May 13, 2010

Nonrequired Reading: 015: Everything Is Illuminated



"Fearing his frequent deficiencies of memory, he began writing fragments of his life story on his bedroom ceiling with one of Brod's lipsticks that he found wrapped in a sock in her desk drawer. That way, his life would be the first thing he would see when he awoke each morning, and the last thing before going to sleep each night. You used to be married, but she left you, above his bureau. You hate green vegetables, at the far end of the ceiling. You are a sloucher, where the ceiling met the door. You don't believe in an afterlife, written in a circle around the hanging lamp. He never wanted Brod to know how much like a sheet of glass his mind had become, how it would steam with confusion, how thoughts skated off it, how he couldn't understand so many of the things she told him, how he often forgot his name, and, like a small part of him dying, even hers."

Jonathon Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated, 83-84

3 comments:

Beck said...

Loved the movie... this excerpt makes me think I'd love the book even more.

Josh Jackson said...

I'm almost finished with it!

I loved it from the very beginning and if you liked the movie, I'd bet that you love the book as well. Once I blocked Elijah Wood from my brain, I liked it even more. :)

BTW, Foer wrote one of my all time favorite books - "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" - it's worth checking out as well.

Of course, his other book, "Eating Animals" finally pushed me into vegetarian territory as well.

I'd like to meet this chap one day...

Nathan Crawford said...

I'm reading the book right now and I find it fantastic. I love the language and the movement of stories. Great stuff - and this excerpt was one of my favorite passages.

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