Here I Am - Foer

I'm a loyal reader. The authors that have been there during pivotal points, hard times, hot summers, I come back to them. Foer has been a favorite of mine since high school. I named by dog after the boy in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

So a couple weeks ago I dove into Here I Am with no knowledge of plot. No reviews read. Just the fact that a perennial favorite was back on the new release shelf.

It turns out that Here I Am is the story of the deterioration of the Bloch family, and in conjunction - Israel.
I'd give a more full description but imagine marriage crumbling, online games, and general ennui... you'll get the picture.
All of this is not to say that Here I Am wasn't enjoyable. Foer is still a masterful writer, and in lesser hands I would not have wadded through 500+ pages of, for lack of a better term, "first world problems."
While most of the time each page was indulgent, and even reliant of Foer's ability to create deep emotions out of seemingly banal situations nerves were hit, and often.  Each musing on doorknobs or bar mitvah bands was matched by inner turmoil that was universally relatable.
Here I Am is definitely not a book to race through. It is best enjoyed in small bursts, which are at times necessary to tolerate the 40 year old temper tantrums that came up every other chapter.

Stick around for more coherent, less emotionally confused reviews.