Nichole Brown
Book Review
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer can be perceived as a book that is 9/11 centered, a graphic novel, or an glimpse into the world of a highly functioning autistic child. While all of these are valid approaches to reading this novel and worth pursuing as a topic of discussion in their own right, Close is simply a novel about what it is to be human and live life.
Every single, solitary person can empathize with the human experience. Unless you are a highly trained animal (and if you are, thanks for reading!), you know what it is like to feel loss, happiness, sadness, elation, confusion, anxiety, insatiable and unexplainable desires, etc. The list could go on. Foer provides the reader with a multitude of rich, intriguing characters and a storyline that allows each reader to find one that resonates.
For example, our narrator Oskar is a young boy who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. He is now on a quest to finish his father’s last riddle or game. Who hasn’t endured something that made them go a little crazy? I am not saying Oskar is crazy, but a nine year old boy who traipses around New York City virtually unattended knocking on strangers doors might seem a little strange unless you can relate. He is searching, missing his father, and uses this time to mourn. He manifests these feelings as this quest where he became an avid people watcher who “looked at everyone and wondered where they came from, and who they missed, and what they were sorry for”. Foer uses Oskar’s mourning process to reach out to any reader who has suffered loss, and it works.
If you are of an older generation, then you may bond with Oskar’s grandparents. Their loss is well worn with time and experience. One of the best lines Grandma writes is, “I wanted to run away from him, and I wanted to go to him”. If you have more life experience, it is easier to understand the subtle (and often not so subtle) nuances of a long term relationship. Any reader can relate on some level, whether you have survived your first crush or are celebrating fifty years of marriage.
Let us not forget the array of supporting characters that Foer introduces us to. While Oskar is on his healing journey of sorts, he comes into contact with a wide variety of people including a cab driver, a millionaire, a roller coaster aficionado, and a man who files every person he has met on a rolodex. You may need one to keep up with all of Oskar’s new friends unless you have an extremely good memory. As the dear Mr. Black would say, “Everyone gets boiled down to one word!”. What would your word be? What shared conscience do we all have? The one word that is apparent in this novel is human. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone who is human can relate to one another in some form be it from a shared sense of loss, or a feeling of admiration for the plucky little man who knocks on your door and asks you a ton of questions, often inappropriate questions, as after all, he is only nine, with no reasoning or explanation whatsoever.
If you are a reader who enjoys blood, gore, fantasy, or science fiction than this is not for you. But if you desire a novel where you can open the pages, see familiar personality traits, and want to connect with someone, then I suggest you give it a go. Foer may be on the forefront of the graphic novel genre, as he devotes three pages to numbers, has a soliloquy blend into black smudged print, and multiple pictures instead of the typical literary descriptions, but this novel is at heart what all good literature is. A look at relatable characters with an interesting story to tell.