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Jan 25, 2012

brian rated it:

well, i'm naturally drawn to those people who are overwhelmed by existence, by people who hurt too easily; who, for them, life seems to be almost too much: for whom the unceasing cacophony of thought and memory and idea is just too painful and all the cruelty and the violence is inconceivable and the mystery of life and love and foreverness and the past and all of it is just overwhelming to the point in which one wishes one could scream so loud that it would just make it all go away, that one co More...

56 comments like (113 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2009

Kim rated it:

There are books that affect me and then there are books that kill me. This falls in the latter. I cried on the couch, I cried on the bus, I cried at stoplights, I cried at work.. I cried more over this book than I did on the actual September 11th. Then I became upset that this piece of fiction could invoke such melancholia. Can I use the excuse of being in shock during the actual event? That it seemed like a movie?

I have no excuse.

Flash back: The second half of More...

33 comments like (218 people liked it)

Jan 25, 2012

Ben rated it:

There must be something wrong with me. I’m not as smart as my goodreader friends. I lack empathy. My humor is deficient. I have no compassion. And I suck at life.

Of the 40 of you “friends” who read this, this is how you rated it:

5-stars: 18 people
4-stars: 13 people
3-stars: 7 people
2-stars: 2 people
1-star: 0 people

Something wrong with me indeed.

(Or something wrong with all of you.)

No. I didn’t finish it. I More...

99 comments like (65 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Amanda rated it:

Today while tutoring, I've met with one student right at 1 and another at 4. In between those times, I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Perhaps that was not the smartest thing to do...

Sometimes I find the book so funny that I laugh out loud. Which is fine if I had a quiet laugh, but I don't. And I tutor in a common meeting space which is a center room with offices surrounding it. Clearly, everyone in the office knew I was getting paid to laugh at what I was reading. I felt b More...

7 comments like (61 people liked it)

Sep 26, 2011

Sparrow rated it:

Maybe it goes without saying that we write differently in letters than we do in email or text. Something about putting pen to paper makes a handwritten letter more intimate and less imposing than electronic media. We take off the tin-foil hat. Our mistakes are not made invisible by a backspace key, but crossed out with our own hand. We reveal ourselves. And letters to people we love are that much more intimate and revealing, even sentimental. We create something, a product, that you can ho More...

55 comments like (36 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2012

Laurel rated it:

I hate to keep pointing out to everyone that I listened to the audio version of this or that book, as it gets repetitive after awhile, and for the most part, it is usually irrelevant. In this case, though, it seems to have made a difference.

When I finished Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I went online to read some reviews. I was surprised by what I read. It seemed that just about everyone who gave their opinion on this book, whether positive or negative, commented on Foer's " More...

18 comments like (21 people liked it)

May 01, 2010

Lucy rated it:

I picked this book up two days ago to read the first page (I personally think you can tell a lot about a book from the first page) and was hooked. I'm in the middle of another book, which is a good book, but the jarring nature of the prose reeled me in. The first chapter is called, "What the?" which is exactly what I was thinking. I was instantly reminded of another great book, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, where you actually experience the book as well as read it. More...

7 comments like (40 people liked it)

Nov 29, 2011

K.D. rated it:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is extremely sad and incredibly stylish. For a thin plot, Foer was able to extend it by shifting narratives, delightful monologues, empty pages, pages with one liners, pages with black and white pictures, pages with colored pictures, pages with scribbled names, pages that look like a manuscript with editor's proofreading symbols and by several back stories (Hiroshima bombing, Dresden bombing, etc). That’s a delicate style that I think only gifted writers can p More...

23 comments like (37 people liked it)

Aug 15, 2008

Bart rated it:

When Thomas Pynchon invented what James Wood later named “hyper realism”, he did literature no favors. To read Pynchon is to witness genius at its most joyless. A mind capable of inventing myriad things and compelled to record them all. But at least Pynchon showed genius.

What Jonathan Safran Foer shows, however, is mere gimmickry. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close takes readers who thought they might have seen a glimmer of greatness in Everything is Illuminated and convinces th More...

29 comments like (117 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2011

Joey rated it:

I don't think I read enough contemporary fiction to make sweeping, definitive statements about it. So I won't say that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the best book of the 21st century so far. But I will say that it's the best book I've read so far this century, and that Foer belongs in the rarified category of contemporary greats like Phillip Roth and Kurt Vonnegut.

This is not a perfect novel; it gets a little (but just a little) gimmicky in spots, and there are times when More...

3 comments like (23 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Malbadeen rated it:

Whatever with what happens to us when we die, this book reminds us of how connected we are right now and being connectioned to somone as brilliant as Foer is reason enough to be grateful!
I was completely baffaled at Foer's ability to know and convey so many things at once. His intimate view into grieving was what amazed me the most, his ability to carry you into the horrible realities without turning it into a sappy, poor kid type story was amazing.
So many things were familiar about More...

4 comments like (23 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2010

JSou rated it:

Sometimes, I'm actually grateful for when good ol' insomnia kicks in. I can deep clean my kitchen without any distractions, play catch-up with the never-ending, nervous-breakdown-inducing amount of laundry I have, and even try to finally watch a movie (surprisingly, even snooze-worthy The Wolfman couldn't get me to sleep). And of course, I can read. Sure, I hate myself in the morning and feel like crap all day, but there's times that it's worth it. Especially when the book I'm reading is as More...

21 comments like (28 people liked it)

Jul 09, 2010

J rated it:

Dear Kim,
Thank you for making me read this, you book-pushing, carney-loving, skee ball fiend. You were right. I wish you lighter boots*, always.

Dear Everyone Else,
Let’s get this out of the way first: There are pictures. They’re intended to be clever and, at times, to clutch at your heart. It’s gimmicky. I don’t care.

Granted, I read this at a time when I may have been more vulnerable to schmaltz. My mother had recently passed away. I was on a journey, searchi More...

26 comments like (27 people liked it)

Aug 01, 2008

Andy rated it:

A more apt title would have been Terribly Artificial and Unbearably Pretentious. This seems like the kind of thing I would have thought was a profound idea when I myself was nine, laboring on crayon illustrations to include with my manuscript into the wee hours of the morning. Maybe that means Foer succeeded. I happen to think it means his efforts were an abject failure, and that he has a great many readers and critics completely snowed.

With a book like this, you either accept More...

12 comments like (69 people liked it)

Nov 17, 2008

Beth F. rated it:

I’m a pussy and won’t actually ride a rollercoaster (I hate amusement park rides) but reading this book was what I’d imagine riding a rollercoaster in the dark would be like. You never knew when it was going to go up, drop down, go upside down, stop on a dime, speed up, etc. etc. so every time you’d turn the page, it was an emotional surprise.

The main character and primary narrator of the book is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar who is precocious and I put that in italics because t More...

12 comments like (14 people liked it)

Sep 06, 2010

Brad rated it:

I read the first chapter and stopped. I am pissed off. I have rarely felt so manipulated as a reader in my life, and I think the manipulation is more about the way it is written than what it is written about, although that is, in itself, fairly manipulative. If this is how Foer usually writes, I want no part of him or his work. Still, if this was a short story and I reached the point where the Dad is about to talk to his son before the towers collapse, I would be excited by the cleverness of the More...

38 comments like (29 people liked it)

Dec 20, 2008

ScottK rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

8 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 13, 2012

Gayle rated it:

I just want to start off by saying, I am well aware of Foer criticism - saying he's trying too hard, or that his stories flow as a way of structural emulation, and not origination....Or whatever the hell people say, who are trying to prove their own arrogance.... i know, and I don't care.

I love JSF! I loved Everything is Illuminated! I put off reading this book, there was not a doubt in my mind that it would be incomparably bland compared to EII. Well it was incomparable alright; but f More...

3 comments like (9 people liked it)

Aug 20, 2007

Anna rated it:

just finished Jonathan Safran Foer's novel last night, late, because I couldn't sleep and I only had a little bit left to read. At it's end, I wept. It is not a sentimental book. It's written in experimental style, with doodles and photos and random placement of words, phrases, dialogue running into each other sometimes, weird indentations, and POVs that once in a while jump around, even tho' sticking with the "I" voice. There were times I thought, "Hey! This seems like a writing More...

0 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 02, 2012

Jennifer (aka EM) rated it:

Profoundly moving, beautifully written with deep compassion and empathy for human grief, for the tragic moments that define our lives and characters. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell will stay with me, I think, for a very long time.

I finished late last night (early this morning) and immediately got out of bed to look up a feature written by Ian Brown, published in The Globe & Mail on September 15th, 2001. I've remembered it to this day, because Brown wrote so eloquently about the questio More...

5 comments like (10 people liked it)

Nov 21, 2007

Jacob rated it:

Jonathan Safran Foer is one of the most creative storytellers I have ever read. He doesn't just tell you the story - he uses the medium itself as a symbol, weaving his stories as immersive meta-narratives in which you are both an observer and a participant, and in so doing, he achieves emotional connections to an otherwise unreachable depth and provides insights that, in the context of the narrative, feel more like self-evident truths. This was true of Everything Is Illuminated, and it's true More...

0 comments like (9 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2008

Alex added it

Perhaps I'm just stupid, but I don't get this book, nor am I really crazy about it.

It's a little too hip for me, in the sense that I don't think anybody really gets what the hell Foer is trying to say, but because it's obscure everyone likes it.

Or maybe I'm just looking too much into the book. But I found myself having to read and re-read pages over and over again to make sense of it all.

It doesn't do it for me, but I might try to get through it one last time More...

12 comments like (25 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2010

Δx Δp ≥ ½ ħ rated it:

Bukan pertama kali ini saia dipanggil "aneh" oleh teman-teman saia. Bahkan sejak SD pun, rekan-rekan saia pernah mengatakan bahwa saia itu "alien dari planet Pikari", merujuk pada nama planet asal Ultraman Zearth yg kadung populer pada saat itu (setelah Ultraman Dyna dan Ultraman Tiga).

Tatapan aneh yg bisa diterjemahkan sbg where are you planet from? itu rasa-rasanya dimulai saat kelas 3 SD. saat itu seperti biasa, kalau sesudah liburan caturwulan (sistem semester More...

54 comments like (7 people liked it)

Nov 08, 2008

Matt rated it:

Extremely Precocious and Incredibly Irritating

5 comments like (37 people liked it)

Jan 31, 2012

Mike rated it:

Extremely Loud and Incredbily Close: Jonathan Foer's novel of love, loss, and memory

There are events that leave an indelible stamp on us for a great portion of our lives. This happens from generation to generation.

Ask those living at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor where they were and what they were doing, they will be able to tell you the answer. Similarly, ask me where I was when I heard John F. Kennedy was shot, I can tell you.

Ask what I was doing More...

10 comments like (22 people liked it)

Sep 11, 2010

indri rated it:

#2010-36#

UNIQUE. UNIK. PROPRE

Bagaimana jika kau membaca sebuah buku dan alih-alih kau membaca kisah si tokohnya, namun kau terperosok dalam apa yang dirasakan oleh si tokoh. Ia memberimu kata-kata, gambar, bukan merupakan ilustrasi ceritanya, namun apa yang dilihat si tokoh, akan kita lihat juga, dengan perasaan yang kurang lebih sama dengan si tokoh. Novel ini mengombang-ambingkan perasaan bingung dan kacau si tokoh, menjadi kebingungan kita juga, dan membuat kita More...

56 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jun 19, 2010

Lavinia rated it:

* I liked Oskar, his googolplex questions and inventions, his feelings which are always extreme; he either gets heavy boots or feels like 100 dollars.

* The part that moved me most was the record Oskar played at school, the interview with the Hiroshima survivor, talking about his daughter.

* Despite the sad subject, the book is quite amusing and I really liked that.

* Oskar makes incredibly cool friends and acquaintances.

* I cannot exactly relate to 9 More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Teresa rated it:

I promised myself that I wouldn't compare Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (EL&IC) with its predecessor, Everything is Illuminated, because they are two completely different books and should each stand on their own. However, as they are both works by an author I admire I will say this: EII was great. EL&IC was good.

EL&IC tells the story of Oskar Schell, a 9-year-old boy in Manhattan whose father died in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He finds a key in an envelope ma More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2009

Jeffrey rated it:

There is something to be said for knowing one's limitations, a lesson that was clearly lost on Jonathan Safran Foer. Foer attempts to be part J.D. Salinger (alienated quest), part William Faulkner (conflict with environment), and part E.L. Doctorow (hybridized novel), but does not have the literary chops to do the job on any count.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the story of a young boy named Oskar whose father is killed in the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 1 More...

3 comments like (10 people liked it)

Jan 16, 2012

Chaybyrd rated it:

I have a love-hate relationship with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Some sections I thought were beautiful and moving, some sections I felt dragged the story and were outright boring, and a lot of the sections were extremely bathetic and incredibly heavy handed.

The story focuses on Oskar Schell, an eight year old upper middle class boy trying desperately to grapple with the tragic death of his father on 9/11. As the plot unfolds, we become silent partners on Oskar's journey an More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)