Goodreads | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Amanda rated it:

08/05/07

bookshelves: all_time_favs, common-reading-experience, read_summer_07

Read in June, 2007

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 bad; if I...more

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Lucy rated it:

09/01/07

Read in August, 2007

recommends it for: open-minded readers who don't mind the unconventional

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 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. While I wouldn't want every book to be written like that, because it's a bit like riding a roller coaster in the dark with strobe lights, it sure is fun every once in a while.

Jonathan Safran Foer, the author, writes the tale of a nine year old boy named Oskar Schell, whose father was in the World Trade Center when the planes flew into them on September 11th. I think its fair to say that the boy becomes extremely troubled after his father's death, but with the unconventional childhood he had, it didn't take much to push him over the edge. His father was an atheist and Oskar wasn't raised to believe in an afterlife or heaven or that people have spirits.

When no body is recovered, his mother buries an empty coffin and she and Oskar have this conversation: "It's just an empty box." "It's more than an empty box." "Why would I want to spend eternity next to an empty box?" Mom said, "His spirit is there," and that made me really angry. I told her, "Dad didn't have a spirit! He had cells!" "His memory is there." "His memory is there," I said, pointing at my head. "Dad had a spirit," she said, like she was rewinding a bit in our conversation. I told her, "He had cells, and now they're on rooftops, and in the river, and in the lungs of millions of people around New York, who breathe him every time they speak!"

The book also tells the story of Oskar's paternal grandparents. The narration changes when both tell their own story. When his grandmother writes, there are no paragraphs and no quotations marks. Lots of odd spacing and most sentences get their own line. She's kind of crazy herself which you know by how she reacts when watching Oskar in his school's play of Hamlet and her conversations with Oskar. Oskar's grandfather...well...that's when you really see crazy. The author uses the most license with him and parts of the book are downright bizarre. Like the eight pages with nothing on them. Or when he starts to write smaller and smaller so that two entire pages are just dark black scribbles because some many words are on top of themselves.

It's more than just tricks on the page, however. The story is really about grief and how Oskar chooses to grieve for his father and how Oskar's grandparents grieved after losing much of what they loved when their city of Dresden was bombed in World War II.

When Oskar finds a key in an envelope with the word "Black" written on it inside a vase in his parent's bedroom, he sets out to discover what it unlocks. He goes about this by finding every person with the last name of "Black" in the five boroughs of New York City and spends almost a year going out on the weekends to ask Aaron, Abel, Amber etc. if they know anything about the key. A few interesting characters and stories get told through this storyline, but the real beauty of this book is how it made me remember and react to the horror of 9/11 again. You kind of forget....with the War on Terror, and the Iraq War and all of the stories that have happened during the last six years how horrible it was to watch those burning buildings go down on live TV. The last 14 pages of the book are pictures Oskar got off of a Portuguese web site that had a picture of a man who had jumped from the building. He put them in reverse order and you see this body in the air going up. The wish of a nine year old boy.

This book is exactly what its title says it is. Extremely and incredibly written. It's different, but I sure liked it....less

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Nian rated it:

04/27/08

Read in April, 2008

recommends it for: everyone

Book Club Book.

When nine-year-old Oskar Schell finds an envelope addressed to Black with a key inside, he thinks that if he finds the lock to the key, he’ll discover something left behind by his father, who died on September 11. The only clue is the word Black, and from that, Oskar plans to go and track down every person whose last name is Black and ask if they know Thomas Schell or have information about the key.

This is one of the most thoughtful and provoking book I’ve read in a ...more Book Club Book.

When nine-year-old Oskar Schell finds an envelope addressed to Black with a key inside, he thinks that if he finds the lock to the key, he’ll discover something left behind by his father, who died on September 11. The only clue is the word Black, and from that, Oskar plans to go and track down every person whose last name is Black and ask if they know Thomas Schell or have information about the key.

