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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
Made me tired. I wanted it to end much sooner than it did.
This was a really good read. I'm not really sure if these are tears cause it is a sad topic or tears since I know the characters will be okay. The emotions in this book were captured well. I lost my Father to cancer a year ago, which I know is not the same, but the emotions the main character went through were true. Seeking his Father in every way is something I still do to this day. Loved this book!
this book is beyond amazing, i was blown by this book. highly recommended. you guys won't regret it after reading the last page.
Hey guys, so I finished Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer for my lit class, and well...it was a school book, so what do you expect? It wasnt that great...and for more than half of the book I was just soo confused about what the hell was going on. There were too many perspectives and I had a hard time making connections and it was just a disaster. But, I think I may have been over analyzing it just a tad, trying to pick out certain aspects that I might need to write about for my "journal". Would it have helped if I had read the prompt before reading this book? Probably not, cause then I would have been focused on only picking out details that fit that agenda, instead of the book as a whole. Either way, I was just lost in the ink...until I watched the movie. Albeit the movie basically just used the book as a "guidance" it did help me see the novel in a new light. After that, it was a little easier to read the book, I just read, without trying to overthink everything going on. And now I can say that this book, although it has a few funny moments scattered throughout the pages, it is incredibly sad. Just sad.....like really....and at times it is rather philosophical. But at other moments it's just like WTF. For example, my mind was reeling when Oskar was detailing how many he knew, didnt want to know, and didnt know about various sexual elements. I was just like, what kinda of nine year old knows about that?! *shakes head* oy... Anyway, I always try and figure out how authors get the titles for their books, and I think I have my "suspicions" on where Foer got the title "Extremely loud, Incredibly Close" Hehe. I would tell you my "theory" but that might be a spoiler.... Nevertheless, this was a school book, I would have never read this on my own, and I will not be reading anything else this author has written, no offense.
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Don’t know about this rating. Some parts of the book I really liked - some parts I really didn’t. I did like Oscars character and point of view - especially his friendship with Mr Black. But part of the ending (digging up his father’s grave) kind of ruined it a bit for me. Why was that bit necessary? However I did like that the story didn’t have a typical happy ending, and that there wasn’t a deeper meaning behind the key
The other POVs (Oscar’s grandfather and grandmother) really didn’t do anything for me. I just found it boring and kind of annoying; why was we supposed to feel so sad for his grandfather;yes, Anna died, but seriously - he just decided to stop talking and ran away from his family and unborn son?
Overall not a completely bad read, but far from a five star read too.
The other POVs (Oscar’s grandfather and grandmother) really didn’t do anything for me. I just found it boring and kind of annoying; why was we supposed to feel so sad for his grandfather;
Overall not a completely bad read, but far from a five star read too.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, War
Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Self harm
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Went from feeling "meh, I can sort of see how this can be considered literary, but it's not for me" to being in tears at the end (fifth book ever to get me crying). The unorthodox elements in this book confused and frankly annoyed me sometimes in the beginning, but towards the end I learnt to appreciate them. Difficult to give this book an accurate rating, might end up changing it later.
This book felt a little longer than 326 pages. Could be that the story was not my cup of tea but I found it to be too ridiculous for the subject matter it was handling. The ridiculousness of the story tend to take me out of the story. All in all a slog to get through for just a meh book.
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm so glad I watched the movie first. It softened all of the blows for me, and I didn't cry. The return of the emotionless robot was welcomed deeply.
I very, very, very much liked the book better than the movie. The movie is wonderful in it's own right, but it has a happy ending. And this story doesn't feel like a happy ending kind of story. I mean, you want a happy ending. You want Oskar to find a hidden message from his dad, you want him to find the answers and make sense of something so horrible and nonsensical. But the story makes more sense if there is no real answer. It's awful, and painful, but it's the non fairytale approach.
I love Oskar the character. I saw the reviews about him being too precocious, but I think this book strikes just the right nerve. He was already a fairly unusual child before 9/11, and losing his dad pushed him into "that is one odd kid" territory. But he's sweet, and intelligent, and it was so fun to read the story through his eyes.
I could've done without the story through his grandparents' eyes, truth be told. I actually would've preferred to have a chapter towards the end from his mom's perspective, but she's not really a main player here.
Also, I wish we'd met more Blacks. If we left out a lot of the grandparent bits, we could've fit a lot more of their stories in there.
Heart breaking. But beautifully so.
I very, very, very much liked the book better than the movie. The movie is wonderful in it's own right, but it has a happy ending. And this story doesn't feel like a happy ending kind of story. I mean, you want a happy ending. You want Oskar to find a hidden message from his dad, you want him to find the answers and make sense of something so horrible and nonsensical. But the story makes more sense if there is no real answer. It's awful, and painful, but it's the non fairytale approach.
I love Oskar the character. I saw the reviews about him being too precocious, but I think this book strikes just the right nerve. He was already a fairly unusual child before 9/11, and losing his dad pushed him into "that is one odd kid" territory. But he's sweet, and intelligent, and it was so fun to read the story through his eyes.
I could've done without the story through his grandparents' eyes, truth be told. I actually would've preferred to have a chapter towards the end from his mom's perspective, but she's not really a main player here.
Also, I wish we'd met more Blacks. If we left out a lot of the grandparent bits, we could've fit a lot more of their stories in there.
Heart breaking. But beautifully so.