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A review by gadicohen93
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
4.0
Finished it a few days ago, and realized that although it was so effing sadness-inducing and teary and just plain emotionally packing, this book was not perfect.
Sadly. Because I thought that Everything Is Illuminated was pretty much close to perfect. And while Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was totally in-yo-face awesome and incredible and powerful, it didn't really get to that five-star level. Maybe 4.7 star level, but not 5. But because everyone else already discussed what makes this book amazing, I'm going to rant about the specific things that might make this book less amazing.
For one, Oskar kind of... irritated me. Sort of like someone with a really awkward rash. The rash being his precocious know-it-allness, his ability to process ideas that are really, really impressive--even though the entire book basically deals with his inability to process emotions. In EIL, the characters were believable; in ELIC, they were interesting and a constant source of pathos, but not strictly believable.
A part of it, I guess, is the kind of magical realism storytelling that Foer likes to streak through the book. Not like it's totally apparent, but many elements were very magic-ky and bizarre; Oskar going on a 5-borough journey every week with his old, deaf neighbor to find every person whose last name is Black, a man tattoos No and Yes on his hands because he becomes mute, etc, etc. Not the most realistic junk, for a book that yearns to serve as commentary on a real-life catastrophe.
So yeah, I felt pretty ambivalent about this whole magic realism thing.
Finally, Foer does this thing that kind of annoys me. My friend does it too--he makes a list of really intelligent-sounding insights that sound really cool and literary-like and then incorporates them into a piece of narrative. This book is basically that--a narrative within which exist little gems that we can all relate to that just read off the page awesomely.
Sorry, not the most labored-over review. Just my thoughts.
But yeah. Read this book! It's great and beautiful and so many things in it made me go "ahh" and "bahh" and "aww" and a silent tear washing down my cheek. Yeah, it's that kind of a book. And even though it will be a page-turner, don't expect it to totally demolish your world.
Sadly. Because I thought that Everything Is Illuminated was pretty much close to perfect. And while Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was totally in-yo-face awesome and incredible and powerful, it didn't really get to that five-star level. Maybe 4.7 star level, but not 5. But because everyone else already discussed what makes this book amazing, I'm going to rant about the specific things that might make this book less amazing.
For one, Oskar kind of... irritated me. Sort of like someone with a really awkward rash. The rash being his precocious know-it-allness, his ability to process ideas that are really, really impressive--even though the entire book basically deals with his inability to process emotions. In EIL, the characters were believable; in ELIC, they were interesting and a constant source of pathos, but not strictly believable.
A part of it, I guess, is the kind of magical realism storytelling that Foer likes to streak through the book. Not like it's totally apparent, but many elements were very magic-ky and bizarre; Oskar going on a 5-borough journey every week with his old, deaf neighbor to find every person whose last name is Black, a man tattoos No and Yes on his hands because he becomes mute, etc, etc. Not the most realistic junk, for a book that yearns to serve as commentary on a real-life catastrophe.
So yeah, I felt pretty ambivalent about this whole magic realism thing.
Finally, Foer does this thing that kind of annoys me. My friend does it too--he makes a list of really intelligent-sounding insights that sound really cool and literary-like and then incorporates them into a piece of narrative. This book is basically that--a narrative within which exist little gems that we can all relate to that just read off the page awesomely.
Sorry, not the most labored-over review. Just my thoughts.
But yeah. Read this book! It's great and beautiful and so many things in it made me go "ahh" and "bahh" and "aww" and a silent tear washing down my cheek. Yeah, it's that kind of a book. And even though it will be a page-turner, don't expect it to totally demolish your world.