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Triumphant Return With a New Novel

To a world that, despite his best-selling books and major movies of the millennium’s first decade, had moved on without him, Jonathan Safran Foer has recently announced, “Here I Am.”

In 2002, when Foer published his first novel, “Everything Is Illuminated,” at the age of 25, he earned a lot of attention. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” in 2005, made him a household name. Both novels were adapted for the silver screen, and Foer kept writing, publishing the nonfiction book “Eating Animals,” conceiving the half-novel-half-artwork “Tree of Codes” and editing a new Haggadah.

What he didn’t produce was another novel — that is, until now. In September, Foer, now 39, released his much-anticipated third novel, his first in 11 years: “Here I Am.” The gargantuan book, which covers the destruction of Israel and breakup of a Washington, D.C., couple’s marriage, earned mixed reviews. Speaking to the Forward in August, Foer mentioned that he’s questioned what actual value his work as a novelist brings to the world. With “Here I Am,” some critics and readers affirmed that value, while others, with varying degrees of aggravation, responded by encouraging more such questions.

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Regardless of which side you took, what’s incontestable is that Foer is one of the most prominent American Jewish writers working today. At its heart, his work, which has a heterogeneous audience, engages with a scope of Jewish culture, history and practice and gives American Jews an insight into a part of their community. It also introduces each of those categories to a broader audience. It’s impossible to talk about contemporary American Jewish literature without talking about Foer, and for that, he deserves recognition.

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