This is one of the most thoughtful and provoking book I’ve read in a while. Oskar is my hero. While most people like Holden Caulfield (I’ve yet to realize what it is about him that makes people go crazy) I prefer Oskar. Of course, it’s hard to imagine that a nine year old can know so much about life and words and what’s happening around him, which makes the book seem a bit unrealistic, but it doesn’t do any harm to the book actually. His voice is so real, so heartbreaking that he can crack up me up with one line and make me tear up in another. That’s the magic of an awesome protagonist, one who can make you undergo mood swings that seem as if you’re PMSing on-again off-again. I love the way he talks to strangers, who all seemed be inspired by a little boy, the way he asks them, “What’s that?” when he doesn’t understand a word, the way he’s always inventing things and reciting scientific facts that make people think he’s weird. His inventions are what pulled me to him. He’s always thinking about trying to improve the world this way or that, asking, “What if?” and it cracks me up, but at the same time, makes me sad. He brings me to my world, where I ask, “What if this, what if that?” and I imagine all those scenarios where I’m better than the person I am, where I can imagine better substitutions for things that are already available on Earth. Oskar questions all this stuff, and the book never provides a straight answer, but leaves deep and insightful words for the reader to figure it out by themselves. That’s one of the reasons why it took me longer than necessary to finish this book, because I was too busy thinking about the dialogue, the words, the wit of every character, which are spun so lividly that they might as well exist in New York. I want to meet those people, every single one of them, and be like Oskar. But I don’t have the innocence he does, or the open and easy attitude he talks to them with.

Although an exceptional book, I hated the mixture of the generations. I thought the book could have done without Grandpa’s letters and Grandma’s typing (as for her part of the story, I only realized that she’d type-written it towards the last two chapters) because they were annoyingly painful to read. I didn’t want to know about Grandpa’s fear of being alive—something that I didn’t understand right from the beginning—or Grandma’s recounts of her relationship between them, because I never understood how she could love a man that barely talked to her. What made it worse was the supposedly-unique method the author used for their “voice”. Grandma with the typewriter and extravagant spaces, Grandpa with the one-liners on an entire page of the novel and his run-on sentences with so many commas that I thought I would go insane. I might not be obsessed with grammar, and I know they are intentional, but having to read a whole chapter written like that, with so many mistakes and run-ons, frustrates me to no end. Needless to say, the only voice I want and find myself looking forward to is Oskar’s, but I also know that the two generations are also needed for the story’s meaning to be heard, but I just wish it isn’t so. Even then, I do love the way every detail matters and that what happens in three chapters ago that sounds confusing will make sense in the forthcoming chapters.

I recently read somewhere that writers, and those who want to be writers, are extremely harsh in their critique. I really do believe that, which might explain why I seem to be so opinionated when I talk about books or writing in general, any why I didn't give this 5 stars. I love this and all, but the time lapses on the book is not its strong point. I don't want a story that goes back and forth between so many events that it complicates so much more. If there was a smooth order, I would have loved this more. ...less

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Jeffrey rated it:

05/28/07

Read in May, 2007

recommends it for: Those Interested In A Quick Read

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 11...more 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 11, 2001. His mother, disconnected and detatched, finds another man, but Oskar and his grandparents, who live across the street, are having a more difficult time coping with the death of their father and son, respectively. Oskar's grandparents are additionally haunted by their personal tragedy because the September 11th attacks remind them of the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. Foer attempts, however unsuccessfully, to parallel these two narratives and the separated generations that experienced them.

Oskar is a unique child--he speaks many languages, makes friends with everyone he speaks with, and fashions jewelery. If one was unaware of Oskar's many talents, he would be happy to give them a business card. After finding a key left behind by his father, Oskar seeks to find what that key opens. This quest takes him around New York, a la Salinger's Holden, in a quest for self. These quests provide the reader with some emotional and enlightening experiences and scenes, but the poorly-executed allegory makes the journey mostly trite and overly moralistic. Neither Oskar nor Foer have the style to be Holden or Salinger, respectively. The unique style of The Catcher in the Rye provides it with its uniquely classic status; the pedestrian style of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close provides it with its average stature.

Oskar's quest is caused by an inability to come to terms with his new environment. This is a feeling that both plagued and inspired Joyce and Faulkner. Joyce himself and Faulkner's characters, however, are much more experienced than Oskar and have had the opportunity to let their conflicts play out and become more nuanced than Oskar. Oskar is only nine-years old; the book happens too quickly and so does Oskar. The book would have perhaps been more effective if it were an insight into Oskar's teenage years, after the death of his father had simmered and fostered more backlash, especially at his mother. Then, and only then, could one see Oskar as Joyce, Faulkner, or even Holden.

