So I had seen Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer oh so many years ago and I had always had the desire to pick it up and give it a gander but so many other fabulous books would get in my way and I would loose sight of this particular one. Then my book club decided it was time to explore Foer's novel and so I skipped over to my Kindle pushed the button and voila it was magically in my had {I just love my Kindle}. I read the first page and then I couldn't help myself and I read like a quarter of the book while my toddler ran around pulling the dogs tail and dumping over his toy basket. But Y'all I couldn't help it! This book sucks you in quickly! It's one of those books where you sit down to read a chapter and then a few hours later you get up and realize you are getting dangerously close to the back cover!
Now how am I going to describe our protagonist to you... Well, he is 9 years old, wip smart, scared of his own shadow, and it is implied but never really stated that he is slightly autistic. Also, he has a business card that he hands out to everyone he meets and it reads like this:
OSKAR SCHELL: INVENTOR, JEWELRY DESIGNER, JEWELRY FABRICATOR, AMATEUR ENTOMOLOGIST, FRANCOPHILE, VEGAN, ORIGAMIST, PACIFIST, PERCUSSIONIST, AMATEUR ASTRONOMER, COMPUTER CONSULTANT, AMATEUR ARCHAEOLOGIST, COLLECTOR OF: rare coins, butterflies that died natural deaths, miniature cacti, Beatles memorabilia, semi precious stones, and other things
I think that the business card pretty much sums up who Oskar Schell is. Of course it doesn't say that he lost THE most important person in his life the year before the story starts. Oskar's father Thomas was in one of the World Trade Center towers when they fell on September 11th 2001. A year later Oskar is in his fathers closet when he finds a strange key in a blue vase. The key is in an envelope with the word BLACK written on the front. This key spurs a journey through the 5 Boroughs of New York searching for the lock that needs this key. All the while Oskar is carrying an emotional burden so heavy it will break your heart when you find out what it is {HAVE TISSUES AT HAND WHEN YOU GET TO THIS PART}
Now my little synopsis does not do this incredible story justice. There are so many other story lines going on that my summery could only focus on the main one. I believe that is exactly what happened in the writing of the screen play. You have to look at the movie as a completely different creature from the book. The move is great. The book is great. They share the same idea, but they are executed EXTREMELY and INCREDIBLY different {haha, see what I did there}. Anyway, you need to love the two independently from each other or you won't love them at all.
This book can be discussed to the moon and back so I would highly recommend this to a book club. I would also recommend this book to anyone who has a love affair with New York City {as I do}, or someone who loves a story from a child's point of view.
RATING: 4 stars
3 more reviews on this book:
Extremely Loud and Incredible Close by Jonathan Foer
{purchased on Amazon.com for my Kindle}
ISBN 0618711651
Pages 326
If you liked Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer then please read The Store of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski and The Courious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time by Mark Haddon.
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