Not quite everything illuminated here

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Safran Foer, Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 2002.

Great Idea. Surprisingly Important. Impossibly celebrated. Fabulously disappointing. I don't read much fiction, so perhaps not knowing better I suffered through this novel. My wife had started to read it, in order to understand my obsessive interest, and she wisely put it down before the end. Then as I sank my eyes into the pages and exuded criticism from behind the cover, she rolled her eyes at me. (I just know she did.)

This is an example of the rare case of the movie being better than the book.

The book is an historical sweep of a fictional Jewish shtetl in Ukraine. One problem is that there are historical inaccuracies and implausibilities, such as 17th century peasants chain smoking cigarettes. Sorry, tobacco was not affordable to the working masses until the wide spread use of the steam ship in the late 1800s and cigarettes were not common until industrialization. Also this holocaust novel depicts a German general directing an einsatzgrup in the extermination of a Jewish village. No. They would be led by lower ranking officers. It is because the history of the holocaust is so important that I make this point. It is not enough to remember, but to remember well. Speaking of which, Foer has a fascinating musing on what he characterizes as the Jewish approach to memory. I am paraphrasing here, but he says Jews have six senses; the normal 5 plus memory. "How does this smell, taste, feel, look like, and how does this remember?" That is an interesting thought. I suppose that this theory of remembering expalins Foer's indifference to historical accuracy. As a literary device, I would be very willing to accept the novel's anachronisms. However, I have a harder time forgiving Foer's use of destructive stereotypes and shallow development of some of his characters. In particular, the pivotal character of "the Gypsy Girl," whose actions over several chapters is formative to the named character Safran, is described as nothing more than the rootless mistress and grass lying sexual servant to the main character's grandfather. As this novel is written, it is important that this "Gypsy Girl" evinces Safran's first orgasm. Her name, however, or family or cultural complexity is not so much as alluded to in the scores of pages she inhabits. I think this is an disgusting and irresponsible dehumanization of a very set upon people in Eastern Europe, who were side by side victims of the holocaust with the Jews. This I don't forgive. JSF, your topic and technique are fascinating, and deserve so much to be written well. Please, at the very least, take an interest in what you youself are writing about.

Cover art to More Sundry Poems

Pencil sketch of Liam, which will be the cover to More Sundry Poems, my newest collection. He isn't really cross eyed.