You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
This is another one of those books written in the voice of an interesting kid. Earlier this year, I read [b:Room|7937843|Room|Emma Donoghue|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1344265419s/7937843.jpg|9585076], written in the simple voice of a 5-year-old trapped in a room with his mother. And of course, there was the autistic teenager solving a mystery in [b:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|1618|The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|Mark Haddon|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327882682s/1618.jpg|4259809]. In this book, the narrator was Oskar, a 9-year-old boy who thinks like no 9-year-old I've ever met. I initially thought that he sounded like the autistic teenager, with his quirky ideas for inventions and how he would talk about giving himself bruises when he couldn't deal with what was going on. Others have described him as "precocious," but I don't think that really explains his unique voice.
Despite finding Oskar's voice and perceptions to be interesting, I never really was completely engaged in the book, which made it very difficult to finish. Oskar's quest around New York City just didn't hook me. The sudden switches to the grandparents' stories were confusing, and I thought they were just plain weird, with nothing that I could connect to. I read this on the Kindle, and all of the illustrations and graphics were probably less powerful than they would have been in a physical book. I liked some of them, but some of them didn't really add much to my experience.
Seems like a lot of people really loved this book, and some people really hated it. I can't get onboard with either group. To me, it was just okay.
Despite finding Oskar's voice and perceptions to be interesting, I never really was completely engaged in the book, which made it very difficult to finish. Oskar's quest around New York City just didn't hook me. The sudden switches to the grandparents' stories were confusing, and I thought they were just plain weird, with nothing that I could connect to. I read this on the Kindle, and all of the illustrations and graphics were probably less powerful than they would have been in a physical book. I liked some of them, but some of them didn't really add much to my experience.
Seems like a lot of people really loved this book, and some people really hated it. I can't get onboard with either group. To me, it was just okay.
I don't have words for this book. One cannot describe it and maybe it's better not to know what it is about. From the blurb we know that Oscar, whose dad died in 9/11, finds a key but he doesn't have a lock that fits the key... But it's much more than that! The book is beautifully written! It touches your heart and there are times you want to cry from sadness but you realize that even those moments are sooo beautiful!
It's not only Oscar's story but the story of his whole family and the parts narrated by his family members were the most hearttouching! And Oscar! I love him - as a nine-year-old kid he can be very funny in his innocence and again - it's just sooo beautiful. The way everyone deals with the death of Oscar's dad - sad, moving, hearbreaking but extremely beautiful and incredibly unfergettable.
P.S. - I cannot believe that this book has an average rating below!! 4 stars!
It's not only Oscar's story but the story of his whole family and the parts narrated by his family members were the most hearttouching! And Oscar! I love him - as a nine-year-old kid he can be very funny in his innocence and again - it's just sooo beautiful. The way everyone deals with the death of Oscar's dad - sad, moving, hearbreaking but extremely beautiful and incredibly unfergettable.
P.S. - I cannot believe that this book has an average rating below!! 4 stars!
touching, funny, reflective but at times a bit inconclusive
I didn't know what to expect when I picked up the book, but in the early pages I was blown away. Oskar is nine and in search of a lock for a key he found in his father's closet. His father died in the attack on the Twin Towers in 2001.
I loved being inside Oskar's mind! To describe him as precocious would be an understatement and there is something almost autistic about his way of thinking. I loved following Oskar around the streets of New York, while wondering what his Mum was up to, allowing him out on his own. I loved the people he met (all those Mr and Mrs and Miss Blacks). What I didn't love was all the background filler in disjointed letters and messages. As I read the other part of the story about Anna and Thomas and Dresden, it all felt a bit too contrived to me. I know that all those strands do come together in the end, but they were more of a distraction. But overall, this book was amazing.
I loved being inside Oskar's mind! To describe him as precocious would be an understatement and there is something almost autistic about his way of thinking. I loved following Oskar around the streets of New York, while wondering what his Mum was up to, allowing him out on his own. I loved the people he met (all those Mr and Mrs and Miss Blacks). What I didn't love was all the background filler in disjointed letters and messages. As I read the other part of the story about Anna and Thomas and Dresden, it all felt a bit too contrived to me. I know that all those strands do come together in the end, but they were more of a distraction. But overall, this book was amazing.
Banned by school districts in Florida, Idaho, and Michigan
Oskar is an extremely intriguing character. He reminded me a bit of the Oskar in Gunter Grass's "The Tin Drum".
Oskar is an extremely intriguing character. He reminded me a bit of the Oskar in Gunter Grass's "The Tin Drum".
