Everything is about writing

I recently finished Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer.

Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything Is Illuminated

It's about a young Ukrainian man corresponding with a young American Jew who wants to meet a woman who may have helped, or at least known, his grandfather during World War II.

On a certain level, it is about how writing can change history and perception. After the American's visit, the two young men correspond about how they relate the events of the war and what led to them. The American writes in lyrical, but distant, style of magical realism. The Ukrainian writes in a more immediate first-person style and realizes the power of writing as indicated in the quote from the book:

"This is why I relish writing for you so much. It makes it possible for me to be not like I am, but as I desire...  I can be funny, because I have time to meditate about how to be funny, and I can repair my mistakes when I perform mistakes, and I can be  ameloncholy person in manners that are interesting, not only meloncholy. With writing, we have second chances."

I wrote a short story of my own along this line, but not nearly as creatively told as Jonathan Safran Foer's book. I do know, quite well, the sentiment in the quote. This book falls into both the "first novel" and the "writer writing about being a writer" category.