Ian Sansom

Smaller than life

The ‘smaller than life’ hero of Here I Am is either a brilliant critique or a depressing symptom the middle-aged American male facing up to adulthood

issue 10 September 2016

  • Here I Am

    Jonathan Safran Foer

    Hamish Hamilton, pp. 571

For Jonathan Safran Foer fans and sceptics alike, Here I Am comes as a wonderful gift, a truly painful, honest book which purports to be about a lot of things but is mainly about one thing: the breakdown of a marriage between a whiny, self-obsessed Jewish novelist turned scriptwriter and his blameless wife.

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