things that confuse me.

As I continue reading Everything Is Illuminated, there are things that continue to confuse me. For example, does Augustine come before or after the much adored Brod, and what relation does she have to Brod and Yankel? Speaking of Yankel, what is this story about him swindling some man while his name was Safran? And does the main character Jonathan Safran Foer and the author having the same name have any significance as far as the story? (Its fiction). Why do people in Trachimbrod, or Sofiowka, behave so strangely? Do they really record their recurrent dreams as it describes, even though they would seem, at least I imagine, such private and intimate dreams one wouldn't want to share with their whole village? What makes Brod so special? Who were her parents, why was she found the way she was, and what is up with the scene where she uses her telescope to look through a wall of a neighbor's house and read a recording of her apparent first rape, when there was no mention of her being raped before? What does this mean about her, about the book?
You'd think that having watched the movie would make these questions easier to answer, but no, I'm still confused. For one thing, the entire story of Brod and Yankel and the Slouchers and Trachimbrod at this time period was not included in the movie. I wonder why that would be, when it seems to be such a big part of the plot in the novel. Hopefully the answers to these questions will reveal themselves as the novel progresses. I will keep you updated.

On the aspect of the similarities between the book and the movie, I am happy to say that the humor is the same. They used precisely the same jokes in the movie as were in the book. I wonder, however, if I would have seen the humor in them as much if I hadn't already watched the movie.