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What Members Thought
Oh my. I'm torn. It took me a while to warm up with the story and the witty style of Jonathan Safran Foer (who, witty enough to use his name as the main character's name). Foer wrote the story with three different language style, all are related one and another. He played with language just like a kid playing happily with his toy. He's very "at home" here and although I can't say that this book is my favorite, I can admit that I admire Foer nonetheless for his wittiness :)
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Didn't care for this one all that much. The author's writing style drove me nuts. Lack of carriage returns among dialog made it difficult to read long bits of narration and Alex's English, while endearing to many, irked me a bit. I did really enjoy the more historical bits - Brod, Lista, the search for Augustine, etc. I just didn't feel "Illuminated" after reading this one. Felt it was a tad gimmicky.
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There's just something lovely about the way this book hangs together - the interweaving works beautifully and the turns of phrase shine. Normally I dislike the style choice of dialect or tweaked language, but with Alex it really works because it forces you to slow down and really absorb the text. Surprisingly polished and well-crafted for a young writer's debut.
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I loved Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close but I could not make it through this whole book. The characters were so irritating and I could not make myself care about any of them, past or present.
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will be reading again.
Aug 10, 2010
Jen
marked it as to-read
Mar 11, 2012
Dana Arbelaez
marked it as to-read
Jul 26, 2012
Lindsay
marked it as to-read
Jun 10, 2013
Yiga
marked it as to-read
Jul 25, 2016
Seulky
marked it as to-read
Oct 27, 2018
Jocelyn
marked it as to-read
Nov 26, 2018
Kelly
marked it as to-read