The way the story is woven together--hybridized (blank pages, different fonts, etc.) and with intertextuality--is not only too complex for a nine-year old boy, it is too complex for Foer who does not have the Morrison-esque or (her idol) Faulkner-esque chops to successfully hybridize the page. Foer's novel almost seems non-linear and hybridized for the sake of non-linearity and hybridization. The two plots--September 11th and Dresden--are never fully reconciled and the parallel is a bit askew. The nuances of both are lost on Foer. The discussions between Oskar and his grandparents lead to some genuinely hearfelt moments, but by-and-large the failure to adequately link these two historical instances falls short. E.L. Doctorow, one of the most skiled American writers, attempted to hybridize the page in Loon Lake, which, like Foer's effort, was noble but failed. If Doctorow can't do it, Foer can't either.

I don't mean to come down hard on Foer because it takes a lot of courage to attempt to embrace and emulate these literary giants, but the novel can be considered a study in needing to let-Foer-be-Foer. He produces some very substantial, genuinely emotional moments, but they are few and far between and the hype of this novel as an anthem for the 9/11 generation quickly dissolves after only a few failed pages....less

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Teresa rated it:

(review of isbn 0618329706)

08/10/07

bookshelves: readandreviewed

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in April, 2005

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 envelop...more 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 marked "Black" amid his father's things and starts out on a quest around NYC to find out what the key means and gain some insight into how his father died. The other story intertwined with this one is the story of Oscar's grandparents: his grandfather, who lost his ability to speak along with the woman he loved; and his grandmother, from whom we hear in letters she writes to him.

Much has been made of Oskar's being too precocious and "cute" in other reviews. I think the creation of Oskar Schell is the best thing in the book. I think that all of his eccentricities (many unexplained) make him a vivid, interesting character. He was the kind of character I wanted to reach in and hug - especially when he "gave himself bruises" or wore "heavy boots."

I also appreciate the way that JSF writes his older characters. Thomas and Oskar's grandmother are riveting in the way the express themselves and tell their stories - JSF treats them with such dignity and care, and I was completely invested in both of them.

JSF has a gift for getting to the emotional heart of things in a way that few writers do. In this novel, as in his first and in his short fiction, he describes feelings in a way that I never could, but in a way that I recognize immediately.

Now, this is not to say that the book doesn't have its flaws...there are certain lines that are too much - something about zipping up the sleeping bag of myself comes to mind. And while I respect the impulse to try to make this novel more than just words on a page by adding images to be flipped through, there were some that were just pointless - even taken in the context of being in Oskar's book of Stuff That's Happened to Me. For example, the page that depicts the ink samples at the paint store works, because I found Thomas' name among the others and it piqued my interest. However, the photo of the elephant crying just seems to be an illustration and doesn't seem to serve a real purpose in being there...

However, my biggest problem with the book is the fact that I think JSF has chosen to deal directly with September 11th too soon. This is not to say that it is "too sacred" to write about, or that it shouldn't be dealt with, or that JSF shouldn't have been the first to write about it. I think if any author would be capable of dealing with that tragedy in a novel, he would. My problem is that I know that he had written a completely different novel before this....about lives converging in a museum, about a homosexual relationship that goes unacknowledged in history.... Also, I remember hearing the character, Oskar, for the first time at a reading JSF did at Russian Samovar in December of 2002 - he read the original first chapter of what now exists as EL&IC. 9/11 wasn't mentioned at all. I don't know what JSF's process was, or when what was to be "The Zelnick Museum" ended up turning into EL&IC, but it just feels like 9/11 was stuck in as an afterthought, and so it doesn't feel quite true. What holds this book together for me is Oskar's sense of loss. How he is dealing with the loss of a parent. But in this book, the fact that his father died in 9/11 seems inconsequential. His father could have died any number of ways, and it wouldn't affect the book at all - Oskar would probably still deal with the same fears and insecurities had anything else killed his father. So why tell this story? Why try to write a 9/11 novel that isn't really a 9/11 novel?...less

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Anna rated it:

(review of isbn 0618329706)

08/20/07

Read in June, 2007

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 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 exercise he just threw in there! An excellent one, but nonetheless, seemingly distracting."

