Summary from Goodreads: Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, and pacifist. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wow. This book was a tough read. Even nearly a decade after 9/11, the images in this book- and the writing- often feels like a punch to the gut.
The story, about nine-year old Oskar whose father is killed in the 9/11 attacks, is beautifully developed. It's told from the viewpoint of Oskar, his grandmother, and a mysterious renter of her apartment. Each has a wonderfully distinctive voice, but I loved Oskar's most of all- the author did a wonderful job of making Oskar come to life. He might start off a bit grating, but I felt by the end like I really knew him. I loved how when he would get depressed, he had "heavy boots", and how everything is either "incredibly" or "extremely" something.
The way the dialogue is written was at times annoying- there are no real spaces. In some ways it made it seem more like I was part of an actual conversation- in some ways it just made me confused. :) But I loved the relationships Oskar had with people. I loved his journeys around New York.
The grief of Oskar is so real in this book. The pervasive fear he's felt since 9/11. How much he misses his dad. His misplaced anger at his mother. His sense of loneliness. His regrets at his own role in his father's last moments alive. His coming to terms with death:
"I thought about all the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped."
Certainly one of the best books I've read this year, and one I'll be thinking about for awhile- but nonetheless not one I would want to read again. It gave me very heavy boots.
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Wow. This sounds like a great read. I actually can't decide whether I want to read it or not. It seems like a really beautifully-told story; but I'm shying away from the feeling it may evoke. I don't know. But I am going to take a serious look at it on my next trip to the bookstore. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI just gave a presentation on this today. I was heartbroken that the other 13 students in my Lit Class (at a liberal arts college) had never heard of Foer
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