‘Everything Is Illuminated’

Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel “Everything is Illuminated,” published in 2003, manages to bring together three different story arcs.\nThe story follows three main characters. The first is Jonathon Safran Foer, a young Jewish-American man who is looking for a woman that might have saved his grandfather from Nazis in his family’s town of Trachenbrod, Ukraine. The second is Alex, a Ukrainian who serves as Jonathan’s translator, and the third is Alex’s grandfather. The story also includes Alex’s grandfather’s “seeing-eye-bitch” named “Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior.” \nThe first arc consists of Jonathan’s tale of the citizens of Trachenbrod. The second and third arcs are both narrated by Alex. One is in the form of a letter to Jonathan, and the other is the tale of his journey with Jonathan and his grandfather.\nWhen I first started reading “Everything Is Illuminated,” I didn’t know what to expect from it. Was I going to cry? Was I going to laugh? Oh, I laughed, and I pouted a little toward the end. The book’s dialogue between Alex, his grandfather and Jonathan are so humorous and well-written, I found it hard not to grab my stomach while reading.\nOne of the best aspects of the novel is Alex’s broken English. At first, I thought the dialogue was meant to drive the reader crazy, but as I progressed through the novel it became both hysterical and interesting seeing how broken his English really was. \nDespite the novel’s obvious tummy-tickling power, if you don’t follow the different story arcs carefully, you might get confused and lost in a world you don’t quite understand. \n“Everything is Illuminated” is a book for anyone who enjoys a well-written novel about a determined man and the journey he encounters to find out more about his history. Bring along a box of tissues, though, because you might need to wipe away the tears – not from crying, but from laughing.