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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel
 
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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Jonathan Safran Foer (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
List Price: CDN$ 31.50
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Product Description

From Publishers Weekly

Oskar Schell, hero of this brilliant follow-up to Foer's bestselling Everything Is Illuminated, is a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. Like the second-language narrator of Illuminated, Oskar turns his naïvely precocious vocabulary to the understanding of historical tragedy, as he searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks, a quest that intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden. Foer embellishes the narrative with evocative graphics, including photographs, colored highlights and passages of illegibly overwritten text, and takes his unique flair for the poetry of miscommunication to occasionally gimmicky lengths, like a two-page soliloquy written entirely in numerical code. Although not quite the comic tour de force that Illuminated was, the novel is replete with hilarious and appalling passages, as when, during show-and-tell, Oskar plays a harrowing recording by a Hiroshima survivor and then launches into a Poindexterish disquisition on the bomb's "charring effect." It's more of a challenge to play in the same way with the very recent collapse of the towers, but Foer gambles on the power of his protagonist's voice to transform the cataclysm from raw current event to a tragedy at once visceral and mythical. Unafraid to show his traumatized characters' constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love and beauty.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Oskar Schell is not your average nine-year-old. A budding inventor, he spends his time imagining wonderful creations. He also collects random photographs for his scrapbook and sends letters to scientists. When his father dies in the World Trade Center collapse, Oskar shifts his boundless energy to a quest for answers. He finds a key hidden in his father's things that doesn't fit any lock in their New York City apartment; its container is labeled "Black." Using flawless kid logic, Oskar sets out to speak to everyone in New York City with the last name of Black. A retired journalist who keeps a card catalog with entries for everyone he's ever met is just one of the colorful characters the boy meets. As in Everything Is Illuminated (Houghton, 2002), Foer takes a dark subject and works in offbeat humor with puns and wordplay. But Extremely Loud pushes further with the inclusion of photographs, illustrations, and mild experiments in typography reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions (Dell, 1973). The humor works as a deceptive, glitzy cover for a fairly serious tale about loss and recovery. For balance, Foer includes the subplot of Oskar's grandfather, who survived the World War II bombing of Dresden. Although this story is not quite as evocative as Oskar's, it does carry forward and connect firmly to the rest of the novel. The two stories finally intersect in a powerful conclusion that will make even the most jaded hearts fall.-Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews

23 Reviews
5 star:
 (8)
4 star:
 (6)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars "It's always necessary", Jun 15 2006
By J. Borhi - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel (Paperback)
This is a beautifully written book about loss & recovery, and expression & humanity within relationships. The way we do & do not communicate with each other. The last few chapters & the ending will pull you by the heart & will not ask for mercy, it is so fulfilling.

There are two types of books: when finished a book & someone asks you how it was, you tell them what it was about; the second type of book, when finished, you can only describe how it made you feel.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is the latter.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Extremely close, Mar 25 2007
By E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel (Paperback)
Sometimes an author has a theme running through all of his writing -- in the case of Jonathan Safran Foer, it seems to be a quest of the soul. His follow-up to the cult hit "Everything Is Illuminated" is the poignant, quirky, tender "Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close," which takes readers back to the rubble of ground zero.

Oskar Schell is a precocious preteen, who has been left depressed and traumatized. His father died in the September 11 attacks, leaving behind a mysterious key in an envelope with the word "Black" on it. So with the loyalty and passion that only a kid can muster, he begins to explore New York in search of that lock.

As Oskar explores Manhatten, Foer also reaches throughout history to other horrific attacks that shattered people's lives, including his traumatized grandparents. Though the book is sprinkled with letters and stories from before Oskar's time, the boy's quest is the center of the book. And when he finally finds where the key belongs, he will find out a little something about human nature as well...

Historically, only a short time has passed since 9/11, and in some ways "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" reopens the wounds. It reminds me of all the families who lost fathers, mothers and children. But Foer doesn't use cheap sentimentalism to draw in his readers, nor does he exploit the losses of September 11th families. It takes guts to write a book like this, and skill to do it well.

In some ways, this book is much like Foer's first novel, but he deftly avoids retreading old ground -- the "quest" is vastly different, the young protagonist is very different, and the conflicts and loss are different, though no less hard-hitting. Foer also sticks to that wonderfully oddballish prose, which gives a gloss of lightness to a deep plot.

