Everything Is Illuminated Chapter 5 Summary

How It All Goes Down

An Overture to Encountering the Hero, and then Encountering the Hero.

  • Alexander tells all his babes that he must leave them and go to Lutsk to translate for Jonathan Safran Foer.
  • After an argument with Father, Alex leaves for the train station with his Grandfather and his "seeing-eye bitch" Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior (5.6).
  • Yes, Grandfather is driving. Don't worry; he's not really blind.
  • Alex gets them lost once, but they get to the train station after only eleven hours of driving.
  • Jonathan's train arrives after four hours and Alex is surprised to meet his first American, and his first Jew, mainly because "he did not look like anything special at all" (5.11).
  • Who was he expecting? Mel Brooks?
  • They get back to the car, and Alex has to wake up Grandfather so they can get going.
  • Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior is going nuts and farting in the backseat.
  • Even though Jonathan is scared of dogs (from a dog bite) he has to sit in the backseat with this comic parody version of Cujo, who is now chewing her own tail.