"The women...who are taller than me are lesbians, for whom 1969 was a very momentous year"

[HamdenRice]

"I dig Negroes, particularly Michael Jackson. I dig to disseminate very much currency at famous nightclubs in Odessa. . . Many girls want to be carnal with me in many good arrangements . . ."

"<Mother said,> 'I mount the autobus for an hour to work all day doing things I hate. You want to know why? It is for you, Alex-stop-spleening-me! One day you will do things for me that you hate. That is what it means to be a family.'"

This weekend, I started "Everything is Illuminated," by Jonathan Safran Foer. I've read the first short chapter about 3 times, laughing out loud each time, but was too busy to move on.

Also, I would say that the critical rap on this book rings true: The parts written in the bizarre, English-as-a-second-language voice of Alex are wonderful and as soon as you hit the parts written in the voice of Jonathan, it's like hitting a brick wall.

[seemunkee]

1. Have you seen the movie

The movie was good, wondering how it compares to the book

[HamdenRice]

2. The movie was good and terrible

I did see the movie, and the Roma rap musician who played Alex was astoundingly good and funny. As I read, he is definitely Alex in my mind.

I thought the movie was ruined, however, by the stupefyingly bad performance by Elijah Wood. His characterization of Jonathan consisted of staring into the camera with a single expression on his face for the entire hour and a half. It was a bizarre choice by either the actor or the director or both.

The eastern European actors and actresses ran away with the film, however, and it's worth seeing it for their performances.

Incidentally, the book is really two stories -- Jonathan's and Alex's search for Trachimbrod related by Alex, and Jonathan's telling a series of Yiddish folktale-like stories.

The movie dispensed entirely with the Yiddish folktale part of the book.

[JackintheGreen]

3. The 'actor' who played Alex

is Eugene Hutz (with an umlaut), the lead singer of Gogol Bordello. He was originally tapped to do some music for the film but hit it off with the producer(?) enough that he got asked to read. I though it was a great choice! I hope to see him act more, but only if it doesn't take away from the band - which is better still.

[HamdenRice]

4. What was Elijah Wood thinking?

I agree with you about Hutz. But what on earth was Wood thinking? Or was it the director? That was one of the flattest performances I've ever seen.

[JackintheGreen]

5. Seriously

It was one of the most moving books I've ever read (or maybe I'm just getting softer as I age), and one of the least moving performances. Maybe Elijah was just living up to his name, 'cuz he sure was wooden.

[jemappellesuzie]

6. this book

is soo funny!