Grandfather

Alex's grandfather is the driver in Everything is Illuminated. I guess I should probably give you some background on the story. The main character is Jonathan Safran Foer (ironically, the same name as the author...Coincidence? I think not). Jonathan recieves a picture of a girl named Augustine (stading with his grandpa) and decides to go on a journey to find her. So, he flies to Ukraine and inlists the help of Alex and his crabby granfather as his translator and his driver. Together the set out to find Augustine.
The character of Grandfather is mysterious. He starts out not wanting to be involved at all, but has to because its his job. Grandfather claims to be blind and has his own "seeing eye bi***" who "helps" him. This dog is totally deranged...which I think is pretty funny. Anyways, once Grandfather sees the picture of Augustine, he becomes devoted and interested in their "rigid search" for her. Hm...interesting. On many occasions Alex sees his grandfather crying late at night and looking at the picture.

"The second night he was crying he had the photograph of Augustine in his hands. The weather program was on, but it was so late that they only presented a map of planet Earth, without any weather on it. 'Augustine,' I could hear him say. 'Augustine,'" (102).

My prediction is that Grandfather knew Augustine in some way... or else she may just bring back memories of his past. I guess I'll just have to read and see.