Here I Am (novel)

Here I Am is a 2016 novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. It depicts a series of events that impact members of a Jewish family living in Washington, D.C., though some critics suggest that the novel contains autobiographical elements. Here I Am is the first new novel published by Foer in over ten years, and it is the first in Foer's three-book installment with Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Plot

Christian Lorentzen has described the plot as a blend of several different events, including "[a] divorce, a suicide, a bar mitzvah, an earthquake, an all-out Middle Eastern war, and the putting to sleep of a family dog".^[1] These plot elements are tied together through a central narrative about the ways in which these events impact the lives of a Jewish family living in Washington, D.C.^[2][3] Daniel Menaker notes that the "collage" of narratives overlap with one another at times, though they also sometimes conflict with each other.^[3] Jennifer Maloney has suggested that the novel contains several autobiographical elements.^[4] Constance Grady also cited similarities between Jacob Bloch, a character in the novel, and events in Foer's own life.^[5] When asked to describe the novel, author Jonathan Safran Foer said, "I would say it’s not my life but it’s me."^[4]

Background

Here I Am is Foer's third novel, following Everything Is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005).^[2][6] It is the first in Foer's three-book installment with publisher Farrar, Straus and Giroux.^[7] The phrase "here I am" is derived from the biblical account of the words that were spoken by Abraham when he was asked to sacrifice his son, Isaac.^[6][8] Foer stated that he wrote two-thirds of Here I Am in the final year of his work on the novel.^[9] According to Time, Foer's work on the novel "went into high gear" after Foer decided to stop working on a planned television show for HBO called All Talk; the planned television show also would have focused on the life of a Jewish family in Washington, D.C.^[10] Foer explained that when he worked on the novel at his home, he would write on a laptop computer placed on his lap, and that he would move between rooms of his house whenever he began to experience "the inability to value [his] thoughts", an experience that Foer described as "Jonathan block".^[9]

See also

• Tree of Codes

References