Jonathan Safran Foer wrote one of the best novels of this century at the age of 25, a fact which inspires me to strive for greatness in the remaining 2 months before my 26th birthday. I don’t need to consult a magic 8 ball to know the prognosis (hint: outlook not so good).

Foer, the author of Everything is Illuminated as well as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, visited the campus of William & Mary last evening to discuss the role of comedy in the Jewish experience. Actually, the title of the talk was “When Jews Laugh at Things That Aren’t Funny.” He separated comedy into four distinct categories, a nomenclature that aims to explain the function of semitic humor. I don’t remember what the four categories were because I was too distracted by the hilarious and colorful stories he told to illustrate his thoughts (e.g. he and his brother Franklin busted out laughing at the bima during his brother’s Bar Mitzvah because one of the prayer’s ended with a hebrew word that sounded like ‘”pee.’”)

After his talk, there was a brief question and answer session. Since we were already on the subject of bar mitzvahs, I raised my hand and asked him what his was like. “Not very memorable.” Although Foer did recall that he didn’t really know what the prayers meant, and that he played Nintendo for several hours with his bro after leaving synagogue. Comedically, Foer vividly recounted the details of the band from his bar mitzvah celebration (a group called “Electric Brigade” comprised of Naval officers who practice tunes in their “limited free time.”) Another attendee asked Foer about his literary techniques in constructing his characters, to which he replied, “a bird is not an ornathologist.” A writer just writes. Though, he did explain his writing process, starting from the beginning over and over again, likening it to running a comb through his son’s hair until there are no more knots.

I jumped into a queue with my copy of Everything is Illuminated and waited my turn to tell Foer how much I appreciate his work. My souvenirs from the evening are a signed book and a blurry cameraphone picture (I guess everything isn’t illuminated).