Rating: 
Summary: Starts off well but...
Review: While there is a lot of really remarkable writing and I am duly impressed by JSF's narrative weaving, through generations, time periods, characters and styles, I feel the last 100 pages or so could have taken a reworking. Not that it wasn't good, but it felt uneven, choppy and experimental in parts only for the sake of the experimental (for example, the flow charts of memory). I admire a lot of the risks he took and many paid off, and the first 100 pages are undoubtedly witty and entertaining. The Ukrainian Alex did at times sound a little too much like I was reading a letter from one of SNL's Wild and Crazy Guys (Steve Martin & Dan Akroyd bit, for those too young to remember), but I did always think those guys were funny, and so are the letters.
I still recommend this book because it is certainly different and I for one am always happy to see an author try out new forms of narrative, even if they are not always successful, though for the most part, JSF is.
Rating: 
Summary: Ignorance is Bliss
Review: I read this book, and it just wasn't that good. Some aspects were funny, but the jokes got annoying when they became overused. The writing is pretty good, but not impressive considering the years of editing and supervision from Joyce Carol Oates. I found the pervasive vulgar sexual jokes, which unfortunately seem to be expected in today's new fiction, to be even more adolescent and gratuitous than usual. When it ended, I found I didn't care about any of the characters, and I didn't care whether the book continued or not. When I read a great book, I am always sad to finish it and leave the story behind. Not with this one. So I read some media reviews to see if I missed something. I didn't miss anything, but I did learn a few things about what this book is supposed to represent. What is clear to me now is that Foer has created these flat and/or ridiculously rendered characters as a gimmicky parody of the tragedies of the real lost Jewish communities of Europe and the present day economic struggle of Ukranians. And he does it, proudly, with not a care in the world about integrity, factual accuracy or any claim to the cultural knowledge that people now seem to think he has. He was quoted in a review I just read (which prompted my review here): -- "For the book's recounting of that trip, he made everything up; he did no factual research for the chapters about Trachimbrod, which was an actual village decimated in World War II. 'I sort of went out of my way to be ignorant about a lot of stuff I was writing about just so I'd have more imaginative latitude.'"I don't mind fantasy, but when it is passed off to the public (especially by the literary reviewers) as an educated portrait of the suffering of a people (Jewish or Ukranian), that is fraud. (The more blatant fraud is on David Grossman's book, called 'See Under: Love.' On the advice of the reviews here, I took a look at Grossman's book, and was shocked to see that Foer has indeed practically lifted the 'dictionary entry' part from Grossman's book. This causes me to seriously question how 'original' any part of Foer's writing really is.) What's worse, though, is that the literary world seems to love this book, and to be pushing for more of the same cynical, inauthentic exploitation called "tragicomic." This is a very bad sign. Buy the book if you want, but think about what it represents.
Rating: 
Summary: The literary darling strikes with language
Review: Ok, admittedly, I had a hard time with this book, but not because of the plot or the language. As a twenty-one year old novelist, I found the initial praising of Safran Foer in all the periodicalls tedious and felt rather ... bitter, actually. But that's just me being twisted. The problem with books like this is there is a danger of the author as a person being hyped into the text, until the two are virtually indistinguishable. I have to say, though, that to add to the pain of being insanely jealous of the Princeton darling, he actually writes very well. The style of narration, the multi-faces in this book all amount to a refreshing and new composition, which gives considerably weight to the text. Many will criticise this book (and they have, too) for the fact that it's pretentious, or just difficult to follow, or perhaps for the fact that the language monopolises the text somewhat, but this same criticism was made of many of our greatest writers. Of Flaubert, especially. This is where the reviewer in me wants to praise Safran Froer and herald him as the next Flaubert, or Joyce. But I can't find myself able to, because he is nne of these unfortunately. We are all tired of more books on (rediscovery of) the holocaust, and everything it has left behind. When authors start using cheaptakes off any politically overdone theme like this, it is usually because they have written ten books and have little, autobiographically at least, to say any more. So it is worrying that Safran Froer does exactly this in his debut. The humour was received with mixed reviews: namely, most reviews loved it, and most writers hated it. This is, in my oppinion a telling sign: there is a little too much heavyweight contact being thrown around by Hamish Hamilton at the local Press Offices. So, you really will have to make your own mind up, but personally I wasn't all that impressed, either. I really really have difficulty though with this whole 'JSF is so romantic element' though. Joyce Carol Oats even said : 'he will break your heart.' There is nothing romantic or sentimentally effective about this book whatsoever, except, perhaps, his language, and even this is much more experimental than anything else. I do not really know whether to recommend this book to you. I suppose I would say, in the end, buy it, because it's well-written and if you don't you'll be the only person at the party who doesn't know what the speaker means when he jokes: 'In the tradition of Alex from SF: hannubi habbisi ...'
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing Book
Review: This book quite simply blew me away. I've heard so much about it from so many people. But nothing could have prepared me for the experience of reading EII. It's not for everyone, but it's for anyone who cares about the power of fiction. You can read reviews, amazon comments, interviews with the author, but, even with all this, the book will surprise you in the best way. I laughed and cried and felt a thousand and one other things as I read. I can't say I've ever felt the power of a voice like JSF's. He is unique. I can't recommend this book and author enough. Enjoy!
Rating: 
Summary: not what is cracked up to be
Review: Because of a shorter version that appeared in the New Yorker, which amused me and the glowing acolades in the press for the novel, I purchased it.
What I thought would be a highly commic and intelligent book, read ultimately as a sloppy and ponderous relativistic work with elements of fantastic realism written in through various Jewish mystical plot devices. The book seems to beg the quantum mechanical question of observation, wondering ultimately about the validity of its own exposition. Truthfully, I couldn't care less.
The book felt like its first several chapters, which were tight, alive and funny, had been work-shopped to a Tee. The rest of the book just didn't hold up structurally.
I think Foer is an amazing talent, and the bredth of his imagination and ambition should be commended. There are areas of incredible insight throughout. I think his use of comedy in the first several chapters (the short story) did him a disservice later in the book when he asked us dramatically sympathize with the main character. What ultimately killed the book for me, however, was that the main charaters were not developed fully in non-comic or non-fantastical situations. I found them onedimensionalandubsurd. And I personally can't stand, what I think is, a cop-out, post-modern, mid-sentence ending.
I hope that he has ground his ax with this work, and he will now create some characters that I care about and want to follow through a cohesive a well developed story. I'de read it.
Rating:
Summary: one day he'll regret it
Review: Jonathan Safran Foer is clearly smart and creative, and there are parts of his first novel that are wonderful. As a whole, however, the thing doesn't hold together. At its best, it's enjoyable; at its worst, it's pretentious and embarrassing. He tries to write with a world-wearied wisdom, but that "wisdom" is just the self-satisfied musings of a kid who doesn't realize yet how young he really is. The whole thing screams "college writing seminar." I'm not saying there's a minimum age for great writing. I think it's possible for someone a lot younger than Foer to write something brilliant; Foer just hasn't. Everyone's always on the lookout for the next big thing. Maybe Foer is it. There's enough great material in this book that you wouldn't laugh in the face of anyone who said so. But, if it's true, "Everything Is Illuminated" is a prologue, one that Foer will probably look back at one day and wish he'd waited just a little longer.
Rating:
Summary: Tears and Laughter
Review: You will experience plenty of both in this amazing first novel.
Yes, the author sometimes shows his lack of maturity, and I wish he would have used his filters a little better, but overall the technique he uses to tell a rather complex tale spanning over generations is something I have not seen before. We should expect great things from this author.
Rating:
Summary: The Real Thing
Review: There's a lot to say about this book, and there's a lot I could say to respond to some of the reviews on here. But it all boils down to this: Jonathan Foer has written a uniquely wonderful, hearfelt, beautiful, and exceptionally well-written novel. It's not about Ukraine and Ukrainians. It's not about cheap tricks and jokes at others' expense. There is such an genuine humility and humanity displayed in this novel. It is, after all, the character Jonathan Safran Foer, not the Ukrainian Alex, who is made fun of, who is educated by Alex. To read the book as "American makes fun of Ukraine" so simply is to miss the true beauty of it. Foer sets out to trace the quiet ways the past leaves its mark on the present. He's dealing with a Jew's search for his family's history during the Holocuast, but the book is so much more. It's about love. It's about how we both connect to the past and free ourselves from it. And most of all Foer has written a book about Life in its most expansive, generous sense. The novel has such vitality, such breadth of compassion, embracing the connectedness of each of us to the rest of the world, past and present and future. We are all of us writing ourselves into time. This is by far one of the best novels I've read in years. It sometimes goes overboard, betrays a slight immaturity, but this is so easily forgiven by the experience of the book as a whole. I have never laughed so hard and cried so much reading a novel. And Foer provokes this reaction through honest, deep writing, not silly bathetic devices. It's the profound engagement with loss, love, friendship, the power of humor in the face of horror, that leaves its mark. And, yeah, it's all the more remarkable that Foer is only 24. But don't fixate on his age or the attention he's getting. You will not regret giving this book a try, I guarantee you. It will change you. It's that good.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing Debut - Illuminating To Say The Least
Review: I want to pick at this book, to poke at holes and make fun, but I simply can't. This riveting, hilarious, deeply disturbing and sad book is not like anything I've ever read. I don't know higher praise. Yes, it is precocious and agile like A HEARTBREAKING WORK OF SHATTERING GENIUS; the self-referential style is also reminiscent of David Foster Wallace (although without the footnotes). But it is something all of its own, and although reviews may try to describe it, the only way to capture what is great about it is to read it. You can believe the reviews that say it tells two stories, intertwined, and that that they eventually converge in surprising ways. But that doesn't begin to scratch the surface of the achievement here, and I can't adequately encourage the serious reader to dive into every dense paragraph and find all the delights that are there. This is not an easy read, but it is so rewarding, both in its comic highs and tragic lows, that to miss it is to miss out. I just closed it, and couldn't wait to let anybody who might care know that they should rush to it; it is worth the rush.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Recently Published Novels
Review: ...It seems that most of the people that did not like this book were too challenged by it and many did not even bother to finish it. If you want to read something that is transparent and one-dimensional check out the new John Grisham novel. However, if you wish to read something more complex that requires an involved reader you might want to read this book. It was a lot of fun reading this novel because one moment I would be laughing like crazy and then the next moment I would be on the verge of tears.
It is not everyday that I encounter such great literature (especially contemporary literature) and when I do it is such a great discovery. I am very glad I read this book. For Foer I think this may be the start of a very promising career. I am already looking forward to his next work.
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