Here I Am
A monumental new novel from the bestselling author of Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer's Here I Am
How do we fulfill our conflicting duties as father, husband, and son; wife and mother; child and adult? Jew and American? How can we claim our own identities when our lives are linked so closely to others'? These are the questions at the heart of Jonathan Safran Foer's first novel in eleven years--a work of extraordinary scope and heartbreaking intimacy.
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Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer
571 pages
What’s it about?
Jacob Bloch is a middle-aged Jewish man living with his wife Julia and their three sons in the DC area. This book covers 4 weeks in Jacob's life. We see Jacob's inner turmoil as he struggles with the life he has, versus the life he had hoped to have. As the pressure builds in Jacob and Julia's relationship, a conflict also builds in the Middle East. Is it possible for an individual to completely be there for another person? Is it possible for a nation to take care of itself, and also fulfill it's responsibility to the rest of the world? These are just a couple of the questions this novel presents.
What did it make me think about?
I have found all of Jonathan Safron Foers' novels challenging. To clarify, Foers' novels are not difficult to read, but they challenge me to think. This novel explores Jewish angst to a degree I have not seen. Jacob's mind is always questioning, always anxious, and sometimes all this angst becomes exhausting as a reader. In my humble estimation this book just misses the mark of greatness. The book is filled with thoughtful questions, great writing, and a decent plot, but it sometimes feels buried underneath too many superfluous pages. Having said that- it is still a very good book.
Should I read it?
Patience will be required if you choose to read this book, but you will be richly rewarded if you get through all 571 pages. This novel was thought-provoking, heartbreaking, humorous, and always insightful. Jacob Bloch would wear me out as a friend, and often wore me out as a literary character, but I won't soon forget him.
Quote-
When a book has a dozen quotes that are achingly beautiful-you know the author is special. I finally settled on these two quotes.
"But he didn't say anything, and neither did she. Not because the words were deliberately withheld, but because the pipe line between them was too occluded for such bravery. Too many small accumulations: wrong words, absences of words, imposed quiet, plausibly deniable attacks on known vulnerabilities, mentions of things that needn't be mentioned, misunderstandings and accidents, moments of weakness, tiny acts of shitty retribution for tiny acts of shitty retribution for tiny acts of shitty retribution for an original offense that no one could remember. Or for no offense at all."
" 'Closeness', he said surveying the congregation. 'It's easy to be close, but almost impossible to stay close. Think about friends. Think about hobbies. Even ideas. They're close to us – sometimes so close we think they are part of us- and then, at some point they aren't close anymore. They go away. Only one thing can keep something close over time: holding it there. Grappling with it. Wrestling to the ground, as Jacob did with the angel, and refusing to let go. What we don't wrestle we let go of. Love isn't the absence of struggle. Love is struggle.' "
If you like this try-
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer
571 pages
What’s it about?
Jacob Bloch is a middle-aged Jewish man living with his wife Julia and their three sons in the DC area. This book covers 4 weeks in Jacob's life. We see Jacob's inner turmoil as he struggles with the life he has, versus the life he had hoped to have. As the pressure builds in Jacob and Julia's relationship, a conflict also builds in the Middle East. Is it possible for an individual to completely be there for another person? Is it possible for a nation to take care of itself, and also fulfill it's responsibility to the rest of the world? These are just a couple of the questions this novel presents.
What did it make me think about?
I have found all of Jonathan Safron Foers' novels challenging. To clarify, Foers' novels are not difficult to read, but they challenge me to think. This novel explores Jewish angst to a degree I have not seen. Jacob's mind is always questioning, always anxious, and sometimes all this angst becomes exhausting as a reader. In my humble estimation this book just misses the mark of greatness. The book is filled with thoughtful questions, great writing, and a decent plot, but it sometimes feels buried underneath too many superfluous pages. Having said that- it is still a very good book.
Should I read it?
Patience will be required if you choose to read this book, but you will be richly rewarded if you get through all 571 pages. This novel was thought-provoking, heartbreaking, humorous, and always insightful. Jacob Bloch would wear me out as a friend, and often wore me out as a literary character, but I won't soon forget him.
Quote-
When a book has a dozen quotes that are achingly beautiful-you know the author is special. I finally settled on these two quotes.
"But he didn't say anything, and neither did she. Not because the words were deliberately withheld, but because the pipe line between them was too occluded for such bravery. Too many small accumulations: wrong words, absences of words, imposed quiet, plausibly deniable attacks on known vulnerabilities, mentions of things that needn't be mentioned, misunderstandings and accidents, moments of weakness, tiny acts of shitty retribution for tiny acts of shitty retribution for tiny acts of shitty retribution for an original offense that no one could remember. Or for no offense at all."
" 'Closeness', he said surveying the congregation. 'It's easy to be close, but almost impossible to stay close. Think about friends. Think about hobbies. Even ideas. They're close to us – sometimes so close we think they are part of us- and then, at some point they aren't close anymore. They go away. Only one thing can keep something close over time: holding it there. Grappling with it. Wrestling to the ground, as Jacob did with the angel, and refusing to let go. What we don't wrestle we let go of. Love isn't the absence of struggle. Love is struggle.' "
If you like this try-
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
This is by far the most emotionally charged and uncomfortably poignant book I have read this year in its portrayal of love in its many forms, and absence of love in its many forms, and the fragile bridge of trust we walk in creating or destroying that love. I also learned a lot about Judaism, and I thought the context of four generations of Jews living in both America and Israel added a dimension to an otherwise beautiful story that made it almost magical. I recommend this book to everyone. All humans. But maybe if you're going through a divorce and are feeling a little down on yourself, wait a bit.
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