Jonathan Safran Foer is a very talented writer. In Everything is Illuminated, he switches between three distinct writing styles: he ranges from realism, to epistolary, and finally to extreme post-modernist metafiction and fabulism. He knows what makes a good story, and writes layers of metaphor and double-meaning into his book. Too bad it wasn’t any good. After reading Everything is Illuminated I’m left feeling exhausted and confused; like I’ve just been a willing participant in my own carjacking and it’s just now donning on me as I watch my car drive into the sunset on a New Mexico desert highway.
There are parts of this book I really like. Parts of it are about a young Jewish man, Jonathan, and his journey with his Ukrainian tour guide, Alex, to find the woman who saved his grandfather from the Nazis in World War Two. These chapters are light and funny while being anchored in the tragedy of the Holocaust. The characters are relatable and I found myself laughing out loud on more than one occasion.
Other parts of the book are letters from Alex to Jonathan after Jonathan has returned to America to write about his experience and his Jewish ancestors. These letters show Alex’s growth and the change in their relationship as Alex increasingly disapproves of the tragic tale that Jonathan is writing. He argues that fiction should be better than reality, not worse. These chapters culminate with Alex’s coming of age and by the end will be both extremely gratifying and heartbreaking.