Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by book_concierge
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
2.0
2.5**
Oskar Schell is trying to make sense of his dad’s death in the World Trade Towers on 9/11. He comes across a key inside a vase on the top shelf of his father’s closet and is convinced that if he can find the lock that the key fits he’ll find out something important about his father. So without telling his mother, or anyone else for that matter, he begins to search the boroughs of New York for the answer.
This is a great premise and I really wanted to like this book. I loved Oskar and the parts of the book written in his voice were the ones with which I most easily connected. But Foer is also telling the story of Oskar’s grandparents and includes chapters from both his grandmother’s and grandfather’s perspectives. These quickly become disjointed. Then there are the illustrations and photos interspersed throughout the book, as well as the red-ink editing notations (something Oskar’s father would do with the Sunday NY Times). These “interesting” typefaces, coupled with the occasional sudden changes in narrative voice, were just distracting to me. They seemed to be screaming “Look how clever I am!” rather than actually adding anything of value to the narrative. The title is, therefore, perfect. Foer’s effort is “extremely loud and incredibly close” … but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, not in literature.
Oskar Schell is trying to make sense of his dad’s death in the World Trade Towers on 9/11. He comes across a key inside a vase on the top shelf of his father’s closet and is convinced that if he can find the lock that the key fits he’ll find out something important about his father. So without telling his mother, or anyone else for that matter, he begins to search the boroughs of New York for the answer.
This is a great premise and I really wanted to like this book. I loved Oskar and the parts of the book written in his voice were the ones with which I most easily connected. But Foer is also telling the story of Oskar’s grandparents and includes chapters from both his grandmother’s and grandfather’s perspectives. These quickly become disjointed. Then there are the illustrations and photos interspersed throughout the book, as well as the red-ink editing notations (something Oskar’s father would do with the Sunday NY Times). These “interesting” typefaces, coupled with the occasional sudden changes in narrative voice, were just distracting to me. They seemed to be screaming “Look how clever I am!” rather than actually adding anything of value to the narrative. The title is, therefore, perfect. Foer’s effort is “extremely loud and incredibly close” … but close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, not in literature.