Another one by Jonathan Safran Foer -- who writes in such a unique way, it is both a pleasure to read, but sometimes also challenging to stay fully engaged.
We follow two narrators, the young Ukrainian Alex, and our hero, the fictional (?) Jonathan Safran Foer himself, on a journey through Ukraine's countryside, trying to track down pieces from the past, from the 1940s, when terrible things happened here. Both their families somehow survived the war, and their paths seem very much entangled. The story is told by telling multiple stories at ones. From the early jewish Shtetl in the 18th century, over multiple generations of ancestors with their loves, affairs and other secrets.
The writing seems to follow a branched network of thoughts, a depth-first search through a mind map gathered over generations. Sometimes, it was hard to follow for me, but then we backtracked to a level where I could fully enjoy the story again.
Overall, I think this is another great book of his. Personally though, I would place it 3rd, after "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and "Eating Animals".
Another one by Jonathan Safran Foer -- who writes in such a unique way, it is both a pleasure to read, but sometimes also challenging to stay fully engaged.
We follow two narrators, the young Ukrainian Alex, and our hero, the fictional (?) Jonathan Safran Foer himself, on a journey through Ukraine's countryside, trying to track down pieces from the past, from the 1940s, when terrible things happened here. Both their families somehow survived the war, and their paths seem very much entangled. The story is told by telling multiple stories at ones. From the early jewish Shtetl in the 18th century, over multiple generations of ancestors with their loves, affairs and other secrets.
The writing seems to follow a branched network of thoughts, a depth-first search through a mind map gathered over generations. Sometimes, it was hard to follow for me, but then we backtracked to a level where I could fully enjoy the story again.
Overall, I think this is another great book of his. Personally though, I would place it 3rd, after "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and "Eating Animals".