After all, that is what made his first book so appealing -- there are parts of "Extremely" that are laugh-out-loud funny, and quirky characters worthy of a Wes Anderson movie. For example, one scene has Oskar sending a letter to Stephen Hawking, asking, "Can I please be your protégé?"

Child genius Oskar will probably make you want to either smack or hug him -- I tended more towards hugs. That's because Foer doesn't make Oskar seem like a tiny adult -- he's brilliant, but his mind still has the whimsy of a child's mind. His little "inventions" are just the sort of thing you'd expect an imaginative nine-year-old to create, and his quest is a realistic one, considering the tragedy he had suffered.

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" proves that Jonathan Safran Foer was no one-hit wonder. His enchanting second book tackles a great tragedy with warmth, depth and sensitivity. Outstanding.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative and wide in scope and emotion, Aug 23 2009
By J. Tobin Garrett (Vancouver, BC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel (Paperback)
As with Foer's first novel, Everything is Illuminated, he uses multi-character narratives and weaves them together to create a disorienting, but ultimately connected set of stories that culminate in a great ending. Although some may call Foer's writing gimmicky with its use of letters, historical bending, images, and stylistic flourishes, he manages to use these for a purpose rather than simply as a way to show off his Writing 101 skills. I'm not sure if he can sustain this for a third novel, as it would be nice to see him evolve.

The story follows the aftermath of a boy who loses his father in the 9/11 towers, but also includes scenes from WW2 and the history of the boy's family. The boy finds a key from his late father and goes in search of what the key opens. In this way the story has elements of a mystery, kind of an elementary detective story with a child as the protagonist. We meet a huge cast of quirky and oddball characters, who have charming conversations and strange personalities. Reading this novel is like piecing a puzzle together, where in the beginning there are so many pieces that you're sure they can't all belong to the same puzzle image, but sure enough as you piece them together and keep going a strong and united image emerges.

A better novel than his first one, I would say. More daring and authentic. Heartbreaking as well as hilariously funny in parts. It has been a novel I have thought about well after finishing it, and I'm sure I'll read it again one day.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Sadly Hilarious
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was a book I picked up and put back in bookstores several times before a well-timed stint with the flu created the opportunity (ie: time and... Read more
Published 9 months ago by A Good Read

5.0 out of 5 stars My favourite book of all time
I had to read this book for a english class on the fiction of 9/11. I fell in love with it. I am an avid reader and I have yet to read a book that has moved me like this one has... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Heidi Murphy

4.0 out of 5 stars Another demonstration of Foer's skill.
There's a lot to be said for an author like Jonathan Safran Foer, who (if his first two novels are any indication) can break a reader's heart times over and rebuild it with the... Read more
Published 21 months ago by The Rogue Ninja

4.0 out of 5 stars Has its place
By this same author who wrote EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED, comes a tale that just had to be told. I can only imagine that critics who have called EXTREMELY LOUD exploitative or... Read more
Published on July 23 2007 by Barry Zebrowski

4.0 out of 5 stars My recent Amazon purchase
I purchased this book, along with the book ME TALK PRETTY by Sedaris, and loved them both. Oskar is the protaginist in this compelling novel by Foer, the author that gave us... Read more
Published on Jan 28 2007 by H. MIller

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Good and Highly Recommended
Considering Foer's relatively short time spent as a published novelist, this new endeavor should be proof positive that if there are any short comings in his writing they are very... Read more
Published on Dec 28 2006 by J. Ross

2.0 out of 5 stars Bad book
This novel relies too much on the conceit that a 9-year-old boy can be so a) brilliant (ie, he's into physics) and so b) self-aware. Read more
Published on April 16 2006

4.0 out of 5 stars Very artistic
(...)

At any rate, I enjoyed this novel because it was unique and fresh. I was more interested in the grandpa and grandma's story but Oskar's story was interesting as well. Read more

Published on Mar 12 2006

3.0 out of 5 stars Calculated Kitsch?,
The following is excerpted from the rave review in the New York Times Book Review:

''Unless,'' Oskar wonders, ''nothing was a clue. Read more

Published on Aug 3 2005 by clefpalate

5.0 out of 5 stars Calculated Kitsch?
The following is excerpted from the rave review in the New York Times Book Review:

''Unless,'' Oskar wonders, ''nothing was a clue. Read more

Published on July 19 2005 by clefpalate

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