Synopsis: 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.

About the author: Jonathan Safran Foer was born in 1977. He is the editor of A Convergence of Birds, and his stories have been published in The Paris Review and The New Yorker. This is his first novel, which appeared on Best Books of 2002 lists internationally, won several literary prizes, including the National Jewish Book Award and The Guardian First Book Award, and has been published in twenty-four countries.

Reviews: “Imagine a novel as verbally cunning as A Clockwork Orange, as harrowing as The Painted Bird, as exhuberant and twee as Candide, and you have Everything is Illuminated…Read it, and you’ll feel altered, chastened-seared in the fire of something new.” – Marie Arana, Washington Post Book World

“[A] wild, indelible first novel…The payoff is extraordinary: A fearless, acrobatic, ultimately haunting effort.” – Janet Maslin, New York Times

“[An] astounding, clownish, tender, intricately and extravagantly plotted novel…From the hilarious overreacher’s English of the Ukrainian tour guide Alexander Perchov to the passionately fanciful evocations of a Polish-Jewish shetl from 1791-1942, the prose [keeps] jolting the reader into a heightened awareness that comes with writing those exact like hasn’t been seen before.” – John Updike, The New Yorker

My Review: It was a very original first novel by a 24 year old. It kind of reminded of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz. It was about the trip this young Jewish man takes to find this woman Augustine that saved Safran’s grandfather from the Nazis. Throughout the book he weaves this magical tale about his ancestry through the generations from 1791 to 1942. It was very comical and original. He takes the trip to the Ukraine where his grandfather was from and his tour guide is this Ukrainian young man named Alex who speaks in butchered English. His English is very entertaining to read. hehe. Both Alex and Safran develop a friendship and correspondence. Safran writes to him about the book he’s writing about his trip there. And Alex is helping him write the book.

A young American Jew, who shares a name with the author, 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 many copies of an old photograph of Augustine and his grandfather, maps, cigarettes, and a fanny pack filled with Ziploc bags, Jonathan begins his adventure with Ukrainian native and soon-to-be good friend, Alexander “Alex” Perchov, who is his own age and very fond of American pop culture, albeit culture that is already out of date in the U.S. Alex has studied English at his university and is “premium” in his knowledge of the language, therefore he becomes the translator. Alex’s “blind” grandfather and his “deranged seeing-eye bitch,” Sammy Davis, Jr., Jr., accompany them on their journey.

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 most 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”.
-wikipedia

It was an enjoyable and refreshing read. It was a very unique tale. You learn a lot about Jewish culture in this book. They also made this book into a movie which I have to watch. I give it four out of five stars. A great book for a 24 year old writer. I’m going to read his next book now, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

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