and read — and he has absorbed every-
thing, blending and mixing all these
disparate styles into an original, super-
charged virtuoso display of talent.
In the words of Forward reviewer
Kera Bolonok, Everything Is
Illuminated is "the century's first great -
American Jewish novel."
Said novelist Joyce Carol Oates:
"Jonathan Safran Foer is capable of
remarkable storytelling acrobatics, but
more importantly, he cares deeply
about his subject. He will win your
admiration and he will break your
heart."
During the more than two years he
worked on his novel, Foer, who now
makes his home in Queens,
N.Y., worked as a reception-
ist, tutor and ghostwriter

town documents, registries and diaries.
This scheme is ingenious and invig-
orating — in moderation. But, by the
book's end, the structure has begun to
feel cumbersome, over-weighted with
bravura turns.
Yet it's impossible to keep from
admiring Foer's determination and
invention. And he himself admits the
limitations of cleverness, as in this
conversation (quoted as it appears in
the book) between Alex and the
author:
" 'To be funny is a great thing,' says
Alex.
`No it's not.'
`Why is this?'

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(The ABCs of Prostate
Health), among other jobs.
Last year, he edited A
Convergence of Birds:
Original Fiction and Poetry
Inspired by the Work of Joseph
Cornell.
What Cornell — the
eclectic American artist best
known for modernist,
dream-like collages packaged
in mysterious wooden boxes
— seems to have inspired in
Foer is the literary equiva-
lent of collage.
Foer's technique is to pres-
ent a melange of narrative
voices and viewpoints,
A blend of high comedy and great
thereby forcing the reader to
tragedy, "Everything Is Illuminated"
constantly rethink the story
may come to the silver screen; film
and its meaning. As in a
rights have been purchased by
dream (or a nightmare), we
actor Liev Schreiber.
are constantly kept off bal-
ance as we delve ever deeper
`I used to think that humor was
in search of definitive answers that will
the only way to appreciate how won-
always remain elusive.
derful and terrible the world is, to
celebrate how big life is. You know
Multi-Layered Fiction
what I mean?'
`Yes, of course.'
The novel's most engaging parts are
`But now I think it's the opposite.
maladroit letters written by Alex to the
Humor is a way of shrinking from
author, rehashing their journey, mis-
that wonderful and terrible world."
step by misstep.
Even this passage is somewhat
Signing his letters, "Guilelessly,
deceptive, however. Foer does not use
Alexander," he assures his American
humor to shrink from the horror of
friend that "I anticipate with bumps
the Holocaust or to minimize the
on my skin your consequent letter."
human capacity for evil.
But that is only the first layer of this
On the contrary, he keeps us laughing
many-layered narrative.
all the way to the inferno. He diverts us
Along with his chatty letters, Alex
with sly wit, when all the time we
also sends the fictional Foer chapters
should be running for our lives. That is
of the book he is writing about the
what history is all about, his novel tells
trip. The author then intersperses
us, and Jewish history in particular.
these with chapters chronicling the
Read it and be illuminated.
fantastical history of Trachimbrod.
Even within these chapters, the real
— Copy Editor/Entertainment Writer
Foer can't resist inserting set pieces
Diana Lieberman contributed
purporting to be passages from official
to this article.

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