Synopsis
In EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, Jonathan Safran Foer's protagonist, an American Jewish college student (also named Jonathan Safran Foer), travels to Ukraine to find out the truth about his grandfather, who managed to escape to America during the Nazi takeover. In the course of his investigations, which are both comic and poignant, Jonathan manages to find out much more than he had reckoned on. The novel is tortuously narrated by the translator and driver Jonathan hires to assist him, a man named Alex Perchov whose command of English is bizarrely off-kilter. The two are accompanied by a mutt named Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., and (in one of several magic realist touches) by a man also named Alex who may be Jonathan's grandfather. Foer's boldly imagined first novel, a popular and critical success when it was published, was named a New York Times Notable Book for 2002.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 2003-03-01 | | Edition Description: | Reprint |
| Size | | Length: | 288 pages | | Height: | 8.0 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.8 in | | Weight: | 8.8 oz |
Publisher's Note
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.
Industry Reviews
"Comedy and pathos are braided together with extraordinary skill in a haunting debut....Beauty from ashes."
Kirkus Reviews (01/01/2002)
"Foer has taken on the Big subject of the past century--the Holocaust--and, not too surprisingly, it proves to be too big a subject for his undeveloped talent."
Atlantic Monthly - Brooke Allen (04/01/2002)
"The narrative is at times glutted with sentiment; its grander gestures can seem at once presumptuous and naive. But EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED establishes Jonathan Safran Foer as a significant talent, and it is much more than a flashy apprentice piece."
Times Literary Supplement - Henry Hitchings (06/14/2002)
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