Yet it all comes together in the end. Not comes around -- no, it's not circular in that neat, narrative way most fiction perhaps tries to attain. It's random and all over and often exasperating to follow. But it FEELS like experience and in the end, it FEELS like you lived it, because the final words encompass you in a most comprehensive, compassionate, resonant, moving way.

This won't make sense -- I am still processing -- and I don't really want to write a literary lauding of Foer and his wonderful character, 13-year-old Oskar (or is he 15? I lost track, but not in a bad way). He's already one of the prestigious GRANTA's "Best Young Novelists Under 35 to Watch." Others will analyze and wax literary much better than I.

Simply, when this novel was published in 2005, I read the reviews that said, "Here is a young man who has written one of the first novels of 9/11, through the quirky eyes of a pre-teen, without sentimentality or melodrama or gore, and better yet, with the talent of one who is prodigiously gifted." Or some such phrasing. In any case, I remember making a note of it. "This will be the first novel about 9/11 I will read, when I am ready."

Last September 2006, during the 5th anniversary of 9/11, I found myself actually wanting to remember, for the first time. Not that I ever forgot -- I feel that date quite viscerally every year it rolls around and in every mention and reference I hear. I think, like any New Yorker at that moment, I cannot detach myself from its burrowed presence within me, having lived through that day on Manhattan and that year afterwards during its immediate aftermath. But I put it away from me, That Thing I Never Wanted to Wallow In. So this year, I finally let myself wallow. And I read this book.

All I can say is that it captures in a very deep psychic sense, all of the details from after around beyond that day and its aftermath, in the most thorough, random, distracted, ever-present, whimsical, sad, horrible, angry, funny, wayward, yet connective ways, so organically, that even though I sometimes wandered in the reading, sometimes tuned out only to get thrust back in, found myself surprisingly moved in unwary places, thoughtful in so many unsuspected spaces, I still was touched to my core by its final simplicity at the end. I cannot share those details here -- I feel like this is one of those books that a first time read is one's own singular experience and thus, would like to leave that future discovery for potential readers intact -- but I will say this: It's a beautiful beautiful book about and beyond 9/11, especially in regards to the notion of imagination allowing humanity always, a semblance of hope, in every shading. DEFINITELY recommended, tho' it's experimental fiction style may not be everyone's cup of tea....less

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Sam rated it:

08/11/07

Read in July, 2007

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close begins in late fall of 2001. It charts the voyages of three people through their own histories of loss: Oskar Schell, his Grandma, and her estranged husband. The three are distinctly different in both their aspirations and attributes, and as such, Jonathan Safran Foer adeptly creates for them three distinctly different voi...more Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close begins in late fall of 2001. It charts the voyages of three people through their own histories of loss: Oskar Schell, his Grandma, and her estranged husband. The three are distinctly different in both their aspirations and attributes, and as such, Jonathan Safran Foer adeptly creates for them three distinctly different voices. The connection between these three becomes more apparent as the links between their stories are displayed.

Foer is not showy in his revelations, but, rather, meticulous and understated. He understands the reality of perspective and artfully demonstrates the ways in which one’s perception of the same event is wholly different from another’s. This grasp on perspective is crucial, because perception is a key thematic element of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It employs the use of images to explore their relationships with text and experience. Some images are revealed before their explanations, some after. Foer here exhibits further talent in his grasp of storytelling tools. Some images are staunch and require attention intrinsically, while others are mundane and become transcendent as the narrator sculpts the clay of narrative around them. In both cases, the images are calculated and well-handled.

One image in particular is recurrent, sowing the seeds for the emotional finale: that of an anonymous businessman falling from one of the twin towers. Despite being perhaps the most gruesome, telling, and core image of September 11th (and the one that has stuck with me the most, inspiring the most fear and anguish), it manages to evoke a variety of feelings depending on its juxtaposition in the novel.

September 11th of 2001 inflicted wounds that, for me, quickly and haphazardly scarred-over. In a time such as now, after its specter was dangled over the heads of the public constantly, the human connection to this event has been lost. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a well-orchestrated sneaking-in-through-the-back-door of the day of the attack that lets one’s guard come down to be vulnerable once more, in a manner that is always tasteful, and Foer demonstrates clearly that he is trustworthy. It is the most emotionally close to September 11th that I have been since then. This is because Foer has beautifully molded his main character, Oskar, rather than carelessly copping out by evoking the event itself. Oskar Schell evolves from what first appears to be a shallow broken record into the frightened, emotionally deep spirit of the child left behind by the American public. It is only once he becomes real in the imagination that the historical American moment of “9/11” begins to be recalled, and finally regains the dignity and significance that it once had. For that Jonathan Safran Foer deserves heartfelt commendation.

Like any good writer, Jonathan Safran Foer is a giver. He provides detail, plot, and character development as much as possible; and yet, nothing is ever extraneous or useless. He is unassuming and gives his audience members the utmost respect, entrusting them to pick up the pieces he drops for them. He is gracious without being charitable. Any accolades he receives for this book are deserved and well-earned. Foer is a bold, daring star of post-modern literature; he asks us to truly mourn what is truly lost....less

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Bart rated it:

08/15/08

Read in August, 2008

recommended to Bart by: Everything is Illuminated
recommends it for: No one at all

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 co...more 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 them all they really saw were special effects.

It’s very difficult to read Foer’s second novel without reflecting on his first. Everything is Illuminated began in such an original way that a reader forgave the 150 or so dull pages of less-than-compelling writing that came along throughout the rest of the book. The reader forgave the puerile reflections on the Holocaust and the manufactured confession of homosexuality. Because the book began so originally.

But Foer is a one-trick pony. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, he’s once more co-opted a mass tragedy and made a fruit salad of it with various voices and narrative tricks. Oh sure, the book has an underlying tone of sadness – sadness, not seriousness – because, clever as he wants to be, Foer didn’t dare go wholehog with a tragedy still as fresh as 9/11. But that’s about the only restriction he put on his vanity.

To indulge himself with a hundred irritating digressions and quips, Foer invented a child narrator. This has become more and more common among the hyper-realism set in the last 10 years. Raised by guidance counselors who told them to never stop being childish, these novelists give us hundreds of pages of “exploring their inner child” – all under the guise of serious artistic endeavor.

But this is not serious art. This is an author who makes the easy choice every time. When he thinks he has something profound to say, he doesn’t hesitate to have his nine-year-old narrator couch things in college-level language. The rest of the time, when he feels like writing about whichever page of the encyclopedia he happened to turn to that morning, he has the little professor wander off wherever he wishes, always with a literary safety net that says, “I’m trying to depict the world through a child’s eyes!”

But we should ask ourselves why a novelist feels compelled to depict a mass tragedy through a child’s eyes. After all, this isn’t biography; Foer could have depicted the tragedy through anyone’s eyes at all. Better put, when he sat down to write about the savagery of Napoleon’s 1812 battle with Russia, why didn’t Leo Tolstoy depict the burning of Moscow through the eyes of a nine-year-old and his nutty and mute grandfather? Probably because a nine-year-old would have limited Tolstoy’s vocabulary too drastically; a nine-year-old doesn’t know enough to say anything original about war.

Tolstoy, in other words, was too concerned about making an original commentary to worry about being a “fresh new voice!” in the contemporary fiction scene. Tolstoy took a large subject and made it larger. Foer takes a large subject and makes it tiny.

But sometimes, I’ve learned, large things must be tiny. That’s how Foer’s narrator would say it. And he’d be wrong, of course. But then, that’s why we don’t publish books written by nine-year-olds....less

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Andy rated it:

08/01/08

Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: Pseudo-intellectuals, people suckered by saccharine emotion

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 it as charmi...more
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 it as charming wistfulness, or you don’t. You either think random tabbing on pages is innovative, or you don’t. You think empty pages and single phrases on other pages is a daring deconstruction of traditional publishing mores, or you don’t. I don’t.

Foer’s grieving young narrator is a ridiculous creation, the book’s pagination is something a stricter editor should have vomited upon, and the situations in which Oskar finds himself are fabricated of glitter-encrusted papier-mâché. This story is never once believable; therefore any emotion generated is as phony as a three-dollar bill. Now don’t misunderstand; I read lots of far-fetched books, so I believe genuine emotion can be achieved through stories about the tooth fairy, WMDs, sympathetic lawyers or any number of myths. But too many times in this book, people do things just to do them, and things happen just to have them happen or to give Foer scanty reason to wax poetic for pages at a time – without such bourgeoisie restrictions as paragraphs or punctuation (or sensible storytelling) muddling up the artiste’s vision.

