“Everything Is Illuminated” by Jonathan Safran Foer
因为太喜欢这本书了，我都不知道从何写起。
作者Jonathan Safran Foer实在太强了，他写这本小说的时候才二十出头。 小说以他自己大学时去乌克兰寻根的实际经验为蓝本，以书信和小说章节两条情节交织拧麻花。
其中一条线以乌克兰大学生Alex給Jonathan的书信为文体，叙述了Jonathan的乌克兰之旅，而着蹩脚英文的Alex正是他的导游兼翻译，Alex不苟言笑的爷爷则是司机。 他们的目的地就是Jonathan爷爷的故乡－－一个在乌克兰和波兰边界的犹太小村Trachimbrod，当纳粹来临之际，全村的犹太人被集体屠杀，只有Jonathan爷爷在一位俄国少女Augustine的帮助下幸免于难。 Alex那支离破碎的英文真是又可笑又可爱，加上乌美两国的文化差异，还有Alex的政治不正确（“But I dig Negroes. I dig them all the way.” ），叫人忍不住捧腹大笑。
而另一条线则是Jonathan寄給Alex的小说手稿，这些章节是以Trachimbrod祖祖辈辈村民的记忆之书（传奇）为本，讲述了这个已消失的村落被纳粹铲平前150年的历史。 就像很多俄国作品，这些传奇故事充满了魔幻和想象力，爱和哀伤，希望和绝望，暴力和温柔，都那样鲜明地在时间长河里流淌交融，即使荒诞夸张得令人匪夷所思，背后的真情仍敲击我们心灵深处最柔软的暗角。
两条麻花拧啊拧，最后终于融合一处，真相大白，everything is illuminated，却是那么的沉重，令人心碎。
这本书太奇妙了，叫人读的时候忍不住笑，读完忍不住哭，内心激荡，久久不息。
Quotes:
“I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is. But now I think the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world.”
“Please be truthful, but also please be benevolent, please.”
“...This is a kiss. It is what happens when lips are puckered and pressed against something, sometimes other lips, sometimes a cheek, sometimes something else. It depends...This is my heart. You are touching it with your left hand, not because you are left-handed, although you might be, but because I am holding it against my heart. What you are feeling is the beating of my heart. It is what keeps me alive.”
“It is not a thing that you can imagine. It only is. After that, there can be no imagining.”
“In the water I saw my father's face, and that face saw the face of its father, and so on, and so on, reflecting backward to the beginning of time, to the face of God, in whose image we were created.”
“The Eskimos have four hundred words for snow, and the Jews have four hundred for schmuck.”
“Everyone performs bad actions. I do. Father does. Even you do. A bad person is someone who does not lament his bad actions.”
