Search and Research

Research Paper

2010-10-22T08:26:00.000-07:00

In this research paper I am going to talk about media violence, particularly the cultivation theory, and its connection to the actions and feelings of Oskar Schell. Throughout the novel Oskar talks about how he either wants to or how he does give himself bruises and how he is afraid of people from the Middle East even though he says he is not racist. I believe that the reason Oskar acts and feels this way is because of the way the media has portrayed the violent images from both the 09/11 attacks and the war in Iraq.

The Cultivation Theory believes that television is responsible for shaping or “cultivating” the viewer’s conceptions of reality. Television can either cultivate the viewers into believing something about society, such as fear of others due to the amount of violence shown, or it can cause viewers to be more aggressive towards one another or to themselves. Oskar shows this when he bruises himself or when he fights with his mother whenever he gets upset. A professor by the name of George Gerbner was the founder of the Cultivation Environment Movement in the mid 1960’s. Gerbner believed that there are three levels of television viewers; light, average and heavy. People who are “heavy viewers” watch four or more hours of television each day. Gerbner believed that heavy television viewers develop an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world or what is known as the “mean world syndrome.” Even though the cultivation theory focused on television, I feel that all media can be grouped together in this theory.

The mean world syndrome is the mindset of general mistrust in others due to the great amount of violence that is shown on television. Oskar shows mistrust in people from the Middle East because of the 09/11 attacks. Even though Oskar stated that he was not racist, he still had a perception that all people from the Middle East are violent. In the mid 1960’s Gerbner found through research, that within a drama there were five violent acts per hour and within a children’s show there were twenty violent acts per hour. He calculated that the average television viewer had observed 13,000 violent deaths by the time they had graduated high school. He believed, along with other cultivation theorists, that television does indeed have long-term effects that can appear small at the time, but in the end can be devastating to an individual. The more Oskar looked at this picture of the falling man, the more he believed that it could be his father. The fact of not knowing what happened to his father ate away at Oskar and the image of the falling man caused Oskar to have many horrible thoughts and dreams.

The US Congress prompted a committee referred to as The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee to research television violence and its effects. The research began in 1969 and contained content analysis, field experiments, laboratory experiments, observation studies and opinion surveys. There were forty scientists that were all experts in the behavioral sciences and mental disciplines selected to be in charge of the research. The results of the research were very shocking to say none the least.

The research found that eight out of ten dramatized programs contained violence and that in cartoons, the amount of violence increased. The average cartoon held close to six times the amount of violence than the average adult drama, which means that the greatest amount of violence was aired during the hours most likely for young children and teens to view. During the time that the experiment was held, the amount of violence shown on American television was greater than the amount shown by any of the other three nations. Oskar had complete access to Google, which he used often to learn about the 09/11 attacks and to get images from the 09/11 attacks. I believe that a half hour of web surfing shows way more violent images than a half hour of television does.

Also during the research, many children were both surveyed and observed. The surveys found that the greatest amount of television watched was during the sixth grade and after that it slowly declined due to other life activities becoming important; such as high school, college, work, marriage, and starting a family. The surveys also found that the average person watched three hours of television each day and that children who watched the least amount of television, were intellectually brighter than those that watched more. Observing the children, who were heavy television viewers, the scientist concluded that the children would most likely be aggressive to one another when given the opportunity to do so because of the amount of violence that they watched on television. Even though Jimmy Snyder taunted Oskar, Oskar had some disturbing daydreams of getting back at Jimmy like the one involving the play.

The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee concluded from their research that television is greatly saturated with violent acts that may cause people to either be more violent towards one another or to view the world as a violent place to be. They also found that television did play a significant role in shaping the viewer’s beliefs about society in real life. Oskar beliefs of people from the Middle East was shaped from the 09/11 attacks even though he knew deep down not everyone from the Middle East wants to hurt others.

According to the research that the American Academy of Child and Adolescents Psychiatry has conducted, television can greatly influence children in developing values and shaping behavior. Their research has found that children can become “numb” to television violence, children can become excepting to violence being an option for solving problems, children enjoy imitating the violence they see on television, and children often identify with television characters; both the victims to violence and the violent offenders.

They also have found that children with emotional, behavioral, learning, or impulse control problems may be more easily influenced by television violence than those that don’t have these problems. Even if a child doesn’t have any violence shown to them in their family life, they can still become violent due to what they see on television. Oskar doesn’t appear to be the average young boy…could he possibly fit finding? The study found that it can take just one episode filled with violence to negatively affect a child to be more aggressive and the aggression can show up right away or can take years to come out. It only took one violent day such as 09/11 that caused Oskar’s aggression.

Watching violence on television can also cultivate people to have fear or anxiety. A recent survey that was given to parents that have children between the ages of two and seventeen showed that sixty-two percent of the parents had remembered a time when their child was scared over a violent act that they had seen on television and believed that it would also happen to them. Oskar was scared to go into high buildings or on boats because he was afraid that they would be under another attack. Another survey that was given to 2,000 children and teens showed that heavy television viewing of violence had caused them to experience anxiety, stress, and fear. The children believed that the violence that was committed on television does happen regularly in real life; not just on television shows.

In conclusion to my research, I have found that television and all media sources are full of violence that may cause people to be more aggressive to others or to themselves; especially with young children like Oskar. I have found that many children and adults have experienced fear or anxiety due to the high amount of violence that they have seen on television and in the media and that their perception of reality is cultivated due to the way television and the media portrays these incidents. I support the information that I have found and believe that society does need to open their eyes to what is being shown in the media.

Bibliography

1. Lowery, Shearon and De Fleur, Melvin. Milestones in Mass Communication Research: Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. White Plains, NY: Longman Inc. 1988. Print.

2. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Children and TV Violence. Aaca. Accessed March 1, 2010.

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_tv_violence

3. Wilson J. Barbara. The Future of Children. Journal Issue: Children and Electronic Media. Princeton. Accessed March 8, 2010.

http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=58&sectionid=268

2010-10-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

Brandon Dooley
Eng-305
Paper 3
That September Day
One of the main themes exemplified in Foer’s work Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is how one particular family has been affected by major disastrous events, specifically the Dresden bombings and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers. Lives precious to the family were lost, resulting in the mess of painful feelings Foer creatively expresses as a main factor of communication break-down and disconnection between the members. In an effort to cause the reader to understand these types of factors more in-depth, this paper will be dedicated to the 9/11 attacks and the resulting wave of effect that they had on not only individuals, but the nation and the world alike.
Outside the fact that 2,977 American people died in total due to the attacks (Glazier, 2008), one study found that nearly 50,000 rescue workers, office workers, and residents have reported numerous respiratory symptoms, including developments of asthma, loss of lung function, and sinus issues. The asthma was reported to appear during the first 16 months after the attacks. Other respiratory issues were found to be persistent among those affected; four times as many fire-fighters and twice as many EMS workers compared to those found to be affected within the first year after the attacks have been reported experiencing lower than normal lung function 6-7 years after the attacks. Other studies have found that sarcoidosis, acid reflex, and other gastro-esophageal reflex disorders have appeared in affected people. (Annual Report on 9/11 Health, 2010)
Beside physical health decline, many mental illnesses also developed in the aftermath. The most common of these, “identified by a positive screening using a standardized psychological assessment tool,” is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those screening positive for PTSD were either “(1) Caught in the dust cloud released by the buildings as they collapsed, (2) Injured as a result of the attacks, (3) Directly exposed to the events of 9/11, including proximity to the WTC site, witnessing horrific events, or knowing someone who was killed or injured in the attack, (and) (4) Among rescue and recovery workers, early arrival at the WTC site, working there for a long time, or doing tasks outside of their trained area of expertise.”(Annual Report on 9/11 Health, 2010). Luckily, two analyses of the New York City death records found that suicide rates had not increased in the first four years after the attacks. Other mental illness were suggested to exist, such as depression and anxiety, but no one had studied the existence of these as much as PTSD, so no data is available as to those.
Moving outside the effects on individuals, the United States changed its position on many factors, including national security. All someone has to do nowadays is go to an airport to fly somewhere and that person will experience the extent to which the government goes to make sure that its citizens are ‘protected’ (“shoes off, laptops open, no metallic objects, no coats”, ect). The problem that seems to arise is that everyone becomes suspect, for the terrorists hide among normal everyday individuals walking down the street and thus anyone could be a terrorist. This thought prompted an over 6,000 page document to be ratified October 26, 2001, forty-five days after the attacks, called the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act). This allowed law enforcement officials ease of access to any individual’s personal information, including but not limited to all communications, all medical, all financial, and all criminal/legal records; this power was and is still used in order to determine if any terrorist activity is occurring within the states. To this date, most of the provisions within the act have remained national law. Even some ‘sunshine laws,’ or temporarily enact portions of the act, remained in law years after the date they were to expire. The two main provisions that remained for an extended period of time were section 206, the roving wiretap provision, and section 215, which allowed access to business records under FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Through this law, America now became suspect of itself and anyone it had dealings with; America essentially became the watch-dogs of the world through its various financial dealings and through the War on Terrorism. This lead the U.S. into the war on Iraq because U.S. intelligence saw that Saddam was attempting to gain the ability to make warheads and biological weapons, which is something he was trying to do since the U.N. began to inspect Iraq continuously between 1991 and 1998, and was found planning to use such weapons against the United Kingdom and other places around the world. Iraq also was found to harbor and train terrorists at various camps, nearly 2,000 a year since 1999. (Frontpagemag, 2007; Iraq Watch, 2006).
Again, though, another problem arises. Many countries have began to argue as to whether or not the U.S. has the right to act as the “police of the world.” This is where part of the effects on the world come into play. The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed more than 90,000 people in 50 nations, including many Arab and Muslim countries, in 2002 and 2003, finding that people in these nations favored the United States less than all other countries out there. Those that were Anti-American were found to be frustrated at the United States policies, “such as the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, and U.S. support for Israel, in addition to the general perception that the U.S. fails to consider the interests of countries in the region when it acts in the international arena.” (Kohut, 2005). In another study, support by Britain, France, and Germany seemed to waver tremendously between summer of 2002 and March of 2004, where at times the nations were highly favorable of the U.S., then a few months later they would generally dislike the U.S. and the war. Overall, though, “there is broad agreement in nearly all of the countries surveyed - the U.S. being a notable exception - that the war in Iraq hurt, rather than helped, the war on terrorism.” (Pew Research, 2004). Though much of the world disagrees with the U.S. methodology for taking care of the terrorist problem, the activities of terrorist groups and the information found about support for those activities has definitely caught the world’s attention.
Views in America on Islam and Muslims as a whole has changed dramatically as well. Many Americans were aware but not concerned with Islam before the 9/11 attacks; once the attacks occurred, Americans became interesting in Muslims, their beliefs, and their activities. A poll found that after the attacks 41% of Americans had a negative view of Islam. In 2006, it was found that the number increased to 47% of Americans. The reason for this increase: “Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.” (Deane & Fears, 2006). The media thus had to responded to the interest in Islam and had portrayed to the American public specific events only pertaining to a certain extremist sector, events that normally “sells,” that the masses are generally interested in (violence, sex, and the weather are the usual selling topics).
It was no surprised then when Muslims declared they wanted to build a Muslim mosque on the WTC site, a complete national uproar rose up against allowing it to be built. Arguments arose on both sides, one towards religious freedom and one towards the message. Most American’s (62%) do believe that Muslims should have the right to religious freedom, but as for building a mosque on the site itself, 51% support opposition to the building as compared to 34% (Pew Research, 2010). Those in opposition believe that building a mosque on the site indicates support for the radical portions of Islam many are against (even Muslims in radical-supporting countries are beginning to lose support for such tactics). Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post had this to say:
“Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers -- according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7 percent of Muslims, i.e., more than 80 million souls -- it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions. It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.

Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.” (Capehart, 2010)

Others point out that the other 93% not part of Radical Islam should attest to the religion as a whole instead of the narrow views induced by that other 7% percent. As mentioned earlier, though, the media has portrayed Islam in a certain extremist way, and with 55% of the population found August 24, 2010 either did not knowing very much or did not know anything at all about Muslim, the media is where people turn to in order to find out such information; obviously problematic. (Pew Research, 2010) Nevertheless, this particular topic has lead to tea parties by Republicans and is predicted to lead Republican votes in the 2010 November elections. (Smith, 2010).
America and the world has been affected by the attack of 9/11. From medical and mental issues to beliefs about Islam to distrust of America to opening the eyes of the world of the problems with terrorism, changes have been and are continuing to be made. It has been 9 years since the attacks, but the effects will live with us for quite some time.

Bibliography
Wikipedia.org.(2010, October 14th). USA PATRIOT ACT. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

National Institute of Standards and Technology: U.S. Department of Commerce (2008, November). Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7. Retrieved from: http://wtc.nist.gov/NCSTAR1/PDF/NCSTAR%201A.pdf

Glazier, Liz. (Issued: 2008, September 12th) Lost lives remembered during 9/11 ceremonies. Retrieved from: http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media/storage/paper601/news/2008/09 /12/News/Lost-Lives.Remembered.During.911.Ceremony-3427598.shtml

de Vries, Lloyd. (2003, June 5th) Clash Over Patriot Act. Retrieved from: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/05/attack/main557086.shtml

Iraqi National Congress. (Date: Unknown) Saddam’s Threat to the World. Retrieved from: http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/INC-Saddam-threat.htm

Mauro, Ryan. (2010, July 22nd) Vindicated for Removing Saddam. Retrieved from: http://frontpagemag.com/2010/07/22/victory-and-vindication/

Kohut, Andrew (2005, Nov. 10th) Arab and Muslim Perceptions of the United States. Retrieved from: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/6/arab-and-muslim-perceptions- of-the-united-states

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. (2004, March 16th) A Year After Iraq War: Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists. Retrieved from: http://people-press.org/report/206/a-year-after-iraq- war

Deane, Claudia; Darryl Fears. (2006, March 9th) Negative Perception of Islam Increasing: Poll Numbers in U.S. Higher Than in 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006 030802221.html

Smith, Jack A. (2010, August 27th) The Muslim Mosque at Ground Zero and Freedom of Religion in America. Retrieved from: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20788

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.(2010, August 24th) Public Remains Conflicted Over Islam: NYC Mosque Opposed, Muslims’ Right to Build Mosque Favored. Retrieved from: http://people-press.org/report/647/
Capehart, Jonathan. (2010, August 20th). ‘Provocative”--and wrong-- argument against the ‘mosque.’ Retrieved from: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/08/provocative_-- _and_wrong_--_ar.html

2010-10-04T21:16:00.000-07:00

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.

Not another 9/11 story....

2010-10-01T17:17:00.000-07:00

9/11. We will always remember where we were and what we were doing on that tragic day. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is not about 9/11. It is about loss, grief, and closure. It is about a young boy’s quest to put the death of his father behind, and once again find safety in his world. It is a story that exposes the raw layers of seemingly dysfunctional family. It will make you laugh, and make you cry.
The story centers around 9-year old Oskar Schell, who lost his father on 9/11. Oskar is a peculiar child. He only wears white, writes countless letters to famous people, plays the tambourine endlessly, gives himself bruises when he is sad, and for most of the book, wanders around New York City by himself. Oskar finds a key in a vase hidden in his father’s closet. The key is in an envelope marked “BLACK”. Oskar believes that the key can hold answers to the questions that he has about the death of his father. Systematically, Oskar goes on a quest to visit everyone in NYC with the last name of black. Along the way he meets some very interesting people, who are going through their own struggles. Foer weaves the story of Oskar’s quest with the story of Grandparents who were refugees from Germany, having been displaced after the bombing of Dresden.
The story of the Grandparents is a novel in itself. They meet in their youth, as the Grandfather is in love with Grandma’s sister. The sister is pregnant by Grandpa. Sadly, she is killed. This is devastating to both Grandpa and Grandma. They both come to America, where Grandpa loses his ability to speak. They marry, and start their lives together. They are both fragile and mentally tortured by the grief that they share. The grief is what binds them. Reading Foer’s account of their lives is like looking into an insane asylum! Grandpa finally leaves when Grandma gets pregnant with Oskar’s father. Grandpa’s life is a constant stream of letters that he did not send, and things that he did not say. Grandpa returns when he hears of his son’s death.
Foer does a brilliant job of building the characters, at least some of them. I found myself really hating Oskar’s mother for most of the book. Foer leads us to believe that she lets Oskar roam the city as he wants. This seemed like a contradiction, since she did not allow Oskar to watch television. What kind of mother would let her child wander NYC, but yet not allow him SpongeBob? Although it confused me, it did make me want to keep reading in order to find out more about the Mother. Foer poignantly tells of Oskar receiving the last messages from his father on the home answering machine. Oskar hides the machine in order to spare his mother the grief, and to keep those last words for himself. Very touching. The curious part is when Oskar goes out and buys and identical machine so his mother won’t know. What? The first of several things that I found unbelievable.
Foer leaves a lot of questions unresolved, or vaguely answered. For example, we never really get an explanation of why the Grandpa quit talking. Was he suffering post-traumatic stress? Maybe he was mentally ill? We got a vague explanation as to why Oskar would only wear white, but the reader was left to glean that out of a chapter dealing with Hiroshima. When Oskar is sad, he frequently says that he has “heavy boots”. Again we never really get an adequate explanation. Foer’s imagery is great, but leaves too much up to the reader. He leaves the mother’s character on the outskirts of the most of the story. At the end of the book, he reveals that the mother knew what Oskar was up to all along. Too little, too late.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Foer’s use of images. He uses pictures of 9/11, images of letters erratically written by Grandpa, and what seem to be random pictures of things in Oskar’s life. They make for a flashy presentation, but I feel they didn’t add a lot of substance to the book. I would have rather seen Foer take more effort with the storyline and the character development.
As for using the 9/11 backdrop, I am torn. I think that the story could have been written with any tragic loss as the backdrop. Oskar could have just as easily lost his father in a car accident. I know how tragic 9/11 was for Americans. I am sure that as a New Yorker Foer was deeply affected by it. I may be a bit cynical, but I can’t help but think that Foer was perhaps a bit opportunistic. Tragedy sells books. Even though Foer only uses the tragedy as a backdrop, he still uses it. I don’t feel that Foer is exploiting the victims of 9/11, but I do feel that he is teetering on the exploitation of his reader’s emotions.
At the end of the day, one must take this book for face value. It is a good read, but it could have been a great one.

Extremely Brilliant and Incredibly Awesome

2010-09-30T23:55:00.000-07:00

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.

"Mixed-Givings"

2010-09-29T16:47:00.000-07:00

M A Miller
A review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005

It is entirely natural while reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close fictional novel, to feel as if it should be tossed across the room in disgust--if only one could stop reading it long enough to do just that! Because human emotions of love and hate are closely linked by the same nervous circuits in the brain, (the “putamen” and the “insula”), it is possible to love and hate simultaneously. Journalists even created a portmanteau for the “love-hate” phenomenon called “frenemy"—“friend" combined with "enemy". But whatever the reason, Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, is undeniably a source of both angst and great emotional joy. It is a book that simply cannot be tossed aside—no matter how infuriating it may be.

There are many who have given Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, high accolades, including Salman Rushdie, a famous author. Rushdie stated in the book’s “acclaim section”, “Jonathan Safran Foer’s second novel is everything that one hoped it would be--ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling . . . An exceptional achievement.” Foer’s first novel, Everything is Illuminated (2002), reached the New York Times bestseller list, and earned him several awards. However, there are others who have criticized his choice of using the 9/11 tragedy as a disrespectful backdrop for his second novel, and regarded his use of gadgetry writing deceptive. One such critic who lashed out with caustic fervor is Harry Siegel. Siegel, in his New York Press review dated April 20, 2005, entitled his review, “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False--Why the Author of Everything Is Illuminated is a Fraud and a Hack.” Siegel states about Foer, “Why wait to have ideas worth writing when you can grab a big theme, throw in the kitchen sink, and wear your flip-flops all the way to the bank?”

Foer's novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, uses New York as the setting. It is a story of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, in which Oskar’s father, Thomas Schell, dies during the 9/11 terrorist attack. Oskar is an eclectic-eccentric boy who attempts to cope with his grief of losing his father (or, as Oskar says, "heavy boots"[2]) by inventing things (like “bird-seed shirts” that help people fly [2]), playing a tambourine, giving keys out to strangers (so Oskar will get all his packages), and giving himself bruises. Distressed by messages left on the answering-machine from his trapped and dying father, Oskar explores his father’s closet one night and discovers a blue vase. The vase contains an envelope marked with the word “Black” on it and a key in inside. Oskar decides the key must belong to a lock that contains something important about his father. And so begins his journey visiting all people with the last name “Black” (in alphabetical order) to find the lock and solve the mystery to “get closer to dad” (52). Oskar says, “I would spend my Saturdays and Sundays finding all of the people named Black . . . In a year and a half I would know everything” (51).

Early in the story, however, it begins to feel as if as if the reader is revisiting the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, whereas the townspeople are being replaced by giant plant-like pod duplicates. Only in this case, it is Oskar being replaced by a grown-up Foer who has invaded Oskar’s body and mind. In fact, in a Bookbrowse.com interview, Foer describes himself, “Like most children, I had a number of collections. . . . I sent my share of fan letters, suffered numerous failed attempts to kiss women my mother's age, and did work in the family jewelry business for a summer.” It feels as if grown-up Foer is masquerading as nine-year-old Oskar and as a result, Oskar quickly becomes an unbelievable character--a “frenemy" to the reader. What young boy converts his father’s last voice message into Morse code using different colored beads to make jewelry? What nine-year-old boy’s mother tucks him in at night and asks, “Do you want me to read something to you? We could go through the New York Times for mistakes” (168). But the reader cannot toss the book aside; he/she is entrapped in the web of emotions brought on by this faux-boy searching for the meaning of his father’s death. Who doesn’t yearn to make meaning out of senseless death—especially when it involves a current tragedy? The reader desperately wants Oskar Schell to find solace to this question. For this reason alone, Foer knows he has the reader hooked.

The book is bursting with photographs of doorknobs, birds flying, a person falling, blank pages, black pages, and other such ruses and curiosities. One is reminded of the “Three Wise Monkeys’” proverb, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” when realizing Oskar’s grandma’s sight is poor; Mr. Black who lives upstairs is deaf; and Oskar’s grandfather is mute. Foer leaves “no ‘literary and visual gimmick’ stone unturned”. The book even concludes with a flipbook of a person falling “upward”. The distracted reader shrugs with frustration and says to him/herself “don’t bombard me with meaningless rubbish -- just tell me the truth about death!”

Despite the obvious manipulation of the reader, Foer atones for his misdeeds with the quirky characters of grandma and grandpa. Intertwining like threads in a tapestry within Oskar’s story is the story of his grandparents who are survivors of the WWII Dresden bombings, and how they came together. Their story is one of hope, despair, and love. The chapters entitled "My Feelings" are letters written to Oskar by his grandmother describing her life as a child and as an adult. Just as Oskar is seeking for the truth about the death of his father, grandma is searching for the truth about her own life, “When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder . . . Every day I felt less. Is that growing old?” (180). And though Foer’s characters seem surreal, their sadness and regret for things lost, and their ability to love resonates with each reader. For this reason alone-- Foer has cast off his “frenemy” status and successfully written a book about the 9/11 tragedy in which “love conquers all.” This book needs to be read.

A Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

2010-09-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

A Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close:
By Jonathan Safran Foer

The second novel by the celebrated young author of “Everything is Illuminated”, hits the ground running, and pulls the reader along a twisting, enigmatic path from its first to final page. The novel is set in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy in New York and follows the quest of a little boy who lost his father on that infamous day. While this subject could gimmicky or sensational, Foer uses the event for setting and as launching point rather than a crutch to prop-up the story line. Instead, this novel is driven by captivating characters and an irresistible mystery.
Immediately, Foer introduces us to his young hero, Oskar Schell. We become chaperones for the precocious nine year old as we follow him on his surreal journey through the city’s boroughs to find the origin of a strange key he discovers in his dead father’s closet in an envelope simply titled “Black.” From the beginning we are intrigued by Oskar’s complex personality and the ambiguities developing around him and his family. With Oskar’s outlandish claims such as, “My most impressive song that I can play on my tambourine is ‘The flight of the Bumblebee.’” we’re not sure if we can even believe him. Foer’s character is at once unreliable, annoying, curious, yet vulnerable and endearing. He quickly captivates the audience and by the end of the chapter when Oskar recalls hearing the recording of his father’s desperate cell phone calls on the morning of the attack, we are hooked. We willingly to suspend our disbelief and surrender the keys to Oskar, letting him take the wheel on Foer’s multimedia ride.
The novel is well crafted holds the reader’s attention to spite it’s, at times, disorienting jigsaw construction. Each chapter seems to give us a new puzzle piece to the unfolding story and we are compelled to keep reading to see how it all fits together. The novel’s plot is strengthened by its unique characters, such as Oskar and his grandparents. They vacillate between unbelievably eccentric and transcendently real. I often found I missed them when I put the book down. Foer weaves a surprising amount of intricate detail into the plot of the book. Like Hansel and Gretel, he continuously drops the reader clues, like pebbles, to lead them along a storyline that is mysterious, heartbreaking and magical.
The most notable aspect of the novel is the visual imagery that proliferates the pages. The vivid graphics, allow the reader to interact with the text in a way I’ve never experience before in a novel. They begin even before the story itself with images of a door lock, birds in flight, and an apartment building which tantalize the reader upon opening the book. Extremely Loud’s visuals are a scrapbook for the novels characters. They allow the reader to enter their world and experience what they see, or what they want us to see, first-hand; like a portfolio. While it has been said that Foer’s use of visual images are indicative of lazy narration or a ploy, I think they speak to a new generation of readers. As Foer wrote this book, the world was experiencing a digital revolution. Life is now shaped multimedia experiences. Children are using computers before they read, adults and teens are downloading and uploading everything from photos, to videos, to news, and music, while grandparents are “skype-ing” their grandkids on the weekends. A novel which integrates images into its textual plot is simply speaking the language of its audience.
Yet, Foer’s novel isn’t just for the Blackberry generation. This is a book is cross- generational. I would recommend it as readily to my high school English students, as to my own parents. It has elements of both a coming of age novel and a narrative for the greatest generation. Foer explores many universal themes in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: the devastation of war, loss of innocence and love, the complexities of family and relationships. These ideas connect with readers of all ages and engage them in the experiences of the characters. While many of the characters could be described as lost misfits, Foer is still able to create an intimacy with them which allows us to identify with them and feel their love, their hurt, and their longing.
“I watched the bags go around the carousel, each held a person’s
belongings, I saw babies going around and around, possible lives
I followed the arrows for those with nothing to declare, and that
Made me want to laugh, but I was silent. One of the guards asked
me to come to the side, ‘That’s a lot of suitcases for someone with
nothing to declare,’ he said, I nodded, knowing that people with
nothing to declare carry the most.”
Through Oskar and his family, we achieve a catharsis. We learn that no one gets out of this life without pain, and the way we live with it is what make us who we are. Regardless of his youth, Foer is able to create these moments of human truth which elevate his novel from merely entertaining to enlightened and worth at least one read, if not two.

Book Review-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer

2010-09-29T10:53:00.000-07:00

The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Foer is intriguing and well written. Some argue that it is Foer’s greatest work to date. Jonathon Foer was born in 1977 and has one other well known novel named "Everything Is Illuminated." I personally believe that Foer is a very talented writer who has a unique style to his work. I have not had the opportunity until now, to read a novel written in this style of writing before and don’t think that I will see many in the future with as much creativity as this piece possesses.

The novel is about a nine-year-old boy named Oskar who lost his father during the September 11th attacks. After two years have passed since his father’s death, Oskar is still having a hard time accepting it and letting his father go. One of the things making Oskar’s father’s death so hard to accept is that Oskar was the only one to listen to the five heart wrenching voicemails left by his father the day of the September 11th attacks. One of the voicemails states, “I’m OK. Everything. Is. Fine. When you get this, give Grandma a call. Let her know that I’m OK. I’ll call again in a few minutes. Hopefully the fireman will be. Up here by then. I’ll call.” Oskar could tell by the messages that something was terribly wrong and that his father was trying to be calm only for him.

Oskar has a grandmother that lives across the street from him who he is tremendously close to. His grandfather left his grandmother forty years ago when he found out that Oskar’s grandmother was pregnant with his father. Before Oskar’s grandfather married his grandmother, he was in love with his grandmother’s sister who was pregnant with his child when she died in the bombings of Dresden. When Oskar’s grandfather found out about his wife being pregnant with Oskar’s father, he forced himself to leave because he was scared to loose another person that he loved.

One night while Oskar is looking through his father’s things he drops a vase, which shatters and reveals an envelope labeled with the name Black on it holding a mysterious key inside. Oskar is determined to find what the key opens and why his father had it hidden in a vase. Oskar comes up with the idea to meet everyone by the name of Black to hopefully find someone with the answer. Oskar allows his imagination to take him on an unforgettable adventure allowing him to find acceptance of his father’s death.

Along the way, Oskar meets many amazing people; some of whom he learns from and others that learn from him. One of the Blacks turns out to be his neighbor and becomes a close friend to Oskar. Oskar’s neighbor assists him until Oskar’s grandfather reappears as his grandmother’s renter. Oskar then becomes friends with the man that he does not know is his grandfather to finish the journey together. Both Oskar and his grandfather find a way to accept the death of Oskar’s father and are able to live life a little happier.

Foer leaves many unanswered questions at the end of the novel, which I think that he did on purpose. I believe that he wanted the audience to have the ability to have their own interpretation and ending to the story. Many readers may not care for the puzzling ending while others may praise Foer for it. I honestly think that it all depends on the reader’s personal preference and how creative they are.

The novel does have a small amount of content not appropriate for teens and children however; I recommend this novel to every adult. This novel offers so many lessons and reminds those that need to be reminded about what really matters in life. Grandmother leaves a letter for Oskar explaining her point of everything and tells him “it is always necessary.” Therefore, the greatest lesson that I got out of the novel is that you should never wait to say “I love you” or let someone know how much you care about them because you never know when they will be taken from you; not allowing you to tell them what you wanted to.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a book review by Márcio Padilha

2010-09-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

In a very captivating way, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close tells the story of Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy who lost his father in the New York City 9/11 attacks. In this novel, Foer gives the narration a multiplicity of voices, allowing different characters to have interesting and different perspectives. Oskar, nonetheless, is the main narrator who, after having accidentally found a mysterious key that belonged to his father, sets out on the mission of finding the lock it opens. The only clue he has is the word “Black”, written in red on the envelope the key was in. Assuming it was a last name, Oskar is determined to contact all of the Blacks who live in the city and, in doing so, he realizes that “life is scarier than death” and wanders in “heavy boots” around New York City’s five boroughs in search of an answer.

Like any other, the Schells are a family who have their myriad of secrets, idiosyncrasies and weaknesses. Grandma and grandpa, who are German immigrants who survived the World War II Dresden Bombing, interestingly explore life in rather absolute terms of oblivion and awareness. Their parental involvement with Thomas, Oskar’s father, is existent to one and not to the other. Thomas’ paternal relationship with Oskar, on the other hand, was full, fun and loving whereas Oskar’s current relationship with his mom is difficult, yet one of love. Grandma’s relationship with her daughter-in-law is amicable, respectful and supportive. Everyone’s relationship with the renter is one which will captivate the reader’s mind wondering for some time.

The success of Foer’s previous work Everything is Illuminated created high expectations, which were not let down, for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. In this novel, Foer effectively addresses deep existential issues, sometimes unsettling and sometimes funny, by drawing parallels between the commonality of the other characters’ experiences and those of Oskar’s in light of tragedies of historical magnitude. His writing style is very engaging and thought-provoking in that it will cause the reader to wonder constantly as to where the fine line between denotation and connotation actually is.

In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell’s wild ADHD-like imagination will keep the reader’s interest and attention throughout the book. Despite maybe not being the most suitable choice for the weak at heart, reading this novel by Foer is a must.

Heavy Boots

2010-09-27T00:43:00.000-07:00

Oskar Schell, the nine year old narrator of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, pulls a reader deep into an exploration of love, loss, and ways to cope with both. Thomas Schell, Oskar’s father, died in the tragedy of 9/11, leaving his wife, his mother, and his son Oskar, to cope with their grief in their own ways. Oskar finds a key in his dad’s closet, and spends the rest of the novel combing New York and questioning its inhabitants to see if they can help him discover the meaning behind the key. He refers to his grief as “heavy boots.” Grandma finds a “renter” to live with her, and increases the protection of her relationship with Oskar. Oskar’s mom finds a friend named Ron who also lost someone. Grandpa, a continent away in Dresden, returns to New York to reconnect with his wife, and find solace after losing a son he never had. To pile more grief and loss into the story, Grandma and Grandpa lost someone in the Dresden fire-bombings of WWII – Anna. Anna was pregnant with Grandpa’s baby, and was Grandma’s sister. Through the narratives we are given we see how these three very different people cope with their losses, and still continue to love the people they have left.

The novel is written by Jonathan Safran-Foer, an emerging writer who also wrote Everything is Illuminated, which was made into a major motion picture. His foray into the 9/11 tragedy with his most recent book received a variety of responses, some critical, some applauding, of his work. His style is unorthodox to say the least. Rather than straightforward text, Safran-Foer uses pictures, a flip book, letters, editorial red pen, blank pages, numbers, and text that blurs together until unreadable to make his point. I think these tactics are compelling. Foer presents readers with a new challenge, a different type of novel. Instead of being given what we, as readers, expect; we are given something wholly novel and illuminating. We are taken on a journey with Foer’s work, and not just a literary one. We have visuals at our disposal, we have confusion on the page and in the text, and we even have numbers to decipher into words if we can. Foer appears to be introducing readers to a new experience. In an interview with Powell’s Bookstore he said that “People seem to have two reactions to books. Either they describe what they’re about or they describe how the book made them feel. I’d much rather write the kind of book that inspires someone to describe the way it made them feel. When you’re talking about the book, you’re not referring to an object; you’re referring to an experience.” He wants his books to be remembered for how they make a reader feel, and how they create a specific experience.

This story is brilliantly told. Foer navigates sensitive issues that all people deal with surely and bares the emotions of all the characters for the readers to see. At every chapter I was connecting new dots, and questioning motivations of characters. Is Grandpa the “renter?” Does Mom really not care what Oskar is doing on the streets of New York every day? Why does Grandma keep saying she has “crummy eyes?” I would formulate answers to these questions and many others, only to receive new information, or make a new connection in the next section of reading and reformulate all over again. I loved this. Foer created real suspense this way I think. I appreciated the new way he told an old story of grief by including photos, drawings, letters, numbers, red pen marks, etc. I think these visuals fleshed out the novel, and gave us more information to use in our understanding, and to add to our book experience.

I would recommend this book to almost anyone. It was a great read, and worthy of the acclaim it received from many critics. There is sensitive material addressed, but I think this was necessary in order to fully appreciate the grief underwent by the Schell family, and other families after 9/11. If nothing else, read the book to gain some insight into love. As Grandma’s last sentiment reminds us – “Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar. It’s always necessary [to say I love you to someone you love].” Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a great story, told by a great author. Read, and enjoy!

Audience Analysis

2010-09-22T19:26:00.000-07:00

Audience Analysis: The Stranger

When I took my first look at the novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I immediately read the reviews. I figure that these must be the most positive, insightful sentiments about the book or they wouldn’t have been selected by the publisher. There on the inside front, against a background of cinnabar with a black silhouette of a hand, were the comments of an old friend from Seattle, The Stranger. The review states, “Funny and extremely tender, and incredibly brave…Maybe this is a novel for young people. By that I mean people who think of the future as exciting…I read it in a daze of happiness.” I decided to visit the website www.thestranger.com seattle / /Content?oid=21080 and read the review, “Everything is Obliterated” by Christopher Frizzelle, in its entirety. What I realized, as I looked at the content of the site and thought about the readers of this publication, was that the audiences of The Stranger are the Oskar Schells of the world.
The Stranger’s readers are an eclectic mix of edgy, left wing, counter culture devotees and misfits. Think Harvey Milk’s activists, the cast from 90’s movies like Singles, and the students in the liberal arts schools of the University of Washington. Oskar’s vegan, white wearing, no public transportation, pacifist, atheist ideas would be very much in line with the pathos of the readership. The Stranger is not “in the closet,” if you pardon the expression, about their politics and point of view. You are immediately bombarded by ads for tattoo and piercing parlors, personal ads of every color and combination, promotions for cutting edge concerts, art exhibitions, and Indy films. The top story on the home page is “Tax the Filthy Rich!” accompanied by a picture of the nation’s capitol. Another lead story relays the fallout of a police officer killing a homeless, deaf, mentally ill man who was brandishing a knife. There is an obvious liberal bias to the articles, and that is to be expected. Someone easily offended by extreme liberal thought or alternative lifestyles would not be a likely reader, except to present the paper as evidence of the downfall of society.
Frizzelle’s review of Foer’s novel stays true to the message of the publication. Frizzelle is writing to a literate and receptive audience. Rather than looking critically at the novel, this review attacks Foer’s critics, as did some of the other reviews available to us. Fizzelle takes particular offense to comments made by Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times. He finds her comments pretentious and off base, especially those regarding Foer’s experimental style and the believability of Oskar as a character. The New York Times, being the gold standard for national newspapers is definitely aimed at wider audience. While Frizzelle’s audience tends to be educated, and culturally aware, his demographic has a lower income and is younger than that of The New York Times. Frizzelle is writing for people who know about the reputation of “Grey Lady” of news, and may even read it, but rebel against the establishment and see it as old fashioned. It’s as if Frizzelle’s readers are hipsters, laughing along with Foer at a joke the old school just doesn’t get. Frizzelle takes objection to the criticisms of famed author and reviewer, John Updike. Frizzelle aptly points out that this novel is written for a new generation of visually savvy readers who have been raised with T.V., the internet, and now I-Pods etc. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is set (and was written) in a time period of absolutely no silence whatsoever, a time period in which people, especially children, confront millions of messages and graphic apparatus everywhere.”
Frizzelle’s review, in contrast to the brief reviews provided by other booksellers, is lengthy (two pages) and very detailed regarding the plot of the book. My initial opinion is that Frizzelle is a frustrated novelist who wishes that he had penned this engaging story. The introduction reads like a 9/11 novel itself, and Frizzelle summarizes the book in such detail that the article is nearly a spoiler. I’m glad that I finished the majority of the book before reading the review or it wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting. Frizzelle doesn’t really get into critiquing the novel until well into the second page. His review gives away too much and gets a little academic. It reads like a paper for an English class rather than a quick down and dirty explanation of the novel, whether it was good, and if it’s worth reading. True to The Stranger’s target alternative audience, Frizzelle comments that, “Foer is clearly a paper fetishist.” Much like his characters, Foer, according to Frizzelle, obsessively collects letters and documents. Frizzelle appreciates Foer’s use of visuals and the purpose they serve in the novel. He praises Foer for his “naturalistic and modernist,” disorientation in the delivery of the plot and how there ended up being a surprising amount of, “narrative logic.”
Out of all the articles I read about Foer and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close I enjoyed Frizzelle’s and the Powell’s pieces the most. Both articles originate in very progressive Northwest cities, Frizzelle’s from Seattle and the Powell’s article from Portland, and both articles appear to have a similar target audiences. Foer, like a grown-up Oskar, is the target audience for these publications. He is relatively young, intelligent and hip. He doesn’t want to read, or write, like authors of previous decades. We are in a new millennium. I also identify with the audience of both pieces. I’m a previous resident of Oregon and Seattle, a side-line fan of the counter culture, and a child of technology and information. While the novel appeals to many ages and demographics, I feel a connection with Foer and am glad I can still share Frizzelle’s “daze of happiness,” experiencing this novel.

Audience analysis

2010-09-20T19:49:00.000-07:00

I’m not big on reading book reviews. I’m one of those people who will pick a book up off of the shelf, read the back cover and decide if it is something that I would like. As I was looking at the reviews for this assignment, I was bored. That is until I read the one written by Nina McLaughlin for the Boston Phoenix. This one sparked my interest. It is more of a review of a review. I found it very interesting and funny.
I think I should point out that I am not so fresh and young anymore. That being said, it does not necessarily mean that I can’t appreciate a writing style that fresh and young. The Boston Phoenix seems to be a fresh, young, and edgy publication. It is aimed at the under thirty, educated, open minded crowd. If you look at the different blogs on the website, you see blogs on politics, Laser orgy (for video gamers), outside the frame (about foreign films) and something called phlog (which is entertainment related. I have to admit, there were many things on those blogs that I had no clue about. Perusing the website before reading the review would have made me choose another review. Fortunately, I did not judge “the book by its cover”. Yes, the slideshow about the Boston Tattoo Convention may have made me think twice!
But wait a minute! I have tattoos, could I really be that different from their audience? Maybe not so much. McLaughlin starts the review with a disclosure about not going to hear a reading by John Updike at a Unitarian Church. She talks about how she doesn’t really like him, but her friend does and she respects her opinion. She refers to him as being old. He was born in 1932, so I guess that would be old, even by my standards.
McLaughlin refers to her dislike being in part because she is not a 53 old divorcee from Concord. I took that to mean that she felt that Updike only appealed to that demographic. This furthered my opinion that she was young, and this was meant to be read by young readers. She refers to Updike’s story “A&P”. I found this interesting since I first read this last semester in Literature class. (Okay, I know, I am a non-traditional student. McLaughlin probably read in frosh lit class as well .) She rather liked “A&P” and the subtle sexual overtone. (She did however, say that it reminded her of her parents, and thought it was an old man reimagining his high school lustings.) For this reason she could not understand why Updike trashed Foer. She said his review was self serving and outdated because Updike felt that a 9 year old was not sexually mature enough to be a protagonist in a novel. That points to a generational difference in morality, and McLaughlin acknowledges this. Apparently the maturity level of kids is viewed differently these days, and her targeted audience would know this without saying!
The words and writing style point to the more casual style that would appeal to a younger audience. She uses some phrases that I found entertaining, such as referring to Foer as “Saffy-fo". She writes in a style that is meant to edgy, and she succeeds. She is an intelligent writer, who uses decisive language.
I am fairly certain that the target audience would not contain many Republicans, or members of the religious right wing. The slideshow “Boston League of Women Wrestlers” gave me my first clue! I am sure that there are folks that may find some of the content of the websites offensive. I guess if that is the case, they should probably go to a different website.
I can admit that there are many things that “kids” are into that I just don’t understand. I am of a different generation. I have kids older than some of the students in my classes! Though I may not understand it all, that does not mean my mind is not open. I think that if one takes the time to read between the lines, and look beyond the cover we can find things that we can really enjoy.

audience analysis paper

2010-09-20T12:49:00.000-07:00

Cloying and false. Fraud and hack. These are emotionally charged words used by Harry Siegel in his review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Siegel’s New York Press [NYP] review dated April 20, 2005, is entitled “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False--why the author of Everything Is Illuminated is a fraud and a hack.” One look at NYP’s “about us” section in the website http://www.nypress.com/, confirmed the identity of Siegel’s audience immediately. (.Com shows commercial intent.) NYP’s subscribers are an average age of 39.7 with an average income of $130,000. They are intelligent, hardworking, and well-read people wanting quality journalism about New York’s cultural issues--controversial “edgy topics.”
But make no mistake--Harry Siegel is not a flashy and trendy writer grabbing at a glimpse of fame. He is an experienced and well-known lifelong Brooklynite writer who has spent most of his life writing about and working in politics. His experiences include editing positions for several important newspapers, and he also worked for political consultant Hank Sheinkopf and New York state gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi. Add to this list of impressive accomplishments a book he co-authored with his father Fred Siegel, The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life, many well-known TV appearances, and numerous published articles.
With that said, an important point must be raised; Harry Siegel wrote this review with the NYP’s “paying” subscribers in mind. The words cloying, false, fraud, and hack in the title of Siegel’s review certainly cater to the subscribers’ expectation for controversy. But for audiences outside of the NYP readership, his review may appear quite hostile. Foer’s book never had a chance of a glowing review by Seigel! What is interesting to note, however, is both Siegel and Foer were born in 1977, both Jewish (though Seigel refers to Foer in the article as a Jewish atheist), and both currently live in Brooklyn, New York. Wouldn’t it be ironic if they were actually friends laughing all the way to the bank together? Or as Siegel refers to Foer in his review “...wear your flip-flops all the way to the bank.”
But it isn’t just Siegel’s review that caters to the needs of the NYP subscribers--it is also the website itself. The purpose of this website is multifaceted: to entertain, to inform, to give an opinion, to give personal confirmation to the NYP subscriber, and most importantly to sell subscriptions! The advertising, the design, the photos and pictures, and the tone all send the discerning NYP subscriber a subtle message. That message is the feeling they “belong” to a group of people who have the same virtuous standards and ideas about life. It is a ploy at getting the reader to buy into the image of what a NYP subscriber should and can be-- educated, hip, well-off financially, cultured, and special.
Supporting the target audience age of 39.7, at the very top of the website, is the advertisement “Eldersexual—over 25% of people ages 57 to 85 still have sex--and are at still at risk for HIV.” Though demure in appearance the words send a racy message. Next to this ad is the Forex Club ad letting the reader know they can have financial freedom because Ben Franklin says so, and below that William Shatner suddenly pops up letting the reader know it is his “full-time job to shop around for inexpensive priceline.com” flights for them. All ads are geared toward both male and female NYP subscribers who have “disposable income to enjoy the city and all it has to offer.” The rest of the site looks like a typical newspaper website with its name in large letters at the top left side by the logo and all the different columns directly underneath-- just like the sections of a paper newspaper.
This was also not a review written about some obscure author whose book no one recognized. It is the type of book that the typical NYP subscriber would know about—written by one of their own local starlets and more importantly about their neighborhood tragedy of 9/11. As Siegel states in his review, “… he snatches 9/11 to invest his conceit with gravitas, thus crossing the line that separates the risible from the villainous... which Foer tosses in just to make sure we understand what a big and important book we're dealing with.”
Who reads the book isn’t necessarily important to NYP, but who reads the review is important. Siegel doesn’t necessarily want people to stop buying Foer’s book; he just wants to keep the number of NYP’s subscriptions increasing. For those readers who have not read the book, Siegel provides supportive information, though biased as it may seem. He knows his audience is very literate and able to connect to other authors’ works. For instance, he alludes to Foer’s borrowing of other authors’ ideas and techniques by referencing them to the reader, “Foer is indeed a sampler, throwing in … Calvino (a tale about the sixth borough that floated off, ripped off wholesale from Cosmicomics), …Night of the Hunter (the grandfather has Yes and No tattooed on his hands) and damn near every other author, technique, reference and symbol he can lay his hands on, as though referencing were the same as meaning.”
Siegel’s tone and diction used in the review also incorporates NYP’s philosophy of a commitment “to the cause of narrative journalism at its best.” Because of the readers’ higher level of education they expect the use of words such as: admixture, gravitas, paean, precocious, banal, epistolary saga, and syllogisms. Siegel even creates words to keep his readers satisfied such as: Oprah-etic, writerliness, brain-gurble, and nafs. He sets the tone of the review by using negative descriptive words such as “ hater” in his introduction , “Call me a hater, then” in reference to Foer’s own words “Why do people wonder what's "OK" to make art about…Too many people hate art.”
In conclusion, it is difficult to take this entertaining review seriously once realizing Siegel wrote it for NYP’s subscribing audience. Siegel’s comment at the very onset of his review “Foer isn't just a bad author, he's a vile one,” immediately notifies the reader of suspicious dramatic pomp. In fact, Siegel becomes what he admonishes Foer for being, “Foer, squeezing his brass ring…threw in 9/11 to make things important, to get paid…How could someone so willfully young be so unambitious?” Doesn’t it sound as if Siegel is talking about himself?

Analysis of a Blog on a Review of a Novel ...

2010-09-19T22:29:00.000-07:00

WordUp (found at http://thephoenix.com/blogs/wordup/) is a blog written by various contributors to Phoenix Network, which is an “alternative newsweekly.” The blog is typically written by Deirdre Fulton, a staff writer from the Portland Phoenix. Fulton writes on everything from politics to books to food. Her typical fodder in WordUp involves literary critiques or interviews with authors. Occasionally Fulton has guest bloggers create postings. One such posting came from Nina MacLaughlin, the assistant web editor for the Boston Phoenix. MacLaughlin has her own blog; Word Riot is subtitled “good writing. no remorse.” MacLaughlin’s posting was a retort to Updike’s review of Jonathan Safran-Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Fulton and MacLaughlin both aim their writings toward a moderately literate audience. Despite the tendency toward complex sentences, most concepts are still kept simple and to the point. The diction is familiar and the vocabulary is main-stream, but a few references are made in MacLaughlin’s piece specifically about Updike’s literary contributions. For example the readers are given the first sentence of Updike's A&P as if they are already familiar with it. These references imply that the blogger assumes they are common knowledge and need not be further explained to her readers. There is a link within MacLaughlin’s post to Updike’s review of Safran-Foer, so curious and computer-savvy readers can at least be aware of the review that MacLaughlin is commenting on. There are also allusions made to a woman named Sharon. We, as readers, are given no relational context for who this woman may be. I assumed it was a friend of MacLaughlin, but the casual mention of her implies she is a regular character in MacLaughlin’s postings, and does not need to be explained because her subscribers would be familiar with her already.

The website itself is fairly straightforward and without much outside advertising. There is one large ad on the top of the page next to The Boston Phoenix logo, and two smaller ads on the about halfway down the page, one on either side of the posting. There is also a large ad the entire width of the screen which reads: Student Survival Guide. This is placed directly above the image and title of the blog WordUp, and suggests a reader population of students. The image that WordUp uses for its title is a young woman (guesstimated 25-35 years of age) leaning back against a black leather chair reading a book. The words WordUp are written in block text above the woman’s feet. WordUp does have slideshow links on the right side of the main feature, as well as links to other Phoenix blogs and other stories by MacLaughlin on the left below the advertisement.

Based on the three slideshows to the left hand side of the main blog I would propose that the intended audience has a liberal background. The three slideshows are titled: (1) Boston League of Women Wrestlers, (2) Mellow Bravo at Middle East Downstairs, and (3) Boston Tattoo Convention. Women wrestling leagues are less than main-stream as an American sport. Mellow Bravo is a young roadhouse rock ‘n’ roll band from Boston who played at the Middle East Downstairs – a typical joint for the alternative indie-rock music scene. The Boston Tattoo Convention Slideshow link takes you to a series of photos taken at the convention at the Sheraton Hotel. Tattoos are not normally connected with the conservative-minded.

It also seems that the education level of readers is college-level. This hypothesis is based on the topical matter addressed in the blog. A usual blog topic for Fulton is some facet of literary culture. Fulton and MacLaughlin both assume their readers possess some familiarity with literary culture when blogging. However, the blog by MacLaughlin also describes her dislike for Updike being related to the fact that she is not a “53 year old divorcee.” Updike is old, and MacLaughlin is implying that older generations are Updike followers. The reference to a generational gap implies that MacLaughlin’s audience is younger than 53 at least. This, along with the WordUp main image on the top of the blog sets the target demographic between 20 and 35 in my mind.

While Nina MacLaughlin does not seem concerned about the opinions of others, she does focus on making an argument. It doesn’t appear that she expects hostility from her readers, but she does make an effort to make a point and support it rather than just observing events around her. Fulton, the main blogger behind WordUp, seems to have the same avenue of approach. An argument or strong opinion is essential to her writing as well, but most of her posts are her musings on items of the literary world; a new book, an emerging author, a controversial review or an update on a book tour. MacLaughlin’s post fits into Fulton’s series because it deals with Updike’s review on Jonathan Safran-Foer. Debate and discussion regarding any postings on the blog is not actively encouraged or discouraged. There is a comment section on the main page of WordUp titled Latest Comments, but it is located far left midway down the page and is not prominently highlighted.

Considering the overall site layout and content, not only MacLaughlin’s posting on Updike and Foer, it seems that the target audience for WordUp would be literate, college-educated, liberal people. Her audience has knowledge about the literary world, and is somewhat familiar with authors, novels, pieces, and literary criticisms. WordUp is written in familiar diction and resists a professional, condescending tone. Often the blogs sound like reports on events with an opinion on the happening highlighted by the blogger. The blog offers opinions, but does not force them down people’s throats with adamant, exclusive language. For an audience interested in upcoming literary events, and authors, WordUp is an informative and interesting website.

Audience Analysis

2010-09-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

Lisa Nagrone

09/12/2010

Assignment #1 Audience Analysis- http://wetasphalt.com

After reading the review on the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Tom Bissel, I thought long and hard about the target audience and what emotions the author was trying to create with his audience. I found the review to be quite interesting and found that it inspired me to want to read the novel by Jonathon Foer even more than I had before.

I found advertisements on the site that I went to from both Google and Amazon. There were two Google advertisements, one on how to make money writing and one on how to get published. There were also two Amazon advertisements, one to purchase the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathon Foer and one to purchase The Father of All things, by Tom Bissel. I think that it is funny that the author of the review was advertising his book on the same website. However, I have to say that the advertizing was kept at a minimum not like other websites that have pop ups popping out from all over the place.

I believe that the author’s level of diction is moderate. It was easy to understand the review however; there were a few phrases and words that seemed out of place compared to the rest of the writing. In the writing the author stated, “Everything Is Illuminated was one of the most mature and fully realized books ever published by someone comparably young, which places Foer among the ranks of Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Martin Amis, and John Updike.” The author of the review did not talk about the other authors that he compared Foer to and just expected the audience to know all of them; I personally had never heard of any of them before.

In my opinion, the author wrote as though he expected the audience to have a low level of familiarity with the novel. The writer lightly explained what the novel was about to the audience and what style of writing Foer used in the novel. The author did not give the ending of the novel, which I was thankful for since I haven’t finished reading yet. The author was very informative in his review and gave both credit and criticism to Foer for his writing style. For Example, the author stated in his review “This is a good novel. It is not nearly good enough.”

I don’t believe that the author expected a hostile audience or that he tried to create a hostile audience. I feel that the author was trying to be nothing but informative in his review and that he did not try to convince the audience to think one way or the other. To me, the goal of the author was to put the information out there allowing the audience to interpret the information anyway they chose. The background that I believe the writer expected the audience to share is a strong sadness for those that lost loved ones or were affected in some way by the 9/11 attacks. The author of the review understood that many people would have mixed emotions about the novel and that many people would be interested in it enough to read it.

