Everything is Illuminated

Today begins my "F" book. This is my "F" week...in actuality, if I were on track, it should be "H," but here I am. This book comes from recommendation from my friend John who works in Evanston's Barnes and Noble. He really enjoys the works of this author and has attended speakings and signings.

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer is my choice for this week. John said it was wonderful. Once again, I am entering unknown territory. I have no clue about Foer's writing and only know that he is requested for his book Eating Animals on numerous occasions at Barnes.

The only aspect of this book that I think I can ascertain is that it is about Jewish people. Now, I could be wrong, but by reading the back cover, it seems to be so. The part that makes this so special is that Skokie, the area in which I work, contains the largest population of Holocaust survivors in the world outside of Warsaw. My neighborhood, Rogers Park, and the one next door, West Ridge is even largely Jewish. Upon arriving in Chicago, Judaism was something I only knew on the surface, now, it is in the everyday. I serve Jewish families all day everyday. South Carolina only has a handful of Jewish people. Skokie, in fact, is home to the Illinois Holocaust Museum which is situated on Golf Road near the intersection of Skokie Boulevard. I am happy to be in an area rich with religious diversity. I would love to go to a synagogue one day and really experience Jewish culture. It is amazing to drive down Touhy Ave on a Saturday morning and see the Jewish men, women and kids making their pilgrimage to the synagogue. It is unlike anything I have seen. They are adorned in trench coats, hats, black polished shoes, yamacas and dresses. This is not Adam Sandler Jewish.

Jonathan Safron Foer born in Washington, DC in 1977. He is Jewish and from what I just read based this book on his maternal grandfather whom he never met. As a child, Foer was considered sort of an outcast. He liked to write, this hobby eventually taking him right to Princeton to study with Joyce Carol Oates. She took an interest in him and inspired him to continue doing as he was doing. He is an occasional vegetarian...kosher...this helped with the book Eating Animals. Upon graduation from Princeton in 1999, he moved to Ukraine to expand on his senior thesis which was about the life of his grandfather. Everything is Illuminated was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2002. It won National Jewish Book Award and the Guardian First Book Award. Foer wrote the libretto to Seven Attempted Escapes from Silence which premiered at the Berlin Opera September 14, 2005. His first time teaching writing was at Princeton in 2008 and now he teaches as a professor of Creative Writing in graduate studies at New York University. He lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Nicole Krauss and two children.

Everything is Illuminated was turned into a movie by Liev Schreiber, my look-alike and starred Elijah Wood.
I will report the beginnings of this book this evening.

Time to go to Gap.