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Book Review of Everything Is Illuminated

Everything Is Illuminated
Naiche avatar reviewed on + 91 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 4


It's an interesting idea, and I liked the concept of this conversation between writers, but the book didn't come together for me at all. I kept being annoyed by little things and getting thrown out of the story of the book. The worst part was the faked bad English, which was very badly faked. I kept stopping reading and I would think to myself "there's no way someone learning English could make a mistake like this - you have to already know English well to draw this connection." I also disliked the contrast between the absurdist shetl faux family history and the realistic Ukranian search for family history - I don't mind absurdism, but the contrast made that whole side of the story seem really pointless.