Jonathan Safran Foer - Everything Is Illuminated: Includes an Exclusive Interview With the Author

Pros: Dazzling invention, a wide range of voices, humor, seriousness, and keen empathy.

Cons: The fine line between ambition and pretention: we won't all agree which side Foer's on.

The Bottom Line: A funny, quirky, and moving collection of stories that - o happy surprise - lives up at last to its claim to be one whole novel.

Review: In some ways, I found Jonathan Safran Foer’s debut novel Everything is Illuminated very easy to read, and I’ll choose excerpts in a way that should let you decide if you agree. It was easy to read because it generally moves fast. It was ...

Pros: Quirky culture clash, folklore and a unique story about the aftermath of the war.

Cons: Sometimes a bit too quirky and a little confusing.

The Bottom Line: Everything is Illuminated goes from quirky culture clash story to thoughtful reminder of the aftermath of WWII for generations to come.

Review: In 1997, author Jonathan Safran Foer decided to go on a trip to Prague to embark on a search for his roots. A badly planned 3-day trip to the Ukraine for clues to his Jewish ancestry eventually turned into the novel Everything is Illuminated ...

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Review: I'm going to have to grapple with some of the plotting in this book to provide anything near an illuminating review. This means I'm going to have to spill a few of its secrets, for which I apologize. Book reviewing is a tight-rope walk. People expect the ...

Pros: A fantastic play on words, irony, satire, and fantasy

Cons: Sometimes confusing in the beginning

Review: A pleasant play on words and a story line to compliment it. After completing this short novel I had the notion that the writer was a 60 year old Ukranian word smith, to my surprise JSF wrote this masterpiece in college. There is a completely unique ...

Pros: Decent writing.

Cons: Contrived, slick, unfunny and unsatisfying

The Bottom Line: Could have been so much less and succeeded so much more.

Review: Everything is Illuminated tries really, really hard to do the "right" (read: marketable) things. It's got an edgy little structure to it that's supposed to keep the reader a little unsettled and therefore interested. Its laudable subject matter ...

Pros: Some funny parts with Alex; grim Nazi horrors

Cons: Boring, repetitious, overly sexual and nonsensical. But mostly boring.

The Bottom Line: A nonsensical look at a young man's Jewish heritage and the horror of the Holocaust, the book is 90-percent tedium.

Review: Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer was a very disappointing book. My wife and I had a long drive over a weekend and we looked forward to passing the time on the road with an interesting book. Always looking for something new, she ...