Everything is Illuminated: Cultural Learnings of Trachimbrod for Make Benefit Glorious Book Club

we have very premium episode for you this week. welcoming special guest Nicole (@elocinationn), one of the great up-and-coming poasters of our time.

We revisit one of her younger self's favourite books, Jonathan Safran Foer's ambitious 2002 novel Everything is Illuminated.

On being disconnected from history: can you be traumatised by losing connection with your past? how reliable is our conception of history anyway? can the stories we tell ourselves be 'truer than true'? do we care about our own family genealogies? what are the challenges of trying to write about the Holocaust as a third-generation survivor?

Foer's incredible ambition: How derivative is this book? does it really matter? Who are Foer's postmodernist forebears, and what did he do differently? Should more young authors try to swing for the fences like this?

Plus we stumble upon the inspiration for borat, find out who invented the gloryhole, and MORE

CHAPTERS

(00:00:00) intro and why we chose the book
(00:07:10) Alex as the proto-borat
(00:25:50) playing at happy families with Brod and Yankel
(00:33:56) traumatic impact of being disconnected from history
(00:46:42) Lista and Alex's grandad: survivor guilt
(01:02:21) Brod and the Kolker's violent love
(01:16:00) Jonathan's grandad finally achieves release
(01:28:10) Truth of fact, truth of feeling redux
(01:35:53) How original is this book? mapping influences and forebears
(01:52:18) final thoughts

 

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NEXT ON THE READING LIST:

• One Hundred Days of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez