It all starts as a standard "big American romance": the Bloch family, consisting of several generations of American Jews, is preparing for the bar mitzvah of the eldest son (Sam, 13 years old), and such an alarming event for everyone is slowly shaking everything that is possible: Sam's parents and his brothers Jacob and Julia realize that they no longer want to be together, after 16 years of marriage, Isaac - Jacob's grandfather, guilty of the fact that all of them once turned out to be on the American continent, is not ready to move to a nursing home, Sam does not understand the meaning of the ceremony at all and does not consider himself a Jew, and no one is ready at all for the invasion of relatives from Israel and the "suddenly crept up" old age of the beloved golden retriever shitting in the house...
In line with the family novel, "Here I am" honestly works out the first 200 electronic pages filled with jokes, witty dialogues, funny reflections on the upbringing of children, the essence of marriage and one's own identity, and then somehow imperceptibly for the reader slips into a dull drudgery, sometimes trying to squeeze a smile out of the reader, but often unsuccessfully, the main theme of which becomes national identity.
The allegorical earthquake of the Bloch family is opposed by a very real earthquake in Israel and Palestine, which becomes a catalyst for a new conflict in the Middle East, because of which Israel asks all its sons to come to its aid. And here's the question: if you've been living in a cozy American house somewhere in Washington all your life, working as a screenwriter for a project like "Game of Thrones", driving a Subaru and Shabbat is just an opportunity for you to finally have a day off with your family, should you, who are used to saying "we" when it comes to Jews around the world, rush headlong to a new hot spot? Or is it time to divide this "we" into "we" and "they", or even "I" and "they"? And if who "they" are is more or less clear, then who is this suddenly turned out "I"?
"Here I am" is a phrase borrowed by Foer from the Old Testament, where Abraham says it, ready to appear before God and do whatever is required (in general, sacrifice Isaac, but it's better to shh!), without any reservations, asterisks and small font at the bottom of the page. This is, on the one hand, full readiness for everything that God / fate / life has prepared for you, on the other hand, awareness and understanding of yourself, your integrity, your meaning and purpose.
The question "who are you?" drives me into an absolute stupor for the last at least ten years of my life (by the way, it's strange, but children can somehow answer it in such a way that everything suits them), so the need for Foer Jacob to deal with it is quite understandable, after all, how to raise children, how to instill some values in them when you don't know and don't understand anything about yourself. But, unfortunately, Foer drove the issues of family, career, his own desires and undeclared, unrealized needs and everything else as far as possible, bringing the issue of national identity to the fore, and sometimes putting it in such a way that I want to paraphrase Fyodor Mikhailovich and give out on behalf of Jacob: am I a trembling creature or a Jew after all?
And with all my respect for Jewish culture, history and the fate of the nation, after another hundred pages of musing on this topic, I already began to feel sick from it: well, no other people is so fixated on themselves, honestly, and so does not separate themselves from others with all their might, while accusing others of misunderstanding, bitterness and other negative attacks in their direction.
As a family novel, "Here I am" I absolutely did not like, there is nothing behind the statement of some facts, as if the symptoms of the disease in the medical record, there is nothing, no story happened. Although from time to time Foer describes what is happening in the lives of Julia and Sam, and not just Jacob, it feels like every time he talks about the same thing: Julia, she is 44, she sometimes wants to escape from her family, but does not understand the reasons, but Sam, he is a typical teenager who prefers the virtuality of reality, and although he soon has a bar mitzvah, he does not define himself as a Jew.
And then what? Personally, the reason for Julia and Jacob's discord is absolutely not clear to me, it feels like a divorce in this case is just a way to bring variety to your life, but after all, your separation from another person will never solve the problems that live in you.
The chapters about Sam were frankly boring, it seems that the author has nothing to say about him, he is needed here solely to demonstrate a new generation of American Jews and people in general who reject any national peculiarities and strive for cosmopolitanism.
327.909 SRY