Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

3 reviews

shieldbearer's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I can see why this book  didn't do it for a lot of people- the writing was experimental, the characters were almost caricactures. But that's the point, and there's a lot this novel has to say about the nature of history, of memory, and how the two entwine. 

If nothing else, this quote is the soul of the story: 
<quote> "Why do we not make the story more premium than life? It seems to me that we are making the story even inferior. We often make ourselves appear as though we are foolish people, and we make our voyage, which was an ennobled voyage, appear very normal and second rate. We could give your grandfather two arms, and could make him high-fidelity. We could give Brod what she deserves in the stead of what she gets. We could even find Augustine, Jonathan, and you could thank her, and Grandfather and I could embrace, and it could be perfect and beautiful, and funny, and usefully sad, as you say. We could even write your grandmother into your story. This is what you desire, yes? Which makes me think that perhaps we could write Grandfather into the story. Perhaps, and I am only uttering this, we could have him save your grandfather. He could be Augustine. August, perhaps. Or just Alex, if that is satisfactory to you. I do not think that there are any limits to how excellent we could make life seem.” </quote>

I have so many thoughts and feelings about this, and how it relates to the repeated urge of an audience to erode away the uncomfortable or sad aspects of literature- the "fan" response to Brokeback Mountain comes to mind. There is a lot of not so "premium" things in the novel, and this is the point the author is trying to make. 

My one real sticking point is the Romani girl. I truly feel as if she could have been handled better, especially as shes' the only Romani character in the novel, and the establishment that her family was abusive on top of that does put a bitter taste in my mouth, and not in the bracing way I got from the rest of the novel. 
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flashandoutbreak's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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leilorenzo's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

There's one trigger warning after the next. They might not (always) be described in perfect detail, but they are there. I tried my best to include them all.

 
The back and forth narration (it took me an embarrassingly long time to notice the chapter title’s format, oops) was a great tool.  The characters were left vulnerable to the reader thanks to being vulnerable to each other in their correspondence. 
I found SO many gems throughout it that practically every page has some annotation.
It is a strong punch delivered so beautifully that you don’t realize it until the book's last third.
The use of language was crafted just right, entwining humour with tragedy, and laughter amidst the terror. 
It is now proudly resting on my favourite’s shelf.

 
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