This content is from Wikipedia. We do not consider this content professional or citable. Please use your discretion when relying on it. GradeSaver also offers a professionally written study guide by one of our staff editors.

Literary significance and criticism

Everything Is Illuminated received overwhelming acclaim on its initial release, not only from major publications, but also from many well-known authors, including John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, Salman Rushdie, Isabel Allende, Russell Banks, and Dale Peck. The Times' review stated that the book was "a work of genius," that Foer had "staked his claim for literary greatness," and that "after it, things will never be the same."^[1]

Others, notably Harry Siegel of the New York Press, have been critical both of the novel and of Foer's talent as a writer.