What Time is it?

Besides the "present day" portion of Everything is Illuminated, I'm kind of confused. You see, at the beginning of the book the past portion was focused on Jonathan's great-great-great-great-great grandmother, Brod.
It first followed Brod and her father, then in the next segment her father was suddenly dead, and it focused on her marriage to the Kolker (hey, great name) who got a saw stuck in his head...and had the occasional rage outbursts.
I think the storyline would be a little smoother for the reader if Safran Foer explained more in between, instead of jumping to the next plot. For example, when I began to read one of the flashbacks, the story had suddenly shifted to Jonathan's grandfather.
Although these stories are entertaining, the jump seemed pretty sudden. What happened in all of those years in between?

In the passage about his grandfather, I found an interesting quote that I thought I'd put into this entry.

"He knew that what he was doing was right, more right than anything he saw anyone do, and he knew that doing right often means feeling wrong, and if you find yourself feeling wrong, you're probably doing right" (170).

I'm not sure that I believe this, but it's a nice thing to think about. It's like an excuse for feeling wrong.