Looking at the review, I believe the target audience to be open-minded, college level people or just simply open-minded adults. The audience would have to have an understanding of literature and maybe even knowledge of the different authors that Bissel expected the audience to know about; such as the ones I listed earlier. This audience would not be the typical audience that you see at www.seventeen.com or www.nationalenquire.com but maybe the same audience that you would see at www.nytimes.com. The web site does allow for comments that show up on the bottom right column. I read through a few of them and found that the topics off comments were way of course from the review topic. All in all, I was pleased with the site.

I would recommend this review to anyone that is going to read “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” by Jonathon Foer to get a better understanding about what the novel is about and then actually read the novel to determine what they agree and disagree with Bissel about. From my own experience, you should never let a review turn you away from a novel that you are interested in, just go for it!

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Audience Analysis

2010-09-18T19:36:00.000-07:00

Audience Analysis
Kelly Wolfinger
Powell’s Books, www.polwells.com, is a site that buys and sells used books, identifies and discuses bestsellers, and hosts many author interviews, essays, and blogs. To better understand various author’s motives, world views, and aims, Dave, a Powell’s Books employee, invites them into conversation and encourages the authors to divulge to answers to many lingering questions their readers across the world may have. In this two-way, often informal interview setting, Dave is able to approach authors on multiple levels to engage them in conversations about the writing, home lives, both past and present, and inquire about their thoughts on current global and local issues that affect society and their writing. Dave proves his credibility to readers and authors alike as he is able to discuss and correlate different works that have overlapping themes and present alternate view points to the discussion his is participating in. His understanding of what he is relaying to his audience aid them in accepting his message and later further ponder the ideas he and the authors discuss.

The tone of the interviews and level of formality are geared toward a multi educational and socioeconomic standing group of individuals. Although the interviewer and author assumes that the readers understand common literary terms and current events that can be related to the topics discussed. They also include multiple comparisons in their discussions, in doing so readers with limited experience or subject knowledge may not get what is being alluded to or inferred by these comparisons. The causal air present within the interviews gives readers the distinct impression that the overall messages will be easy to digest and promote differing thought and attitudes from people of vastly different backgrounds. In an interview with Jonathan Safran Foer, Dave uses common language to describe his ideas and information and pose his questions in an understandable way.

While Dave does enlist Foer’s opinion on a few topics, he does not seem to be excepting a lengthy rebuttal or controversial answer, but rather would like to see Foer further explain the puzzling questions for his readers and provide example and feedback from his perspective. For example, Dave, asks Foer of his opinion of the practice of adding multiple visual elements into writing, one in which Foer is known for. He is then able to express his reasoning for doing so and the importance in his mind for including them, especially in his appeals toward a younger generation who is accustomed to receiving multiple stimuli and messages concurrently.

The majority of the interview centers around the topics of reading and writing, Foer’s stories in particular, it does open itself up for various related topics such as the introduction and influence of other media, namely music, on writing and the changing ways individuals, especially those for a younger generation, seek out and intake the information around them.

There are minimal advertisement on Powell’s site, especially few scattered about though the available interviews. Although there are few, the advertisements that are present aid the readers in discovering a target audience as the vast majority of these ads are for subscriptions to other literary review and information sites or are sites that sell books for discounted prices.

Considering the overall organization of the site, present advertisements, and written dialogue, it seems that the target audience for this site it literate, educational seeking, individuals with at least a high school level of education or above. This type of site and it’s target audience differs greatly from those who seek their information on sites such as ESPN or Facebook. Although Dave writes an in informal manner, he expects his readers to have a background in what is being discussed, however, his writing is worth perusing if you would like to gain another opinion about various topics or gain information by reading about various authors in a more casual setting.

Paper 1

2010-09-18T19:32:00.001-07:00

Brandon Dooley
ENGL-305-60
Paper 1: Extremely Loud
& Incredibly Close
09/08/2010

Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

There have been many reviews shown to us as students of this particular course for this particular book and author. Some of the reviews through these blog/newspaper sites have found favor and like of the book and author, while others have scorned the very core and concepts to which this book brings to life, thus posing both sides of the argument of whether this book was worth writing and publishing or not. In my own personal opinion, I believe the book was worth writing; the various complexities within the insanity of the lives depicted within the story, though abstractially presented, speak volumes of real-life truths not spoken directly most of the time throughout the book. It was challenging for me, then, to look at the other side of this spectrum, to which some have chosen to believe, and find who, as an audience, would support the dislike of the book, what the reasons behind that decision were, and what indications existed on the site(s) as to whom the article(s) was/were targeting. Because of this challenge, I chose to review an article wrote by a man named Harry Siegel, cleverly titled “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False: Why the author of Everything Is Illuminated is a fraud and a hack,” for which supports the opposite of my views on the book.
Now, the difficulty was: who would support this view? For this answer, I had to examine what other content besides the writing itself indicated who would be interested in hearing this side of the story. This particular article is wrote on the NewYork Press website, so that limited my guess down to that particular region in the United States. At the top of the page, next to the NewYork Press logo, is an advertisement reading: “eldersex: over 25% of people ages 57 to 85 still have sex- and are still at risk for HIV.’ It then references a support site for HIV by the name of GMHC. This further narrowed my guess down to people in New York who are between the ages of 57 and 85, and who are potentially sexually active. As I scroll through the page, I also see a Karaoke add on the right side, which indicates that the people who view this site might also be actively participating in activities within the community and be interested in doing that particular activity. Other activity ads listed include kayaking tour of the Hudson, taking a random survey for the NewYork Press to win random prizes, ability to submit events of the persons’ choosing, signing up for the NewYork Press weekly event information, actively following the NY Press on Facebook and Twitter, and the CityArt cultural review of NewYork. What this all indicates to me is that the target audience are people from New York or people planning to go to New York who are of the older generation that don’t mind ‘getting out there’ and taking risks while also enjoying themselves, but who are also rigid in culture and activities such as going to the bar to karaoke or have a few drinks, or exploring the city for cultural familiarity to look at differences from their own practices (this last part, though, seems to be directed towards intellectual critics of this particular article, not towards the main intended audience). Expressionism and the changes indicated by the actions of expressionistic persons (such as the case with Foer and his difficult writing style he utilizes to express abstractly truths and ideas) would seemingly be rejected by these type of people, thus making these type of people easily susceptible to agree with Siegel about the negative aspects of the writer and his book. This determination is simply through the ads on the page, but was something that helped narrow my view down a bit so that when I began to read what this article was about, the rest of the pieces simply fell into place. One other aspect I noticed about the piece is that the writer is rather sarcastic in his writing, which makes me assume that he thinks the audience will like that sarcasm.
One of the main themes I found in this article pertained to the ad hominem reasoning, meaning that Siegel was simply bashing on Foer based on his conduction and methodology for expressing his art of writing. I also find that many of the paragraphs tend to go on tangents that really don’t pertain to anything specifically designated towards his works of art. For example, in the fifth paragraph, he states that, “Foer, I should note, is a Jewish atheist, wrote letters to Susan Sontag when he was nine, and otherwise sounds like he'd make unbearable company, though perhaps not as much as the obnoxiously precocious, overeducated brat Schell. If Foer is beginning to sound like a minor Saul Bellow character (think the masturbating uncle in Mr. Sammler's Planet), he has only himself to blame.” (1), which, in my eyes, shows nothing towards anything pertaining to actual artistic capability or lack there off; when I think of artistic criticism, I would imagine sentence structure, ability to articulate thoughts and ideas, amount of messages hinted from the text, plot structure, and other writing-related concerns being discussed. Hence, the audience personality type directed towards equivocates to extremely pissed off people who are ignorant to or blinded from the artistic value within the piece or works of art in general, who’s ignorance causes hate towards the person who created the object rather than the specifics of the object itself, with presumably sound reasoning coercing their decisions.
The paradoxical perspective also indicates that people of decent to high quality education reviewing the particular article would also be interested to shut down the content in the article immediately, particularly indicated by the ad relaying the culture center (which, in my assumption, interests people of questioning and analytical minds like the decent to high quality educated persons). The fact that these type of people are inclusive is rather hinted in the article, but existent nonetheless. I mean, for someone who is writing for a major paper within the region, you almost have to go all out on one side of the argument so that both sides argue inclusively or disclusively, but argue just the same, read just the same, so in fair recognition of the fact that critics on both side exist and that some will read arguments against their belief shows that the writer isn’t completely unaware of his potential audience. But, the audience that he’s mainly targeting are the type that will follow fallacies very closely simply for differences from the regular, or rather expected, tendencies for a particular matter (such as how to write a novel).
There is one final hint I wish to point out in this article. Through about three quarters of the way into the article, he actual starts to make sound arguments against the actual content of the piece. Here’s what I mean:
“Foer is indeed a sampler, throwing in Sebald (the illustrations and Dresden), Borges (the grandparents divide their apartment into something and nothing), Calvino (a tale about the sixth borough that floated off, ripped off wholesale from Cosmicomics), Auster (in the whole city-of- symbols shtick), Night of the Hunter (the grandfather has Yes and No tattooed on his hands) and damn near every other author, technique, reference and symbol he can lay his hands on, as though referencing were the same as meaning.” (1)

Within this description, he is actually utilizes some previous styles and story contents as a comparison or similarity between Foer’s book and those pieces. This actually shows some intellectual argument rather than ranting and raving like the beginning and end of the piece. What this tells me as a reader is that he does care about the intellectual individual paying attention to his piece as the secondary target audience, cause he doesn’t care to give these types of arguments in the beginning, but he hints is then exemplifies further throughout the piece. So I know that he wants them as an audience as well, but doesn’t want to appear that way in the beginning; he knows that the main target audience won’t give him the time of day unless the article explains from the beginning what his position is, why it is, and what exactly he’s positioning against, so quick arguments, whether intellectual or not, are his aim in the beginning. Then, for those that stick around and continue to read through the article, he does pose some decent arguments. Not something I necessarily agree with, but is something evident in the piece.
Now, all this information tells me that there are two particular types of audiences this writer is wishing to target. The first one is the older generation who like to get out and do things, doesn’t have time to sit and read, who wants the facts quick and easy, not caring about the full argument being pose, just caring enough to get a fair determination through small bits of information whether or not it’s worth their while to care. They really don’t even necessarily care who’s writing it; they know its from a major paper and that what they’re told must be true and accurate, even if perspectual. Also, these people would be from the New York area because the personality type requires them to be from the area that the piece was written in (cause who, of these type of people, would sit down, go look at a different city’s major paper just for an article about a book they never heard of or even care to hear of?). The second type of audience is us, the students, the minds at work craving to learn more about the world. We like the valid arguments and hate the stupidity within, but the nice part is we’re smart enough to recognize the difference, so it peaks our interests to write about our opinions on the matter from our intellectually sound perspectives. Also, people who are just generally interested in knowing the world, they would be likely to drop by on occasion and would be a potential audience. These types can pertain to anyone, really, who has a computer and searches around the internet looking up random information. These two types of audiences are what I understand as being the target of this piece.

Bibliography:
1. Siegel, Harry. “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False: Why the author of Everything Is Illuminated is a fraud and a hack.” NewYork Press. New York. Posted: Wednesday, April 20, 2005. http://www.nypress.com/article-11418-extremely-cloying-incredibly-false.html

2009-10-05T15:28:00.001-07:00

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is not an ordinary novel. It requires an active imagination and an open mind. Jonathan Foer uses historical events and tragedies in such a way that could actually make people rethink history altogether. He incorporates the bombing of Dresden, Germany, during World War II, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, and the planes crashing into the Twin Towers on 9/11 into the lives of one family.

