I’m not going to use my traditional review format to write about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer because, quite frankly, the book deserves better than that. In short, I thought this was an amazing read — it broke my heart but still managed to leave me feeling a little bit warm and fuzzy in side.
This book is mostly about nine-year-old Oskar Schell. Two years before this book starts, Oskar’s father is killed in the terrorist attacks on 9/11. While going through his father’s stuff in a closet, Oskar comes across a key and becomes convinced if he can find the owner of the key he’ll find a message from his dad.
Foer simultaneously tells the story of Oskar’s grandparents who also had their lives thrown asunder by violence during the attacks in Dresen in WWII. The book constantly switches narrators without much do explain the switches and can make the book even more complicated.
The best part about this book is Oskar. He is a smart little kid, but also damaged. His heart was broken when his dad died, and I think Oskar hides behind this quirky, liberal, vegan, unique persona he’s created for himself. As he goes about his quest in the city, my heart was split between wanting him to find what he needed and wishing that someone else could find it for him so he could start to heal. He’s the kind of narrator you can’t help but root for.
This book is very complicated though. Foer is very postmodern, which means he writes and thinks about fragmentation and separation and feelings of isolation while using different media to draw the reader in. The book uses pictures, pages with sparse text, pages with text crowded on to it until you get this sort of disjointed and confused feeling.
I don’t normally like books about 9/11. Thinking about that particular day too much hurts because of what happened and how much it’s changed everything since. I also have a hard time dealing with bad things happening to kids. So when you add those together things together and finally understand what happened to Oskar on 9/11, it’s a lot to take.
I remember starting to cry about 100 pages from the end of this book and just couldn’t stop. I finished, cried some more, and then calmed down a bit. Boyfriend was at my apartment was I was reading the book, so after I was calm he asked me to tell him about the story. As I tried to explain it I got all teary-eyed and started crying all over again. It was a lot, and that emotional reaction to the story has stuck with me.
But it is a lot in the best possible way. I loved this book so much. I loved it enough to make it only the second book I’ve reviewed on this blog to get the A+ Perfect Score Award!
However, I grant the award with a caveat — not everyone is going to like this book. If you can’t deal with fractured narrative or isolation or stories told in strange formats, you’re not going to like this. But if you can accept, heck, embrace the non-traditional style, you’ll be rewarded with a story that will stick with you for a long time.
Other Reviews: Lous Pages;
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{ 46 comments… read them below or add one }
I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like that, but you’ve made the book sound so great I’d like to try.
Twitter: carrieactually
August 18, 2009 at 3:59 pm
having been a graphic design major in college i especially loved the use of typography in this book
I love when I read a book that is so touching I can’t stop thinking about it. Sometimes those are hard to find. Sounds like a great read!
I read and reviewed this one earlier this year and enjoyed it a good deal too. Like you, I tend to avoid books written about 9/11, but I thought this one was quite clever, and avoided being maudlin or exploitive. It didn’t resonate with me quite as much as it clearly did for you, but it was definitely a wonderful read.
To me, this book felt like one long punch to the stomach. I don’t think I’ve ever cried with such intensity over a work of fiction.
Twitter: BkClubCare
August 18, 2009 at 7:32 pm
I’m going to try this again in the Fall. I just couldnt’ reconcile my pending mood with the sunny springtime season when I attempted to read this in April. This, so far, is one of those books I know I’ll love if I would just commit to it!
This does sound like a very intriguing book. Thanks to your well-written review, I may need to add this to my T.B.R. pile.
(P.S. For another perspective on 9-11, try Saffron Dreams by Shaila Abdullah.)
Wonderful review. This sounds like a powerful read.
This sounds like a book I would absolutely ADORE. I love books that do more than tell a sad story – sure an emotional reaction and connection to the characters is a great thing that I absolutely appreciate, but I also want the story to challenge me. I want it to make me think about the bigger picture – those crazy unanswerable questions. And after taking my literary theory class, I’m used to fractured narrative – although difficult at time, it can be extremely rewarding. You just have to remember to push though the confusion because the end usually provides amazing clarity.
Twitter: jennysbooks
August 19, 2009 at 7:55 am
Great review! I haven’t read this previously because, like you, I find it upsetting when bad things happen to children. But maybe I will give it a try after all. With a box of tissues next to me on the couch.
It doesn’t necessarily sound like my type of book, but I’m intrigued, so I’m putting it down on a long list of “books to maybe think about someday.”
Here is what I thought about this book
http://louspages.blogspot.com/2008/10/extremely-loud-and-incredibly-close-by.html
Twitter: nonnecromancer
August 19, 2009 at 9:30 pm
I kept wondering if Oskar was autistic. I liked the first one by this author better (and thought the movie was decent).
I’m curious about a 9 year old who “hides behind this quirky, liberal, vegan, unique persona he’s created for himself.” Is he 9 throughout the story, or is he 9 when his dad dies and more of a preteen when most of the story takes place?
Twitter: nicolebo
August 20, 2009 at 6:07 am
This sounds like something that I would love to read. I tried reading Everything Is Illuminated and really couldn’t get into it, but I might try one more time with this one.
