I can't explain it any other way.

Hi.

I'm reading a book right now called Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer, and I'm really enjoying it. My earlier comment of "Read it now. Do it. DOOOO it!" didn't seem to cut it in the "This book is really interesting and engaing" department, and I've been wanting to express it, but words are failing me. So here's a mash up of conversations that I've had with myself and with Jenny about the book. I think these express more about how I feel about the book than a formal review. I love Jenny. She's great to talk to about these things.

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(p.s. The opening few lines were because I started out intending to write something else, but it came out as this. Meh, I still like them.)
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My lips hurt real bad!

I hate how dry it is right now. You'd think that drinking enormous amounts of water would help, but that just seems to make it worse.

Water drys you out.

How does that make sense?

It doesn't. It's just one of those things.

I hate those things.

They hate you.

Hmm, which would explain why they're always around.

Yeah.

This is a really great book.

What's it about?

It's hard to say. It's written in about three different styles, and each style has a different storyline, and all three storylines mesh up somehow. I think the main idea is this guy's family history.

Which guy?

The guy who wrote the book.

His actual family?

I think the character might just have the same name as him.

The writer?

Yeah. (pause) It's interesting.

I'm glad you're enjoying it.

Yeah, it's all sort of coming together. Like stuff that made no sense 90 pages ago is making sense now.

Like what?

Like why this woman seems to enjoy it when her husband beats her, and sees it as a gesture of love.

How's that?

Well, it's complicated. (pause) Way back about 100 pages ago when she was twelve, she was the centrepiece of a parade.

Centrepiece?

Like the festival queen.

Oh, ok.

And after this festival there's this huge sort of pagany ritual orgy.

With her?

No, no, no. She doesn't want to take part in it, so she goes home, but on the way home she meets up with the town's resident pervert and he rapes her.

Wow.

Yeah, it says something like he "makes a woman of her." And this was about 100 pages ago, and it was only one line and then they left it. She goes home to her father, who's not her real father by the way, and he's died while she was at the parade.

Geez.

Yeah, that's what I said. So while she's kind of in shock about it, she sees a man at the window, and he's saying he's in love with her, and that he wants her, and she says she'll kill herself, and he says if she does he'll just take her body. And she ends up marrying this guy and living with him for about six years, I think.

So, wait. She marries him, even though he's kind of... I don't know, he's-

Well, he's saying all these ridiculously creepy things to her-

Right-

And what she says, you know about 100 pages back is that he has to do something for her, but you don't find out what. So it's all being replayed now, and you find out that the guy she marries goes and kills and mutilates the pervert.

Oh, ha ha, ok.

Well, they're married for a while-

Wait. She's twelve?

Yeah. Well, it's all set in about 1791 or so-

Oh, ok. Gotcha.

Right, so they have three kids together by the time she's eighteen, which is when her husband dies.

And her husband is the guy at the window.

Yep. And while they're married he works at a mill. And one day there's a saw blade that gets loose and it's bouncing all around the mill, and it hits the guy in the head and gets lodged in his head, sticking straight up. I mean, he's ok and everything, like it just missed everything important.

So he lives with a, like a circular saw in his head?

Yeah, I know.

How big is it? Like is it a lumber mill?

Ha ha, no, it's a flour mill. I don't think it's very big blade, they don't say.

Ok, so now he's got this saw.

Right. And so the saw does something to his moods, like he has all these outbursts and he hits her a lot, only a little at first, but then it becomes like an everyday thing.

But she likes it?

I don't think it's that she likes it, it's more like she sees it as a gesture of love, which you can get because their relationship has always been defined by violence.

Because of what happened when they first met.

Right. Right, exactly. She says that she never loved him, and that makes sense, because he basically forced her to marry him, but before that happened she took charge of it all.

What all?

Well, like she knew that she wasn't going to be able to escape from him, because she's alone in a room with her dead father, and everyone else is having an orgy, and she's really vulnerable, and plus she's naked.

She's naked?

Yeah. Did I not mention that?

Ha ha, no! When did that happen?

When she got home! From the parade. She started to get changed, and she couldn't find her father, so she went to look for him.

Naked.

Yeah. 1791, remember.

Right, right.

Right. So she can't escape from this guy at the window, she may as well take control of it, and she tells him to kill the pervert who raped her. And when he does that, it's like a really twisted gesture of love.

So the- when he hits her, she associates the violence with an act of love.

Yeah. And it explains why she almost craves the beatings, and why she's so reluctant to sleep in seperate rooms when he can't control the way he treats her.

Wow. (pause) That's cool.

Yeah, it is. And everything is coming out like that. Everything right now is a major epiphany. The title is making so much more sense now. And I'm really liking how it was really funny at first, and now it's gotten all serious and rich, and deep. It's a really effective way of drawing me in, and making me want to read.

Yeah, it's like a clown crying or something.

How do you mean?

Well you pay more attention when soemthing it supposed to be one way and it's another. Like a clown is supposed to be funny and happy, but if he's sad it means something significant has happened.

Yeah, I guess so. Yeah, that's it exactly. (pause) This is a great book.

Yeah, it sounds good.