If you needed any more evidence that reader reviews are invaluable—or at least entertaining—for their brutal honesty, you need look no further than the critiques for Here I Am, Jonathan Safran Foer’s first novel in over a decade, because the online appraisals for the book are a trove of readers saying exactly what they feel. But besides those who are mysteriously discovering, apparently for the first time, that Safran Foer is Jewish and those who thought the novel could be summed up best by just one word, the majority of readers seem to have zeroed in on one thing: the dirty parts.
Here I Am is full of what Slate’s Laura Miller has called Philip Roth-esque “scattered passages of dirty talk and reveries on masturbation,” and these have caused a fair amount of moral panic—and in some cases, a great deal of confusion:
This reader wasn’t really sure what Safran Foer was going for.
Sometimes I thought I was reading a book about a family falling apart, other times it felt like I was reading erotica.
One reader thinks Safran Foer really needs to tone it down.
And were three dense pages detailing 13 year-old Sam’s masturbation exploits really necessary?
Matt here couldn’t even get past page 50.
Crass and vulgar and off putting language and characters. There may have been more beyond that that was redeeming, but I couldn’t put up with the filth to get there.
Elyse liked it, but isn’t sure that you will.
……unrefined and vulgar dialogue
……off-putting characters are off-putting to ‘you’.
……Graphic sex descriptions might have you shaking your head.
But the best of all is this Amazon reviewer who just seemed to totally, completely, gloriously miss the memo.
There was something very disturbingly wrong with the kindle version of the book I received. Intermittently, there were individual sentences of really disturbing pornography. I have tried to contact Amazon about this, but since I have not yet heard back from them, I wanted to post this before anyone else has the misfortune to read this electronic version.
