Customer Reviews

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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 "Everything is Illuminated." While I liked his first book, i thought this one was better. No, i did not feel he was taking advantage of 9/11 as some have said, but rather using that as a jumping off point for the story. Would also have to recommend the novels MIDDLESEX by Eugenides and the other books of David Sedaris. Also, if you like EXTREMELY LOUD, you will love a writer from another generation--Kurt Vonnegut. Peace out.

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 accused it of sentimentality are responding to some abstraction of the work, some thing they wish it were. In lesser hands, such a project might have been either exploitative or sentimental, but from Foer's deft pen, it is neither. Nevertheless, I was reminded to two other works, both dealing with children who had a "problem" and are developed beyond their age, though in a different manner than the rest of us: THE CURIOUS INCIDENT by Haddon was the first book I thought of, then THE BARK OF THE DOGWOOD. Both have precocious children at the core, but EXTREMELY LOUD has something else---the 9/11 theme, and that certainly hit home. There are a few other oddities. Read on: The concept of observing time in different manners, either disjointed or just plain running backwards is the central theme of the book. Oskar's father had died in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. The book references that and many other disasters in human history. But what Oskar seeks, is a real connection to his father. And he does it in many ways, by running time backwards, so he can remember his memories of the past, particularly of his father. Oskar's adventures take him to all parts of New York City and he meets all types of people. And through this experience, he gains a unique understanding of life, even though, it is so vastly different for each person. This experience helps Oskar put the death of his father in perspective, to the point where he is at peace with it eventually. But his journey to that point, is highly intricate and wonderfully illustrated.

September 11th and the Holocaust are two subjects that are easy use if you are an author looking to add emotional weight to your novel, but are difficult to use well. Nobody proves this better than Jonathan Safran Foer in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

The novel follows Oskar, a nine-year-old Manhattan boy (I'm basing my assessment that he is nine years old solely on the book jacket; I don't recall his age ever once being mentioned in the story, although he is allowed to wander the streets of New York by himself at all hours of the day and night without anyone raising a fuss, which seems odd for a nine-year-old) who lost his father in the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001. Oskar finds among his father's things a small key and the word 'Black' scribbled on a paper. From this he deduces that the key belongs to someone named Black and that he must find that person, for surely they will have vital information about his late father, and--for reasons never explained--he decides that he will approach ever person in New York City with the last name Black alphabetically. This last point seems to be a plot device designed solely to keep the story from being told in a thirty page short story instead of a full-length novel.

The novel is full of convoluted storylines (including a B-story about Oskar's grandfather and his experience during WWII) that never really make the emotional statements the author seems to intend, and are often downright precious (not in a good way). This novel is entirely too amused with itself, too self-congratulatory of its own cleverness instead of concerning itself with the intelligence of the reader. I was very relieved that the last dozen or so pages are just photos because it meant I was done with this book that much sooner.
[...]

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.

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE is filled with wonderful images. Doorknobs and keyholes have multiple meanings. One-word biographies are matched against one-word obituary summaries. Books serve as walls, diaries, and means of communication, while telephones become typewriters for the mute. Time is ever-present, measured precisely but flowing loosely, frozen in images and recorded voices just as the book's characters wish to freeze of reverse time itself. A charming fable about Manhattan's lost sixth borough links Central Park to a myth of childhood dreams. And then there are Oskar's incessant inventions: his birdseed shirt, an ambulance that sends messages to everyone the patient knows as it passes their windows, the gun whose handle senses when you are angry so it won't fire, buildings that raise and lower themselves instead of using elevators, and best of all, his pillows that funnel everyone's tears into the reservoir in Central Park (when something really bad happened, a loud siren would tell everyone to go to Central Park to put sandbags around the reservoir). Beyond the magical storytelling however, Jonathan Foer breaks the boundaries of the traditional novel form with pages filled with photographs of hands, birds, doorknobs, keys, doors, crying elephants, fingerprints, the backs of heads, and stars; pages containing just a single sentence of a few words; pages filled with numbers representing conversation encoded on a telephone handset; pages whose frenetic storytelling ends with overtyping so dense the page melts into blackness; and pages depicting a falling body outside the World Trade Center whose final presence depicts our universal wish about that terrible day. Must also recommend another very original and highly charged book: THE CHILDREN'S CORNER by Jackson McCrae.

The story relates the effort of a nine year old boy in finding information on a key left by his father, who died in the 9/11 attacks. The main narrator of this story is this boy - Oskar - and we therefore see the events through his own eyes.

I have enjoyed this book a lot. The dialogues are well developed and moving. The story is engrossing and the author has found a unique way to write on this tragedy.

The story however is not without flaws. The two main issues in my view were:

1) As it is often the case with novels where the main character is a child, Oskar is very atypical and will express himself and have reflections that are uncommon for a boy of that age. In the present case, this character trait was too extreme for my taste. I often found it difficult associating the narration with a 9-year old boy.

2) This novel is similar to the author's first novel (Everything Is Illuminated) in many ways. Both stories follow the same writing patterns. The main characters in both of these novels have their own "unique" way of expressing themselves.

As much as I have enjoyed this book, I preferred "Everything Is Illuminated" over this one.

Safran Foer is one of today's finest writers. The voice of Oscar in this novel is at once true and endearing. Jonathan Safran Foer has the ability to have you laughing one second, and catching your heart in your throat the next. No other writer quite this same effect on me. I have also read "Everything is Illuminated" (which is even better) and "Eating Animals" which should be required reading for all humans.

One of the only books that I've shed tears to. Oskar's adventurous proclivities and over-sensitivities are perfectly patched together with NYC and its 9/11 wounds.