What other book did you give such high praises??
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down was the other book — it was so good it inspired the award
This book sounds like an amazing read! It’s on my TBR list and I’m on the waiting list for it at the library. I read only a few pages at the bookstore and I was hooked! Glad to see that you enjoyed it, too.
I love non-traditional styles and loved this book too! I’ll be reading Everything is Illuminated next…
This book made me cry, too, but I think that actually made me like it less… I think I felt like it was drawing its power from people’s own emotional baggage surrounding 9/11, and not from the story itself, so it felt like a little bit of a cheat. That was a few years ago, though; I wonder how I’d feel about it now?
I loved Everything is Illuminated, though.
That’s a pretty convincing recommendation. I do like postmodernism and fragmented stories, so I’ll definitely keep this in mind.
I’m currently reading Everything is Illuminated by Foer for the Dewey Reading Challenge, and that one is fabulous so far.
Wow. That must have made quite an impression for you to have such a strong reaction to it! I don’t do 9/11 books either, and I don’t do “bad things happening to kids” for the same reason. However, your review has me totally intrigued by this story. Thanks for the recommendation!
Please, please read this book. It’s fantastic, and the review here on it is great and spot on. it’s the best book i’ve ever read! so full of emotion.
I hadn’t really read a book like it either. It reminded me a bit of a comic book, in that the visual style of the page was important to the story, but otherwise I can’t think of what else to compare it too. It was very powerful though, if you have the patience to give it some time.
Yes, that was great. Especially near the end when it started overlapping and filling — I loved the visual connections the type created.
I thought about this book a lot. It took be forever to even think about how to review it because I didn’t know what to say. I’m still not sure exactly what to say, but I tried
Yes — so many of the books about 9/11 feel cliched or simplistic or voyeuristic. I felt like this book didn’t do that. 9/11 was sort of the event that set Oskar’s plight in motion, but the story doesn’t center on it, I guess.
The book does do a good job of holding the tension throughout. Every time I would get another detail about what happened to Oskar on 9/11 I’d feel my heart contracting just a little bit — it was that emotional mystery that made the book keep drawing me in.
I tried it once awhile ago and couldn’t read it. I was reading it in short little chunks which just didn’t work because it’s so complicated. It’s definitely not a cheery summery book, I think you’ll like it when you get into it.
Thanks for the recommendation!
It was, very much. This book is one that has stuck with me since I finished it.
This book is certainly a challenge! The narrator switching can throw you off, plus the use of pictures and typography also complicates the book. It’s a book I wish I’d read in a lit theory class because I think it would provide some great discussion points. I’m not sure I got a flash of insight at the end of this one, but I suspect if I went back to it more analytically I would. At the time, my emotional reaction was too strong to really do that.
Definitely have a box of tissues. In some ways this book is easier because you don’t see anything bad happen to Oskar, you just know something happened to him in the past. The book is about his process to recover, which is hard to watch because I just wanted him to be ok.
It’s very much a new classic, not at all like a lot of the classic greats you read. I wouldn’t necessarily peg it as your kind of book, but it might be one you’d like. It’s sort of hard to say though — I’m never sure myself how well I’ll be able to balance a complex narrative with storytelling and which one I’ll find more important.
Well, I’m trying to have a more open mind about the newer stuff. Maybe not this month, but sometime I might consider something like this book. Thanks for the review.
Thanks Lou, I’ll add a link to your review. I see you weren’t as enraptured with it as I was
Yeah, I wondered that too a little bit. But I guess I prefer to think of him as just an odd duck, especially since I don’t think the mother of an autistic child would let him meander around New York like Oskar’s mother did.
He’s nine throughout the story. I think he’s just smart for his age, or he listens to older people a lot and so he’s adopted a lot of these things (many of them that his dad did) as a a way to cope. He’s got lots of little funny thing — he speaks French, carries a tambourine around, lots of stuff.
I think this is a book that you have to read at the right time and place. For me, I just had to commit to just reading it straight through, almost, so I wouldn’t get lost. I’m curious about Everything is Illuminated now.
I did, very much. The first few pages are wonderful, I really got drawn in by Oskar and how odd but sweet he is.
Awesome, I can’t wait to hear the review. I’d love ot read that one sometime soon too.
Hmmm, that’s a really good point. I hadn’t thought about it like that. I guess I never felt cheated by it — I felt like the fact that the event that impacted Oskar was 9/11 wasn’t the focus of the book, that just sort of happened to be it. I wonder though, now, if the story could have picked a different event or even made up an event and it would have still been as powerful? I want to say yes, but I’m not sure. It might be different today where there’s a little more distance from the event as well.
Excellent!
That’s great. That’s another book I would love to read, and would definitely pick up if I came across it.
It was really well done. I don’t know that I did the book justice in the review, but I felt like it avoided most of the stereotypes that happen in 9/11 and “bad things happening to kids” books, which I appreciated. But, because I’m sort of predisposed to be affected by those things, it might have made my reaction to the book stronger.