I just finished Everything is illuminated, and I can say that it is the second best book I ever read in English. The first was Twelve Stories of Russia by A. J. Perry. "The first" in chronological order, I don't want to compare them and to decide which I like more, I like them both. And there is something similar in them, maybe narrator's voice. It's a voice of a stranger struggling to make sense out of incomprehensible world, sorting it into inadequate categories. The resulting makeshift meaning, while far from perfect or refined, still allows life to continue.

The story is told by Alex (Alexander) Perchov, an Ukrainian student, whose fathers works for a travel agency. When a father's client, an American Jew visiting Ukraine, needs an interpreter, the father looks no further than his own son and promptly assigns him the mission.

"Alex," he said, "what was the language you studied this year at school?" "The language of English," I told him. "Are you good and fine at it?" he asked me. "I am fluid," I told him. ... "Excellent, Alex. Excellent. You must nullify any plans you possess for the first week of the month of July."

It is Alex's "fluid" English, the story is narrated in. When reading it, I wondered if native English speakers would find the text hilarious. Because I did not laugh. Not that I was offended, far from it, I wish I could laugh. I remember reading a detective story written by a Polish author. One of the story's heroes is not a native speaker of Polish. The book was translated into Russian, so don't know how funny it was in original, but I laughed until tears run down my cheeks. And I must admit that when I once received a letter from somebody for whom Russian was a foreign language, I laughed just as hard. I don't think there was any arrogance or feeling of superiority in this laugh, the text was so hilarious that it transcended any human foibles.

So I felt frustrated that I can't get a good laugh reading a humor-wise similar story in English. You need much more intimate relationship with a language, for being able to use it for anything besides merely getting a message.

Here is a question for you. If you are a native speaker of English, does this scene make you laugh? And if you aren't, I still wonder if it makes you laugh. Alex meets his client for the first time:

He must have witnessed the sign I was holding, because he punched me on the shoulder and said, "Alex?" I told him yes. "You're my translator, right?" I asked him to be slow, because I could not understand him. In truth I was manufacturing a brick wall of shits. I attempted to be sedate. "Lesson one. Hello. How are you doing this day?" "What?" "Lesson two. Ok, isn't the weather full of delight?" "You're my translator," he said, manufacturing movements, "yes?" "Yes," I said presenting him my hand. "I am Alexander Perchov. I am your humble translator."
...
"Your train ride appeased you?" I asked. "Oh, God," he said, "twenty-six hours, fucking unbelievable." This girl Unbelievable must be very majestic, I thought.

To be continued...