Foer humanizes the characters in such a way that makes the reader go through a variety of emotions. Each chapter brings a new identity to a character. The main character is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. Oskar is very unique boy. Although he has the quirks of a normal child, he is exceptionally different from his classmates and friends. He loves science, foreign languages, wears only white clothes, and expresses himself in a scrapbook he calls Stuff that Happened to Me. Oskar’s father, Thomas, is killed in the events of 9/11 and his family is deeply affected by his death. No one knows exactly how Thomas died which becomes a great mystery to Oskar and he “invents” possible scenarios in which he was killed. Oskar and his family must adjust to life without Thomas and this story accurately depicts the turmoil that a family could go through in such a hardship.

Oskar’s father was the center of his existence. His father would tell him stories, design Reconnaissance Expeditions so Oskar would have to talk to people, find mistakes in the New York Times together, and generally enjoy life together. After his father died, Oskar was a lost little boy who did not know what to do with his feelings. He resented his mother, loved his grandmother, but especially longed for his father. Oskar did not know how to cope with his emotions, so he would bruise himself when things were difficult for him. He wanted to scream, but said nothing, except on certain occasions when he would take his anger out on his mother. Oskar annoyed many, but captured the hearts of even more, especially his grandmother.

In a desperate attempt to hold onto his father, Oskar searches his parent’s room. He finds a tuxedo that his father wore, but never put away. He notices a blue vase on a high shelf, and is determined to know what is in the vase. Oskar attempts to retrieve the vase, but instead knocks it off of the shelf and the vase shatters on the floor. Oskar discovers an envelope within the glass with the word “black” written in red ink. Inside of the envelope, Oskar finds a key but there is no indication as to what the key is for. This moment gives Oskar hope. Hope to stay close to his father, and a determination to find out why his father had the key.

Oskar discovers that the word “black” is the name of an individual. He sets out to find the person that will unveil the truth about the key and if and how his father is involved. Oskar decides to find every person with the last name of Black in the city of New York. Not only do we learn about the complex character of Oskar, but we learn about the kind nature of the people that he encounters. Each person has their own unique story to add and Oskar is excited to know everything he can about each person.

Oskar’s unique personality is unveiled when he plays an audio recording of an interview with a survivor of the bombing of Hiroshima. The interview is detailed and gruesome and Oskar elaborates on the relationship of the degree of burning with colors. His classmates do not understand his unusual character and Oskar does not know that his grandparents survived a similar experience.

Throughout the story we learn the complexity of Oskar’s family as well. His grandparents grew up in Dresden, Germany, during World War II. Oskar’s grandfather, Thomas Sr. was in love with a young woman named Anna. Anna was the love of his life and they became young lovers. On the last day that Thomas saw Anna, she told him she was pregnant. Dresden was bombed and many lives were lost, including Anna and her unborn child. The other character who suffered from the death of Anna, was her sister who was Oskar’s grandma. Oskar’s grandma’s biggest regret in her life was that she did not tell Anna that she loved her the last time that she saw her. She expressed to her grandson that he should always make sure that the people he loved knew that he loved them.

Oskar’s grandparents moved to New York City and found each other. Thomas did not speak, so he wrote his messages to people, including Grandma, in a notebook. He also tattooed yes on his left hand and no on his right hand so he could answer some questions without having to write them down. Thomas’s relationship with Grandma was based on rules and nothings and somethings. They co-existed, but never really expressed too much emotion toward one another. The number one rule between them is that there can be no children. Grandma becomes pregnant and Grandpa leaves her and his unborn child. She is left alone to take care of the child that she loves more than anything and the child that Grandpa wants to love more than anything. Instead of staying and showing his love to his child, Grandpa wrote a letter everyday for his child.

The grandparent’s story is well described and unexpected. I found myself running through mixed emotions as their back story unfolded. At first glance, Grandpa was selfish and uncaring towards anyone except Anna. He did not talk, and the reason for that was questioned. I can say that I did not expect the reason to be as profound as it turned out to be. Although I do not agree with any one walking out on his or her family, I could understand Grandpa’s need to protect himself. He longed for a woman and a child that he could no longer have, and that would impact anyone negatively. I originally found myself feeling empathy for Grandma and wanting her to find happiness and have a fulfilling life without her husband. Her inability to move on with her life without her husband left me angry and unsympathetic towards her. Her desperation and willingness to take her husband back after so much time had passed caused me to label her as weak. She had little regard for her own personal pride and self respect.

Oskar’s resentment for his mother runs deep in this novel. On the day of his father’s death, she does not pick him up for school. She has him meet her at their apartment. When Oskar gets home, he finds that his father has left several messages on the answering machine. Not wanting his mother to find the messages, he purchases an identical phone and replaces it. He hides the phone with the messages in a scarf which is placed in a bag, which is then placed in a box, which is placed in another box, and then hidden in the bottom of his closet with several items placed on top of the box. Oskar thinks that he hides this from his mom and grandma as he wants to protect them, but he is actually upset with his mother for not hearing the messages first. He is mad that he had to go home by himself to discover the messages by himself.

Oskar’s anger for his mother is completely plausible. He is mad because she does not show what he thinks are valid feelings for his father’s death. She tells him that he reminds her of his father, but Oskar is mad that he does not remind her of himself. Oskar’s mother has a friend, Ron, who Oskar is unhappy with. He is convinced that his mother and Ron are boyfriend and girlfriend, which to him means that she has forgotten about his father. The relationship between Oskar and his mother is extremely unsteady. Oskar is required to attend therapy sessions. At one of the sessions he overhears the therapist telling his mother that he needs to be institutionalized. Oskar’s mother refuses, which gives Oskar a little comfort knowing that his mother defended him and does not think he is completely crazy.

The journey to find the lock uncovers secrets and unusual characters. Oskar meets Mr. Black who lives in the same apartment building as he and his mother does. Mr. Black was born on January 1, 1900. He is unusual that he wears an eye patch and does not leave his apartment. Oskar snoops through his apartment to find that his bed is made of a tree. Oskar tells Mr. Black his story and convinces him to help him track locate the Blacks’ in New York City. Mr. Black and Oskar make an uncanny pair, but both enjoy the time that they spend together.

Mr. Black and Oskar provided each other with companionship. Oskar gives Mr. Black a reason for living and Mr. Black gives Oskar security as well as adult supervision. Oskar and Mr. Black meet Ruth Black on the top of the Empire State Building. She gives them a history lesson of the building and Mr. Black is especially intrigued. Although she is not the Black that they are looking for, Mr. Black finds something about her fascinating and intriguing. Although their journeys together were exciting, Mr. Black does not finish the quest with Oskar. He tells Oskar that he is finished, and Mr. Black quietly vanishes to leave Oskar on his own.

One of the first Blacks’ that Oskar met was Abby Black. Oskar was intrigued by her and really enjoyed her company. Although he felt that she knew more than she was letting on, he moved on to locate the next Black on his list. After several months of searching, he discovers a message on the answering machine from Abby Black. She called and left a message to let Oskar know that she knew more than she told him. When she was leaving the message, Oskar’s mother had picked up the phone and talked to her. She never told Oskar of the conversation and let him believe that she had no idea of what was going on.

Abby Black’s ex-husband, William was the one who ended Oskar’s adventure. After his father had died, he sold everything. His father had left a key for a safety deposit box inside an envelope which was then placed in a blue vase. The blue vase was purchased by Thomas Schell. Thomas had known about the key but was killed before he was able to return the vase to William. Although the mystery was solved, Oskar did not have the answers that he was looking for. As long as he was searching for answers, he felt that he was close to his father. Now he was forced to grieve and focus on his father not being there for him.

Oskar’s grandpa learns of his son’s death and contacts Grandma. She allows him to stay in her guest room under the condition that he never meets Oskar. Grandma tells Oskar and his mother that the man staying in her guest room is the “renter.” Desperate to find his Grandma one day, he meets the “renter.” Oskar tells this man his whole story. He finds comfort in telling someone everything he has been doing, the people he has been meeting, and the end of his journey. After spending time with the man he does not know is really his grandpa, Oskar decides to dig up his father’s coffin, with the help of his grandpa.

Oskar and Grandpa secretly create a plan to dig up Thomas Schell, Jr.’s coffin. They end up at the cemetery in the middle of the night and dig up an empty coffin. Although Oskar knew there would be nothing inside, he was still disappointed. Grandpa finds all the letters that he has ever written to his son, dumps them in the coffin, and the two bury the letters.

The ending of the novel left too many questions. Sometimes I feel that the unknown makes an acceptable ending, this is not one of those times. Oskar does not find any closure. He learns things about his mother that were necessary for him to overcome some of his anger, but I feel cheated. Grandma and Grandpa move to the airport and then what? I wish that the end could have answered more questions for me.

Foer uses the familiarity of grief and loss to capture his audience. The use of catastrophic events, makes the actions of the characters believable and human. Although we sympathize with Oskar, we also see how different he is and how his behavior can be typical of a child his age. The mother’s actions, although frustrating and angering at times, are not too difficult to relate to.

Foer also uses visual examples and pictures to illustrate what the characters are seeing. I sometimes find this distracting and refreshing at the same time. I really enjoyed the words in color. They illustrated exactly what the reader needed to see to believe. The pages where all the words were smashed together, made me feel as though I was missing some valuable information, but maybe that was exactly the point after all.

This is certain a novel that I would have never considered reading on my own, but now that I have, I really think that I need to read it again to understand the complete picture that Foer wanted his audience to see. There are parts that I am still confused by, but understand that the point of this novel is to create a unique and refreshing way to tell a story.