It was an absolutely incredible read. I am in awe of the writing and the characters. I wept a lot. I laughed a lot. And I really enjoyed this novel.
The three main characters in this novel have a lot to tell and a lot to want to figure out. Interweaved in their stories is an exploration of grief and loss and how the one is probably for forever but the other is of now but both hinges in the past. I appreciate how Foer tried to mislead and reveal and miscommunicate to let us figure this out at the same time these people figure out how to make sense of their life after those devastating losses. Set in the backdrop of WWII bombing of Dresden and the 9/11 attack in New York, there were heartbreaking parallels not explicitly of the two events but in the experience of oldman Thomas and his son, and how their family tried to pick up the pieces of what they've left. Oskar, the grandson and son, would wander the streets of New York hoping to fill the hole in his heart. His grandmother, we'd never really know how her son's death had affected her. She had filled her present with her love for her grandson but she's still bruised by her past that she's trying to reclaim even if she barely understood why still. There were moments in their life we'd never know the other person's perspective, never know what exactly happened, never know what was said. I think that's quite beautiful. To fill in the gaps ourselves. Maybe that way we could make it happier, heartwarming, uplifting. But there were words still left unsaid and feelings not properly expressed. But people need to move forward. It was once said, "but what is grief, if not love persevering."
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. This was my first book by JSF, and I definitely want to read Everything Is Illuminated.
My first impression of the book, and it's one that lasted throughout the entire story, was that I just absolutely could not believe that Oskar was nine years old. He just sounded so much older to me. Even for an extremely gifted child, possibly a savant, I simply couldn't accept him as nine, and it bothered me almost the entire time I was reading the novel. That said, I loved Oskar. I just thought he was more like 12.
The story is pretty simple. Oskar's father died in 9/11, and two years later, Oskar is searching for the lock that corresponds with a mysterious key he found in his father's closet. Meanwhile, we get letters to Oskar from his grandmother, explaining the story of how she met and married Oskar's grandfather and how he eventually left her, and letters from Oskar's grandfather to Oskar's father, which the grandfather never sent but explaining how he met his wife and why he left her.
I couldn't help but think the format was extremely similar to The History of Love, penned by Jonathan Safran Foer's wife, Nicole Krauss, which also featured a multi-perspective, multi-generation storyline that twisted around to eventually connect everyone. This seems to be a pretty popular trick right now with post-modern writers, and if you like that sort of thing, you will like this book.
In some ways, I found this book pretentious. It's kind of hard to explain, but at times I thought JSF was trying awfully hard to be clever and post-modern and it almost got under my skin, except that most of the time, I thought it worked and I liked it.
This review is starting to sound like I didn't like the book, which isn't the case. I did, but I think I'm feeling pickier about it because it did remind me so much of The History of Love but felt a bit more pretentious.
Read it for Oskar. He's worth it.
My first impression of the book, and it's one that lasted throughout the entire story, was that I just absolutely could not believe that Oskar was nine years old. He just sounded so much older to me. Even for an extremely gifted child, possibly a savant, I simply couldn't accept him as nine, and it bothered me almost the entire time I was reading the novel. That said, I loved Oskar. I just thought he was more like 12.
The story is pretty simple. Oskar's father died in 9/11, and two years later, Oskar is searching for the lock that corresponds with a mysterious key he found in his father's closet. Meanwhile, we get letters to Oskar from his grandmother, explaining the story of how she met and married Oskar's grandfather and how he eventually left her, and letters from Oskar's grandfather to Oskar's father, which the grandfather never sent but explaining how he met his wife and why he left her.
I couldn't help but think the format was extremely similar to The History of Love, penned by Jonathan Safran Foer's wife, Nicole Krauss, which also featured a multi-perspective, multi-generation storyline that twisted around to eventually connect everyone. This seems to be a pretty popular trick right now with post-modern writers, and if you like that sort of thing, you will like this book.
In some ways, I found this book pretentious. It's kind of hard to explain, but at times I thought JSF was trying awfully hard to be clever and post-modern and it almost got under my skin, except that most of the time, I thought it worked and I liked it.
This review is starting to sound like I didn't like the book, which isn't the case. I did, but I think I'm feeling pickier about it because it did remind me so much of The History of Love but felt a bit more pretentious.
Read it for Oskar. He's worth it.
Absolutely loved this book. The stream of consciousness style was slightly hard to follow, but the way the characters' stories were intertwined was brilliant. Definitely one of the most profound, heartbreaking books I have ever read that perfectly encompasses the human condition and what it means to live and love.