Foer’s stream-of-consciousness narrative reminds me of the saying about the infinite monkeys: sooner or later one of an infinite number of monkeys on an infinite number of typewriters is going to randomly type the complete works of Shakespeare. Except in Foer’s case, it’s as though he was one of the monkeys in the middle of infinity, a bright but underachieving chimpanzee picking nits and banging the keys petulantly with a hardened piece of fecal matter. If Foer wished to write a thick book entirely in free verse (broken up with pictures now and again so people don’t become “bored”), then he should have had the cajones to do so, not foist this vanity project upon the public under the guise of a novel claiming to be about reaction to 9/11.

This is a book for a self-important Attention-Deficit society. I think most people in today’s age of texting while driving and non-stop news alerts and picture-in-picture don’t actually read every word on the page anyway. They scan pages looking for the “good stuff,” and that’s all they remember. So therefore they’re not put off by the author’s interminable ramblings, his attempt to bludgeon the reader with a thick blanket of nonsensical phrases, hoping they will be distracted into thinking they come together to create some sort of profound stew greater than the sum of its silly parts. But for those of us who think each word matters, this practice is annoying subterfuge, and ultimately meaningless....less

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Derek rated it:

01/24/08

Read in January, 2008

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

I thought I'd be able to review Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close without making mention of Everything is Illuminated, but since I read them both so close together, I don't think I'm going to be able to avoid it. In short, I don't think that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is as good as its predecessor. But that's not to say it's not a fantastic book. I just find that some of the things that make me love Jonathan Safran Foer, in this book at least, begin to give me pau...more I thought I'd be able to review Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close without making mention of Everything is Illuminated, but since I read them both so close together, I don't think I'm going to be able to avoid it. In short, I don't think that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is as good as its predecessor. But that's not to say it's not a fantastic book. I just find that some of the things that make me love Jonathan Safran Foer, in this book at least, begin to give me pause.

The structure is similar - the book revolves around a horrific and rather epic real-life event (in this case, September 11th) and, from that, tells the stories of a single family. I loved the inter-generational relationships, and how effectively he tells the story using multiple perspectives. Again, he did this in the last book, but his execution is a little different here - the gap between those narrators is not so wide.

The playfulness that was Alex's broken English in Everything is Illuminated now takes the form of, dare I say it, gimmicky formatting fun. We see red "correction" marks, lines run together, pictures illustrate some of the action of the book. It's not altogether ineffective (the lines running together were particularly good), but it doesn't quite feel necessary. He's a fabulous writer - I want to read his words, not see his photos. I respect what he's trying to do, and I might even understand it, but I just prefer to read his writing. A page in a Jonathan Safran Foer book without words on it is a wasted page indeed.

Keep in mind, this is really the only glaring weakness I could find in the book. The structure of multiple narrators works to the novel's benefit - I think too much of one narrator would become trying. The plot is sentimental but not overbearing, and I think that is probably his greatest strength. It's easy in this day in age to be cooly aloof or distant. This book is not afraid of sentimentality, but it's not exactly Chicken Soup, either - it earns its sentimentality.

The imagination of the book is another selling point for me - the characters he meets (note I'm avoiding the word "colorful") are uniquely characterized. There's a woman who lives in the Empire State Building without objection from the building's owners, there's the man who's created a card catalogue for everyone he's known or known about, there's the grandfather who gave up speaking altogether and had to tattoo Yes and No on his palms. This allows the plot of a nine-year-old searching all of New York City for a single person seem kind of plausible.

By far, my favorite passage was where Oskar's grandfather tells his ill-sighted wife to type the story of her life on a typewriter with (unbeknownst to him) no ribbon. This is a place where the formatting tomfoolery works brilliantly - an incredible passage in a largely incredible second novel....less

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Rachel rated it:

02/04/08

After a long string of "so-so" books, I finally picked up "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and hoped for the best.
I struggled through "Everything is Illuminated" because of the hype it recieved, only to find that it was, in my opinion, not very interesting, and hard to follow. This book however, is completely different from Foer's first novel.

