Literature Spotlight: Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Everything is Illuminated”

I’ve only seen parts of the movie adaptation of Johnathan Safran Foer’s “Everything Is Illuminated,” but the few segments I did see were humorous, moving, and intelligent.

The actual novel is just as brilliant.  The story is told on three levels.  There is the family history/mythology of the protagonist’s Jewish ancestry, which is recounted with rich, mystical, and often hilariously flippant language.  There is also the story of the protagonist’s journey to locate a Ukranian woman who helped his grandfather escape the nazis in World War II, which is told by the protagonist’s tour guide.  And finally, there are letters between the protagonist and his tour guide concerning the complex and layered story they are weaving together.

The protagonist also happens to have the exact same name as the author of the novel, which makes me wonder how much of the story is based on actual events and whether the letters throughout the book are actual documents of correspondence.  But there is no co-author listed, which leads me to believe that the storyline is mostly (if not fully) a product of Foer’s innovative storytelling ability.

I’m only halfway through the book, so the three layers still seem unconnected to an extent, but based on what I’ve heard from friends and the parallels I’ve drawn thus far, I’m certain that all the elements of the story are going to intersect and overlap seamlessly.

Literature Spotlight: Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road”

I’ve been meaning to read Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road” every since Joelle shared her review of the book with my entertainment journalism class at the beginning of this semester.  The plot sounded frightfully enthralling.

After taking a week to get through the first 40 pages, I flew through the last 250 in only a couple of days.

The book takes place in a post-apocalyptic America and centers around a father and son struggling to survive as they tread through the charred remains of their homeland.  But finding the bare essentials of food and water are not their only troubles, as they must also evade lawless bands of cannibals.

The text itself isn’t divided into chapters and McCarthy often disregards standard convention such as punctuation.  Alongside the sparse dialogue throughout the book, these elements all match perfectly the desolate landscape described throughout the novel.

“The Road” offers a terrifying yet sobering glimpse of the delicate nature of the world and forces readers to ask themselves:  In a world without repercussions for terrifyingly immoral behavior, can goodness be preserved?