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Feeling attached to a story does not happen to me often. It happened with Gabriel Garcia Marquez' "One Hundred Years of Solitude", a novel I felt a close bond with before, during, and after reading it. It was a book that hit me in the soul. It recently happened with "Tuesdays with Morrie", a book which tapped into my limbic system, poked around in that area of my brain and produced various unexpected emotions.

I first learned of "Everything is Illuminated" when I saw (and loved) the trailer of Liev Schreiber's movie adaptation, starring Elijah Wood as Jonathan Safran Foer, a young American jewish man traveling to Ukraine looking for the woman who had saved his grandfather during WW2. He is surrounded by three strange companions: a young man named Alex who has the habit of transforming English into a bizarre robotic language; Alex's 'blind' grandfather who is in charge of driving (yes) and Sammy Davis Jr. Jr., an aggressive and disgusting little dog.

Ever since seeing a part of that trailer, I knew I wanted to see the movie. ("You don't eat no meat? What is WRONG with you?" ...something I have heard so often while traveling to other countries myself.)

I could relate, and felt a connection to the movie. I was delighted (yes) when I discovered it was based on a book by this Jonathan Safran Foer. And since I prefer reading books before watching the movie, I went into a bookstore and bought it, treasuring it until it felt right to read it. That time came around Christmas, when I developed a sinus infection and my laptop's harddisk crashed.

Mom and I were sitting downstairs, watching a silly French movie about boy scouts making a mess of everything that came across them. Funny as that movie was, I was curious after Everything is Illuminated, opened it, and got through the first 4 pages - Alexander's introduction.

Already I had laughed so often, my mother thought I was either really enjoying this silly French Scouts de France! movie, or I developed a peculiar way of coughing as part of my being ill. "No mom. This book... it's just so funny." My dad came downstairs at a given point and also wondered what was with the weird coughing. "Are you all right, Kaatje?," he asked. "Aw, dad, sure. This book... it's just so funny." It really was.

When I finished the book, I read the praise at the beginning of the book. One of the quotes exactly matched my sentiments, and I will quote it back here: "It's hard to get through the first chapters of Everything is Illuminated. The problem is, you keep laughing out loud, losing your place, starting again, then stopping because you're tempted to call your friends and read them long sections of Foer's assured, hilarious prose." (New York Times Book Review)

In a nutshell, that is the core of my own review, which now appears to have become redundant simply by quoting the New York Times. But this is exactly how I felt, and how I experienced this book. Only instead of wanting to call friends, I was so tempted to tell my mom (who shares my sense of humor) what I was reading and what was so funny. At some points, I actually did. Now mom wants to see the movie. Badly.

Apart from the humor in this story, apparent in the movie trailer, what also made me love this book is the absolutely hideous English spoken by Alex, where 'big words' are used in the wrong context all the time. Usually bad grammar and bad spelling annoy me and exhaust me so usually i just stop reading (if I want to puzzle, I'll grab a puzzlebook), but for this book the mangled English was exactly right. I found that all the parts Alex narrated were the best and the funniest and I read it all laughing out loud and with pleasure, never bored by the same errors in grammar and semantics.

As for the general review of the story: I'm amazed at how Jonathan Safran Foer pulled this off. Often you find books that are good but that lack a certain oomph! that makes the book a great book. The combination of blunt humor, the charm of Trachimbrod, the realistic disappointments and the gripping horrors of war made sure "Everything is Illuminated" had at least one oomph! in there.

The book ended sadly in more ways than one. The Trachimbrod people met with a terrible fate. Jonathan's search ended in disappointment. And Alex found tragedy in his own life. But the sadness compliments the humor, and vice versa. They dance with one and other in a powerful, playful, angry, clashing, emotional, passionate and lively lover's tango. And you know what they say about the tango: it takes two. The ballroom is correctly chosen. The music is perfect. And the dancers, Comedy and Tragedy, are a match made in heaven.

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