very premium person" as he describes himself, posturing as both translator and travel guide delightfully butchers the English language as he helps Jonathan Safran Foer locate Augustine, a woman whom Jonathan believes may have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. In search of the village Trachimbrod, driven by Alex's grandfather and his bitch named Sammy Davis Junior, Junior we bear witness to humor, tenderness, grief, and tragedy.
Jonathan Safran Foer, the author not the protagonist navigates multiple story threads through time in a sometimes dizzying fashion, and leaves us breathless for more. We find the Jonathan Safran Foer in the book, writing about the history of Trachimbrod and the life of his great great great great great grandmother, while receiving letters from Alex in his fractured English in the present, all interspersed with the adventure to locate a woman in a photograph. While it does require close reading, it is well worth the effort.
This is a laugh out loud, belly aching book, but is also a heartbreaking story, and in a sense a coming to terms with the search for self. I adored this novel. Having also watched the movie three times I must also add that I loved that too! This should be in your TBR pile. ( )

I couldn't finish this. I tried, I really did. Safran Foer writes like a ex-precious child who's not yet learned that a) he's not the smartest person in the room and b) his cuteness has worn off.

Once you strip away the cuteness, there's nothing there. ( )

A brilliant book... The writer's talent shines through the unusual format. The movie version is very successfully done too. ( )

I loved this book - it was funny and sad and and strange and shocking. The different voices were great, especially Alex and how he grows in seriousness throughout the book. It treads the very familiar ground of the seoncd world war and the holocaust, but uses such a different style and approach that it feels quite fresh. ( )

An unexpectedly vulgar and uncomfortable read. ( )

really well written. original humor on a very un-original topic. managed to bring it alive again even though I've read so so many books on the holocaust already. ( )

This imaginative first novel intertwines three stories about a man with the same name as the author. The various plots are well orchestrated and provide a satisfying blend of tragedy and comedy. The reader follows Jonathan Safran Foer, the American college student who travels to Ukraine in search of his roots and hoping to find Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Additionally, Jonathan has a novel in progress, a fictionalized history of Trachimbrod, the Polish shtetl where his ancestors settled in the 18th century. The third thread is provided through letters written to Jonathan by his Ukrainian translator and guide Alex, an Americanophile who speaks hilariously fractured English.

If you thought that the movie Borat was uproariously side splitting funny, you will love Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything is Illuminated. It is more of the same.

I was extremely disappointed with this book, especially in comparison to my previous Foer experience, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Both use two stories, related but occurring at different times, told at the same time to explain characters motivations and history. With Everything is Illuminated, this is done to a distraction. This is one of the few examples where I felt the movie was better than the book. The movie concentrated on the present story and left out most of the history lesson. If this book had been edited the same way, it would have succeeded in telling the story much better. Yes, a few flashbacks would still be needed to bring the story together, but this effort was so disjointed, I thought maybe the book was defective and two separated manuscripts had been randomly bound as one volume.

The destination was not worth the journey. The saving grace was the oddity of the characters in the back story. This novel should have been better presented as two books with the two stories separated. Neither would have been great, but separately they would have been better than this one volume was. ( )

I really, really loved Alex's story, but Jonathan's family history could have been entirely cut out and I wouldn't have missed a thing.

It didn't add anything to my understanding of the present-day story and the fantastical elements just annoyed me. If he wanted to tell a made-up history of Trachimbrod, why couldn't it be a believable, realistic one instead of a bizarre fairytale thing?

I found myself skimming those sections in order to get back to the present.

With the present-day stuff, not only did I love the story, but I loved Alex's voice. I had no idea when I picked up the book that it would be written that way, but it was such a great choice and I loved it. I loved the letters and how they played off the narrative parts.

Now I'm really curious to see the film again and compare, because I know it was quite different. The grandfather's story was different. And obviously none of the Trachimbrod history was included for which I am grateful! Very good decision, that. But the film focused more on Jonathan, I thought. It made me feel like he was the main character... He's on the cover, it starts out with him and his baggies (I think that was the first scene?) and all. In the book, he's called the hero, but he's barely even there. It's Alex who changes, and Jonathan is only the catalyst for that change. ( )

Funny, unique and amazingly written. I heart Jonathan Safran Foer. ( )

Good, but overrated. ( )

A very clever book that was quite humorous while tackling some very sensitive subjects. Foer's use of language to convey translation loss and emotion were touching. At times this book is very sad and there a few times when I had to put it down and focus on something more hopeful. Despite this, the end, which is quite sad, was somehow uplifting at the same time. Throughout the book there are many bizarre flashbacks that take the absurd and turns them into something philosophical. Perhaps not everything was illuminated for me, but many things were. ( )