Extremely Brilliant and Incredibly Awesome

Brandon Dooley
English 305-60
Review

Extremely Brilliant and Incredibly Awesome

When I began to read “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Foer, I thought that this particular author was ‘Extremely ADHD & Incredibly Challenged.’ The first page alone goes from talking about teakettles with mouths to talking anuses to tiny microphones to synchronized menstrual periods. From traditional novels, one would expect that the first words would pertain to something along the lines of ‘Once upon a time’ or a scene that the writer just jumps into, followed by descriptions of who, what, when, where, and why or some random fact or other means we as readers grew up upon, so right from the get-go the author is seemingly just ranting about literally nothing pertaining to an actual story line. Normally, I would’ve put the book down right there, but out of academic curiosity I continued further into the book. This is when I began to understand the brilliant mind that is Jonathan Foer.
This story is about a boy named Oskar Schell who searches for the lock to the key left by his father around New York City (where he lives), searching for someone with the name of “Black.” Throughout the story, we learn that his father, Thomas Schell, had died in the 9/11 attacks, from which during the chaos the father had attempted to contact someone at the house and received no answer despite Oskar being there. We also learn that Grandpa isn’t there and the reasons behind why that is (though he comes back in the end), what happened during the time before, during, and after Grandpa had left, what effects that had on Grandma, and why Grandpa is unable to speak. Foer utilizes such major events as the Dresden bombings and Hiroshima in order to invoke strong, disaster-related emotions and to point out some of the effects that they had on this particular family’s life.
The complexities Foer utilizes causes the reader at times to not know who is talking or what is being talked about, but further through the book everything seemingly falls into place, along who is talking, and what they’re talking about becomes more and more clear. It causes readers to almost have to read the book again in order to begin to understand what he is talking about, for many thoughts, emotions, and actions are hinted at between the lines of which he writes, which, with the variety of pictures placed specifically throughout the novel, and the little tidbits of words or mesh pools of illegible writing, speaks to something else outside the words described previously in the chapter it exists in, and speaks to another concept within a different chapter beforehand. Essentially, the author causes you to pay attention to what you’re reading. An example of this is when Grandpa leaves, is at the train station, and Grandma rushes to him begging him not to leave her. The way Foer indicates this at first is through the messages Grandpa wrote down, each phrase on a particular page. This is what it looked like:
Pg. 136 “I want to buy a ticket to Dresden.”
Pg. 137 “What are you doing here?”
Pg. 138 “You have to go home. You should be in bed.”
Pg. 139 “Let me take you home.”
Pg. 140 “You’re being crazy. You’re going to catch a cold.”
Pg. 141 “You’re going to catch a colder.”
Further in the book, Foer goes into an in-depth explanation through Grandma’s view of what happened around that entire scenario;Grandma decided to spy on him for a while before actually going up to him (among other things).
Besides hinting to various important parts throughout the book, Foer has different writing styles to indicate who is talking and when. He doesn’t actually say who is talking in each of the chapters; us as readers kind of have to guess who it is. When Oskar is speaking, it is written almost like a journal through his perspective, but coherently and almost novel-like, despite the random “Squirrel!” moments that he has while writing (and if you’ve seen the movie UP!, you’d get that joke). When Grandpa is writing, there is no break in between paragraphs or thought processes; the sentences are punctuated at the end of most sentences, but even then a lot of his writing is a continuous run-on sentence. Grandma’s writing is almost poetic. She speaks in short, brief, and sometimes compelling statements. Here’s an example:
Pg. 314 “It was late, and we were tired.
We assumed there would be other nights.
Anna’s breathing started to slow, but I still wanted to talk. She rolled onto her side.
I said, I want to tell you something.
She said, You can tell me tomorrow.
I had never told her how much I loved her.”
(This particular scene was about the last time that Grandma had been with her sister before the Dresden bombings.) Foer utilizes all three perspectives to build upon the present through the past of Grandpa and Grandma, resulting in effects on the third, Oskar, even if slightly, and, through utilizing the writing techniques that he does to portray each individual, causes us as readers to re-evaluate and pay attention to details within the writing that we may not have noticed otherwise.
One final point pertains to the effects that he may have on future writers. Most writers I’ve read stick with one particular writing style throughout the entire novel. This was seemingly the traditional methods of showing individuality in a work of art. Foer breaks that apart with this various writing styles mentioned earlier, but also with the incorporation of pictures and mesh as I mentioned earlier. So what does this do to future writers? To me, it seems that people who are interested in writing can learn about the methodology Foer utilizes: the organization and placement of key events and explanations, the utilization of simple or complex words in various places, and the fact that one is able to do this in whatever way seems fit, but also in a way that has to make sense to the readers. Foer is the example of risk-taking necessary in writing to become successful, incorporating innovating methods to tell stories; I feel that future writers will benefit from his stories.
Overall, Foer is a brilliant writer who deserves credit for his work of art. Some writers, such as a man named Harry Seigal from the NewYork Press, think that Foer was trying to use such major events mentioned earlier, especially 9/11, simply to throw them in the novel- “(and) the kitchen sink”- to make a quick buck. I like to believe that Foer used that particular incident in order to evoke strong emotions on top of the strong emotions hinted in the wording just so that each type of emotion would be affected all at once. The event of 9/11 affected a nation rather than just a few individuals- though individuals were affected at the same time- and most people I’ve spoken with remember what they were doing on that day, so it’s quite a memorable (even with 9 years gone by) as with the emotions of watching fellow Americans suffering and dying right before their/our eyes; I don’t think something like a fatal car crash or suicide would be as effective to the American population. But as for being able to write or organizing thoughts or utilizing imagery, many of those critics can’t say much of anything other than ad hominem arguments or just simple dislike of how Foer goes about presenting his story. For this reason, I say that Foer is a genius of writing, but if you don’t believe, I say make up your own mind about the book; read it, see if you like it, get what you can from it.