Books

by Jonathan Safran Foer

It took me a long time to read this book, but I did enjoy it. The story is told in fragments and is sometimes difficult to follow, but once I caught up to the time and place of a given passage, I was engaged and eager to find out what would happen.

The story is about the discoveries made by an American Jew who returns to the Ukraine in the present to locate the woman who saved the life of his grandfather during the Nazi invasion of WWII. A good portion of the text is in the form of letters written to the American after his return to the US by his Ukrainian translator. The fluid yet misused language of these letters can be confusing, but once I found the rhythm of them, they were very amusing.

Though this story was destined to end in tragedy (the tragedy of the war, the tragedy of the atrocities committed by friend in order to survive the war, the tragedy of having to cope with these atrocities...) it was also illuminating (revealing truth, discovering strength, displaying courage).