The very first page of this book had me instantly excited. The main character, Oskar, reminded me much of the main...more After a long string of "so-so" books, I finally picked up "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" and hoped for the best.
I struggled through "Everything is Illuminated" because of the hype it recieved, only to find that it was, in my opinion, not very interesting, and hard to follow. This book however, is completely different from Foer's first novel.

The very first page of this book had me instantly excited. The main character, Oskar, reminded me much of the main character in "The Curious Incident" and the writing style was very similar to Mark Haddon. Oskar is a charming young boy with qualities to match. For example, he asks questions that have no point, and starting sentences with "It's just that..." constantly. He is, however, an extremely intelligent little boy who is filled with useless facts like how "10,000 birds die every year by flying into windows" and all of these cute, yet interesting inventions like a "birdseed shirt" and a "detachable pocket." I instantly fell in love with him and wanted to protect him through the entire book.

Other characters share chapters in this book and make the most beautiful side story I have read in a long time. Oskar's grandfather, who abandoned Oskar's grandmother when she was pregnant, is writing chapters called, "Why I'm Not Where You Are" which are letters to his son (Oskars father) explaining why he left. He has stopped speaking after a horrific event that took place much earlier in his life, and has taken to writing words in a book to answer and ask questions to the rest of the world.

Oskar on the other hand has dealt with the worst thing a child would have to go through. Losing his father to 9-11. (don't worry I didn't spoil this for you...you find out at the very beginning of the book, and it is mentioned on the back cover heh heh) His father was always sending Oskar on little adventures, and this time Oskar comes across something very interesting in his fathers closet. It sparks an adventure like no other, where Oskar meets people and sees things that he takes pictures of and keeps in a scrapbook called "Things That Have Happened to Me." He goes on a journey to solve the mystery of what he found, and a journey of trying to cope with the loss of his beloved father.

This story was beautifully written, and I even found myself sighing and re-reading certain spots in the book because they were so beautiful. Oskars grandparents share such a unique and interesting love story, that it could have been a book all its own. Everyone should read this, and appreciate the wonderfully developed characters and the racing storyline that will have you flipping pages faster than ever before....less

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Nolatari rated it:

(review of isbn 0618329706)

07/27/08

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2008

recommends it for: lovers of non-linear storytelling

The novels of Jonathan Safran Foer are more than just engaging stories; they are puzzles whose pieces are laid out in non-linear fashion from multiple perspectives over many generations. Although one large story is being told, it takes much attention by the reader to grasp all the small pieces that will eventually drop into place by the final chapter. And even then, some pieces just might not fit the story at large. This, too, is okay. For the stories told by Foer are masterful and seem to be ge...more The novels of Jonathan Safran Foer are more than just engaging stories; they are puzzles whose pieces are laid out in non-linear fashion from multiple perspectives over many generations. Although one large story is being told, it takes much attention by the reader to grasp all the small pieces that will eventually drop into place by the final chapter. And even then, some pieces just might not fit the story at large. This, too, is okay. For the stories told by Foer are masterful and seem to be getting better with each new attempt.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close tells the larger story of a child trying to come to terms with the death of his father, who perished in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. In an effort to hold onto what he can, the boy, Oskar, finds a key inside a blue vase hidden in his father’s closet, and with only one clue he begins a trek across New York City to find the lock that fits the key. He assumes this key is part of a game that his father was going to present to him, as the two have played such games throughout the boy’s life, but without his dad’s assistance, the task is monumental. Since Oskar desperately needs to hold onto everything that will remind him of his dad, he is determined to work his way through every single lock that the key might fit. And there begins the story.

In between the chapters of Oskar’s search, we meet his grandmother and grandfather, both of whom are survivors of the bombing to Dresden, Germany, during World War II, and throughout the book we are taken on a journey with these two until all three stories converge at the end. In this respect, Extremely Loud is much like Foer’s previous novel, Everything Is Illuminated, but the heart of the second novel is much more relatable and straightforward. The thread that runs from the Dresden tragedy to the World Trade Center tragedy is much stronger than I first anticipated. And each reflection on Dresden seemed to place even more weight on the recent events. Foer chose exactly the right imagery and emotions and words to speak about something that is still so very delicate and sensitive to Americans. And in using a child to speak directly on the subject, somehow it seemed appropriate to revisit that day. Though not less heartbreaking.

