I had this book waiting in my stack of to-reads for at least four years, but never felt like reading it. Now, after finally starting and finishing it, I am really glad I did, because I really enjoyed it and I think it's worth a read for everyone who has it also in a waiting position :)

At the beginning of this novel, I had a rather hard time getting into it, but after a rocky start, I was literally drawn into the story! I loved the playful makeup and appearance of the book, with a few graphic design elements and pictures here and there. The story of Oskar's family is an extraordinary one, reaching back to WWII, and building a bridge to the early 2000s and 9/11, loaded with personal difficulties and burdens, but also love and joy.

It was not the feeling of completeness I so needed, but the feeling of not being empty.

 

Jonathan Safran Foer

 

April 16, 2002: Jonathan Safran Foer's bestselling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, is published.

DNF!!!!!

 

This just isn't working for me at the moment. I haven't read it for a while now and I can't bring myself to get back into it. This doesn't mean that the book or the writing is bad, it's just not the right book for me right now.

Here I Am - Jonathan Safran Foer

A special thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This novel completely got away from me and I didn't want to continue with it. I did eventually finish but it took me a few months to get through this book because I always complete the books I have committed to reviewing.

Foer is a wonderful writer, he really is, which is why this book threw me for such a loop. I was enjoying the storyline of the dissolution of Jacob and Julia's marriage, well, I guess as much as you can enjoy being a witness to something so painful. The writing was raw, tender, and so good. It started to unravel anytime any of their three children came into the scene–are there really kids that are that precocious? Foer introduces a natural disaster which is incredibly distracting. He draws the readers attention not only away from Jacob and Julia, but manages to draw the reader right out of the book. He should have simply stuck with this storyline and left it at that. Not only would he have greatly reduced the number of pages (this is a whopping book at just shy of 600 pages), but the story would've flowed so much better. I literally felt like a dog chasing its tail.