Everything Is Illuminated
| Everything Is Illuminated | |
|---|---|
 Front cover of hardcover edition. |
|
| Author(s) | Jonathan Safran Foer |
| Cover artist | Jon Gray (aka gray318) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin |
| Publication date | April 16, 2002 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-618-17387-0 (hardcover) ISBN 0-06-052970-9 (paperback) |
| OCLC Number | 48144414 |
| Dewey Decimal | 813/.6 21 |
| LC Classification | PS3606.O38 E84 2002 |
| Followed by | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) |
Everything Is Illuminated is the first novel by the American writer Jonathan Safran Foer, published in 2002. It was adapted into a film by the same name starring Elijah Wood and Eugene Hütz in 2005.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Jonathan Safran Foer, a young American Jew, journeys to Ukraine in search of Augustine, the woman who saved his grandfather's life during the Nazi liquidation of Trachimbrod, his family shtetl. Armed with maps, cigarettes and many copies of an old photograph of Augustine and his grandfather, Jonathan begins his adventure with Ukrainian native and soon-to-be good friend, Alexander "Alex" Perchov, who is Foer's age and very fond of American pop culture, albeit culture that is already out of date in the United States. Alex studied English at his university, and even though his knowledge of the language is not "first-rate", he becomes the translator. Alex's "blind" grandfather and his "deranged seeing-eye bitch," Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., accompany them on their journey. Throughout the book, the meaning of love is deeply examined.
The writing and structure received critical acclaim for the manner in which it switches between two story arcs: (1) fragments of Foer-the-character's novel-in-progress, where he tells in highly literary English a quasi-magical story about the citizens of Trachimbrod; and (2) a straightforward narrative of searching for Trachimbrod (an invented name for the real village Trochenbrod), as told by Alex in broken English. They are tied together by letters sent from Alex to Foer and attached to Alex's version. Alex's narrative is notable for its broken English, which sounds as if he learned English from a thesaurus without ever hearing it spoken. Throughout his narrative, he makes frequent use of improper synonyms, such as using the word rigid to mean "difficult" or "hard".
[edit] Place names
Names of cities are given in their Russian version (e.g., Lvov), although the Polish or Ukrainian naming would have been correct for the scenes in Trachimbrod and Ukraine.
[edit] Literary significance and criticism
Upon its initial release the book received positive reviews. The Times review stated that the book was "a work of genius," that Foer had "staked his claim for literary greatness," and that "after it, things will never be the same."[1] More recent reviews of the novel, particularly those who examined it alongside Foer's next book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, have been less generous.[citation needed]
In a Huffington Post article titled "The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers", Anis Shivani sees the work as "harmless multiculturalism for the perennially bored" and claims that "a more pretentious 'magical realist' novel was never written."[2] A reviewer from The Prague Post laments that the book misrepresents the history of Jews in Ukraine and that the factual history of the massacre at Trochenbrod "...stands in a sharp contrast to claims made in the book." He finds particularly objectionable the fact that, in the novel, Foer described the Ukrainian treatment of Jews as "almost as bad as the Nazis", when in fact it was Ukrainians who helped the escape of the few Jewish survivors from Trochenbrod, and suffered brutal retaliation themselves as a result.[3] However, it can be assumed that Foer was alluding to the antisemitic sentiment in Ukraine at the time, as evidenced by the numerous pogroms.
Although unconfirmed by Foer, it is speculated that the title of the book is an inspiration from a line in the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera: 'In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia.'
[edit] References
- ^ "Luminous talent in the spotlight". London: The Times. July 7, 2002. http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/books_group/article541500.ece. Retrieved July 12,2007.
- ^ Shivani, Anis. (August 7, 2010) "The 15 Most Overrated Contemporary American Writers." The Huffington Post. Accessed November 20, 2010.
- ^ Katchanovski, Ivan. (October 7, 2004) "Not Everything Is Illuminated". The Prague Post. Accessed November 20, 2010.