Despite the core of the novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close does not have a sad tone. There are times that it is heavy, of course, but there are times of great humor and great fun. Oskar’s quest is enjoyable and a plausible mystery, and the story of the grandparents is astounding, to say the least. Above all, though, this is a story of humanity in the face of tragedy. And that alone makes this book worth anyone’s investment.

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d e v i s a r i rated it:

(review of isbn 0141012692)

06/24/07

Read in June, 2007

recommends it for: people who like new-way of writing

What would you do if you got a phone message from your father who was trapped in the World Trade Center, minutes before it collapsed?
Oskar decides not to tell his mother and keeps it for it self.

This story is about the 9 year-old boy trying to come to term with the lost of his father. The story begins when Oskar found a key in a blue vase that was kept in his father wardrobe. He does not know what the key opens and eventually decided to find out. He only has one clue; He knows that he shou...more What would you do if you got a phone message from your father who was trapped in the World Trade Center, minutes before it collapsed?
Oskar decides not to tell his mother and keeps it for it self.

This story is about the 9 year-old boy trying to come to term with the lost of his father. The story begins when Oskar found a key in a blue vase that was kept in his father wardrobe. He does not know what the key opens and eventually decided to find out. He only has one clue; He knows that he should find somebody called Black who might hold the key to the mystery.
The book tells his quest in finding “Black”; his adventure around New York City trying to inquire information from every “Black” listed in the phone-book; Up-town Blacks, immigrant Blacks, female Blacks, male Blacks, old and young Blacks.

An unusual story about an unusual boy, who likes to invent things, speaks French and writes letters to Stephen Hawking. The story goes around a number of personages; Oskar, his mother, his grand mother, the mute renter who turns out to be his actual grand father, and the “Blacks” the complete strangers he encounters all over New York City.

The book portrays how the personages around Oskar tries to cope with the 9/11 trauma in different manners. His mother who lost his husband, his grand mother his son, the renter his son and Oskar his dad. Denial, acceptance, anger, frustration, and guilt, jumbled together. Nothing confirms anything. There is no justification for things.

Despite the depressive theme, Safran Foer manages to bring humor to the story through the character of Oskar who is witty, curious, straight forward and persistent; this is the strong point of the book. He presents unexpected and unlikely story lines, which would stir up the reader’s emotion.

The book itself has an unusual presentation not likely seen in a pocket-book fiction; it has random colored text, images that tickle your curiosity, overlapped printed texts and even blank pages. Finding these irregularities in between the pages is a real surprise for the reader. The experience of reading this book is much more than reading the text, but also pleasure of finding visual surprises.

A delightful book that is worth reading!
Good for somebody who likes to read unconventional way of writing!
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Jacob rated it:

11/21/07

Read in November, 2007

recommends it for: human beings only.

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 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 of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I have heard this book criticized as self-indulgent. That is a rather subjective criticism to begin with, but I found it to be nothing of the kind. Were a work to appear so, I would imagine that I would be seeing constantly confronted with the author's intentions, which would manipulate the story - and maybe other readers fancied that they did - but I left this book feeling like I had lived the life of the protagonist (a boy named Oscar) and witnessed his family's history. If any single concept could synopsize this book, it would be catharsis. From beginning to end you feel that the boy is looking for release from something that has taken hold of him in the face of tremendous loss. As he searches, he encounters instance after instance of the loss, pain, and endurance of others, always trying to alleviate it, always seeing right through situations to the people behind them in the way only a child his age could. He is simultaneously a fiercely autonomous individual and an utter product of his family - totally free to do whatever he likes (and to feel as lost as can be), yet all the while watched over, protected, and even determined by his loved ones. The parallels one can draw to one's own life (whether to lack or to fulfillment of these ideas) are powerful. In the context of the tragedy of September 11th, we see an utterly humanized account of a suffering world.

I have hardly scratched the surface here of all the themes, moments, and unwritable realizations (many of which came from creatively placed pictures) that I saw in this book....less

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