"This extraordinary prize winning first novel is a medley of three exuberantly written interconnected stories. First there is the story written by hilarious Ukrainian Heritage Tour guide and translator Alex Perchov. Alex describes the trip that Jewish-American Jonathan Safran Foer is making to Ukraine to try and locate a Ukrainian woman called Augustine from the small shtetl called Trachimbrod. Augustine helped his grandfather escape from the Nazis. On the trip are also Alex's begrudging grandfather the driver and his mad dog Sammy Davis Jnr, Jnr. It is Alex's use of the English Thesaurus that provides hilarious descriptions of the events. The second story is written by Jonathan Safran Foer. It is a trip into the magical goings on at Trachimbrod from its foundation in the 1790s and also in the 1940s. This describes Safran's earliest ancestors lusting after a girl called Brod and also his grandfather with a withered arm's sexual exploits in the 1940s. In the third story Alex is writing letters to Jonathan to wittily comment on the second story that Jonathan is sending him and also on the first that he himself is writing. All three stories meet at the holocaust when the Nazi's wiped out Trachimbrod and hundreds of other Jewish towns in the Ukraine. The group meet someone who might be Augustine and Alex's grandfather recounts the act that has haunted his life when he betrayed his Jewish best friend to a certain death at the hands of the Nazis in order to save his own life. "
John Marcel, Resident Scholar
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Review Analysis of Everything is Illuminated
Our unique search engine provides a wealth of detail about books by breaking them down into many different literary elements, all of which are searchable (click here).
Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Tone of book?
- thoughtful
Time/era of story
- 1930's-1950's
Internal struggle/realization?
Yes
Struggle over
- search for family/history
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
War/Revolt/Disaster on civilians
Yes
Conflict:
- Holocaust
Main Character
Gender
- Male
Profession/status:
- writer
Age:
- 20's-30's
Eccentric/Mental
Yes
Eccentric:
- eccentric
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Russian
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- writer
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- a moderate amount
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings?
- 8 (a significant amount)
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Eastern Europe
Small town?
Yes
Small town people:
- hostile, like Gomer Pyle on steroids
Style
Person
- mostly 3rd
Sex in book?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- descript of kissing
- touching of anatomy
- impregnation/reproduction
- actual description of hetero sex
- rape/molest (yeech!)
Unusual Style:
- a lot of stream of consciousness
- written like a journal/diary/letters
Amount of dialog
- roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
