And let me just say, Wow. Just wow. This book is a breathtaking journey into daring stylistic experimentation. I have never read anything like it, and probably there isn’t anything like it that exists. A must read for anyone interested in 9/11 fiction. Jonathan Safran Foer, I am in awe of your writing chops. Let me leave you with one of my favorite passages:

“My dream went all the way back to the beginning.

The rain rose into the clouds, and the animals descended the ramp.

Two by two.

Two giraffes.

Two spiders.

Two goats.

Two lions.

Two mice.

Two monkeys.

Two snakes.

Two elephants.

The rain came after the rainbow.

As I type this, we are sitting across from each other at a table. It’s not big, but it’s big enough for the two of us. He has a cup of coffee and I am drinking tea.

When the pages are in the typewriter, I can’t see his face.

In that way I am choosing you over him.

I don’t need to see him.

I don’t need to know if he is looking up at me.

It’s not even that I trust him not to leave.

I know this won’t last.

I’d rather be me than him.

The words are coming so easily.

The pages are coming easily.

At the end of my dream, Eve put the apple back on the branch. The tree went back into the ground. It became a sapling, which became a seed.

God brought together the land and the water, the sky and the water, the water and the water, evening and morning, something and nothing.

He said, Let there be light.

And there was darkness.” 

(P.S. I know I said I would leave you with the passage, but I can’t resist saying a little more. Safran Foer was one of the guest speakers at Calvin. I actually attended a session in which he explained some of his thoughts behind this very passage. Of course, since that was before I read the book, I didn’t really know what he was talking about and can’t really remember what he said. It would be immensely tragic, but thank God, and the good people of Calvin, for second chances. The audio recordings of the sessions are going to be sent out to everyone who attended, probably by the end of this week. I am beyond excited.)