Extremely Loud and Undeniably Incredible

2009-10-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Extremely loud and Incredibly close shares the separate accounts of a distraught mother, a callous grandpa, a deprived grandma and a precocious 9-year old boy but when there lives interweave there separate accounts transform into a unified and touching story.
The novel begins post 9/11, a day that claimed thousands of lives and changed the perception in American Eyes forever. Thomas Schell, a father, son and husband, breathed his last breath in the World Trade Center, and was never found again . His son, Oskar Schell, is the tambourine playing narrator that takes us on an adventure through the Burroughs of New York City, his narratives are mixed with the letters written from Oskar’s grandpa to his son (Thomas Schell), and Oskar’s grandma to Oskar and with pictures from Oskar‘s Journal which parallels his adventures and feelings.
Oskar Schell is an oddly intelligent nine year old boy who has many problems stemming from his fathers death and guilt he has for not being able to pick up the phone on 9/11. Oskar’s dad left five messages from inside the north tower of the World Trade Center before it came crumbling down, and his discovery of the messages prompts him to hide the messages from his mother to protect her. Which he refers to giving him “heavy boots”. Oskar’s sadness and inability to properly cope with loss is demonstrated in his lovable characteristics and rapid imagination, he is an French speaker, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler and inventor; “What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away?.”
Oskar lives with his mom but spends most of the time with his grandmother who lives across the street. Oskar’s relationship with his mom is turbulent and Oskar feels Ron, her new friend is to blame. Oskar dislikes Ron from the beginning because he does not think his mom should be laughing, talking to other men, playing games but most of all getting over his dad so soon. Oskar’s grandma plays an upfront role in Oskar’s life while dealing secretly with the loss of her son, her husband and their detrimental relationship, the horrific memories of the Dresden bombings and the damage it did to her family.
The grandma opens up and sheds light on her past through the letters she writes to Oskar.
Oskar’s sole mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key he found in a blue vase in the closet belonging to his late father. When he finds the key inside a envelope labeled ‘Black’ he searches the city for every person with the last name ‘Black’. Oskar anticipates who ever they are will be able to share information about his father, in hopes of understanding his father better and find closure. Oskar starts a search for the meaning of the key by visiting a locksmith and then sets out visiting one ‘Black’ to another ‘Black’ from Central Park to Harlem in search of someone who knows about the key. Oskar's mother allows the boy to spend his time searching, and does so by traveling on foot, in subways and cabs to the reach the five boroughs of New York City. Oskar makes friendships with many diverse people in his quest to find the key, including a Mr. Black who lives above Oskar and never leaves his apartment and a woman who lives in the Empire State Building.
In addition to Oskar sharing his accounts on the search for the key and insight into his life, we also receive accounts and learn about the lives of his grandma and grandpa through the letters they write. His grandpa, also Thomas Schell, writes to his son because he left and returned to Germany, never knowing him. The letters shine light on his traumatic teenage past in Dresden during World War II and why he makes the decisions he does. During the bombings he lost the love of his life, Anna, their unborn child, his family, and the gift of a voice. The grandpa communicates by his tattoos on his hands “Yes” and “No” and the messages he has written in his journal. He can answer questions by showing the correlating hand or pointing to sentences over and over. The grandpa spends his life and the entirety of the book defending why he is the way he is.and striving to explain himself . The Grandma writes letters to Oskar that entail intimate details about her and his grandpas masochistic relationship. Oskar’s grandma was Anna’s sister, which is how she knew when she ran into him that they had to marry, Thomas Schell was the only thing she had that reminded her of her past. Consequently, she knew that he only agreed because she reminded him of Anna, a substitution for Anna. Their life together was lived with rules they created, which presided over how they can act, what they can do, and where they could go in the apartment they shared. The rules were the way to survive their losses and prevent pain, thus when the number one rule was broke, no children, Thomas Schell walked out on her and their unborn child..
The letters contribute to the theme of tragedy, and the hunt for happiness Oskar is on. Oskar can be annoying, difficult, and emotionally unstable, but it is these quarks that completely captivate the reader. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close can bring one to tears or lift one up, but most importantly it keeps 9/11 engraved into the minds of everyone, which as time passes the memory begins to fade.

Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

2009-10-04T11:04:00.000-07:00

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer takes an intimate look at grief and the way in which people handle an array of emotions including but not limited too: pain, fear, loneliness, and of course grief. In order to do this Foer used the most recent disaster that Americans can identify with, the 9/11 attacks on the world trade centers. The entire country is still attempting to heal both as a country and on an individual level. This book takes a look at the individual level and the effect that the attacks had on people for years to come by looking at one family.

The book revolves around the character of Oskar a young boy whose father died in the 9/11 attacks. It follows Oskar as he attempts to reconnect with his father and deal with his grief and hysteria about the incident and the entire world. Oskar finds himself afraid of many things such as “scaffolding, sewers and subway grates, bags without owners, shoes, people with mustaches, smoke, knots…”. Oskar’s inability to move on from his father’s death leaves him constantly fearful of the world around him and ultimately leads him to search all over the five boroughs of New York for a lock in an attempt to reconnect with his father.

The character of Oskar is highly entertaining but unbelievable at times. While the reader is led to believe that Oskar is simply an extremely advanced young boy, his character seems pushed beyond this at times creating mistrust in the reader. The constant questioning seems to fit with what would be expected of any young child but the complexity of the thought process behind these questions seems at times to go overboard. In doing this Foer looses the audience to questions of how realistic the character of Oskar is. Even though Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is fiction the reader is able to fall into the story to the extent of believing it to be reality until Foer has one of his character usually Oskar do something too unbelievable breaking this belief. Also at times the language used by Oskar is actually the problem with his character, especially when held up to the language of other children his age. Oskar gives a presentation to his class in which he discusses a disaster. Oskar describes the incident with individual words and combinations of words that seem unlikely to be in most children’s vocabulary. Having Oskar nonchalantly state that “the radiant heat traveled in straight lines from the explosion” and use words such as: “hypocenter” and “intervening objects”, “indication”, and “diameter” as well as “maximum charring effect” looses the audience. Especially when followed by the question of Jimmy Snyder “Why are you so weird”. Foer’s attempt to show the depth and complexity of Oskar fell short due to the unrealistic nature of his character and caused the audience to questi
on the reliability of the narrator. Many people have suggested that Foer wrote himself into the character of Oskar and are unappreciative of this fact.

Foer uses a variety of visual aids in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to draw the reader into the book. While some of these pictures and blank pages do draw the reader in there are times when the reader finds themselves distanced from the story due to their now inability to create their own images in their mind. They must rely on the images supplied by Foer.

Oskar’s grandparents also seem to turn readers away. They are so over the top and at times much too forth coming with their sexual experiences. Even though Foer used the grandparent’s sexual experience as a way to show their past and demonstrate how they became the people that they are today, some readers will find it too over the top. The grandparents do effectively serve as an example of people who were able to get some sort of a second chance and who were able to find a small amount of closure in their personal lives.

Foer manages to wrap up parts of the story while still leaving the reader wanting more. The reader finds themselves attached to the character of Oskar. Even when his character seems to be unbelievable he is never unlikable. The reader is constantly hoping for Oskar’s life to miraculously turn around. Wishing for everything in Oskar’s life to be okay and for him to be able to connect with his mother. All in all the book is a good read and looks at subjects that most people would not like to think about. Just because we don’t want to think about disaster and grief does not mean that it is not there. Sometimes facing our problems and pain is the best answer.

2009-10-02T23:07:00.000-07:00

Death is easy, for those who are dead; it is continuous excruciating pain for those who are alive. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, takes you into the tragic incident of September 11 from the perspective of a vibrant and creative nine-year-old. Foer grabs hold and pulls you into the powerful and exuberant journey of a young boy trying to find closure to the unexpected death of his father. Oskar Schell, like thousands of others, was unfortunately affected by the tragedy of the Twin Towers’ collapse.

One-of-a-kind, Oskar Schell has heavy boots (many sad feelings that weigh him down), wears only white and plays a tambourine. He is imaginative with his inventions that help make life easier and safer. He creates jewelry, collects stamps and rocks, and corresponds with the famous Stephan Hawking, Jane Goodall and many more of his inspirations. Dearly loved by his mother and grandmother, Oskar’s pain is deep and extremely heart wrenching. His young mind maintains exasperated emotions of a confused little boy.

Oskar’s mother has made a new friend, Ron, and Oskar disapproves because he doesn’t want his mother to fall in love again. He doesn’t want her to forget Thomas, his father, but especially not replace him. Ron tries to gain approval from Oskar by asking to buy him instruments but he declines.

Money can’t buy me love, obviously, but I asked if it would have been Zildjian cymbals. He said, “Whatever you want,” and then he took my yo-yo off my desk and started to walk the dog with it. I know he just wanted to be friendly, but it made me incredibly angry. “Yo-yo, moi!” I told him, grabbing it back. What I really wanted to tell him was, “You’re not my dad, and never will be.”

He shuts himself in his father’s closet to escape life and to be closer to his dad. When Oskar does this, “it made my boots lighter to be around his things, and to touch stuff that he touched.” When in his closet he finds a vase that has an envelope that has Black written on the outside in blue ink and an unmarked key on the inside. Oskar believes that like the quests his father has sent on before this is one in the same. After much deliberation to the meaning of the word Black he decides that it is somebody’s last name. He uses the phone book for the list of Black’s in the New York City area, starts with the A’s and walks to their houses to question them about the key. He meets many Blacks all in the New York City area and they all have interesting stories and lives.

Foer does a fantastic job connecting all of New York City’s pain to that of Oskar’s. Foer makes the connection in many ways but the most attention grabbing was the bedtime story that his father told him about the sixth borough. The sixth borough slowly drifted away from New York City. But before it drifted too far, the citizens dragged beloved parts of the borough onto the mainland. Soon the citizens of the five boroughs and the citizens of the sixth borough lost their connections forever. Oskar was like the people of New York City; he lost someone that was a huge part of who he was. Also like the citizens of the five boroughs, Oskar tried to hang onto what reminded him of his father. He travels all over the five borough of New York City to find the lock that will be opened by the key that his father left for him. He also kept the answering machine that had his father’s dying words safe and concealed and only revealed it to his grandmother’s renter, his unknown grandfather.

Although Oskar is the main focus of the novel, Foer diverts the narrative to the letters of his grandfather to his unborn child, Thomas Shell, and also the stories from his grandmother. Even though his grandparents’ stories are interesting and tearjerkers they still seem completely frivolous and don’t contribute to the plot of the story.

Although irrelevant with Oskar’s journey Foer connects the tragedy of September 11 with the bombings in Dresden; it enhances the mournful mood with more grief and loss. The reader hopes that the young boy will be capable of finding “the good” that can come from the death of his father. His grandmother and grandfather seemed to have never healed from their losses in the bombings. Oskar being so young and innocent was tainted by the pain and loss of his father. The psychological problems that the characters retained through their life experiences helped retain the readers’ interest level.

The separate chapters by grandpa and the photos and drawings take away from the serious wounds of the characters. The single sentences on the black pages were effective in the beginning to demonstrate the way grandpa was communicating but later became excessive. This was a brilliantly written book with great imagination. It may have been unbearable for some people to read, mostly because it touched too close to home too early to the day of the attacks. Oskar started out with emptiness and loneliness with the loss of his father in the attacks, but by the end of the book he realized that he was not. His mom did care about him and she allowed him to find his way around by himself because she probably believed that it would be better that way. Oskar’s story was very unique and one to hold on to we should not forget about him and his story, just like the people of New Your City should not forget about the sixth borough.

BreAnne Baird

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a perspective exhibit in grief.

2009-10-02T22:52:00.000-07:00

Donna Holland

10-2-09

Book Review

Reading Foer’s work is analogous to walking through an art gallery surveying a retrospective work of his characters lives; each of the main characters is in the middle of some stage of the grieving process. We are guided by Foer, like a gondolier, securely wrapped in his hand-crafted vessel of words and images to ride the ebb and flow of the waves of emotions he conjures within each character, and within each one of us. As we stop to evaluate each work of art we are often struck by an immediate slap to senses. At each piece along the exhibit we a confronted with a new challenge to our collectively agreed upon morals, values and judgments. We stop to look at the image of a young boy who stirs a protective instinct within us. We view the image of a woman who brings about a sad smile to our faces. We are stricken by the image of a broken old man who causes looks of confusion and maybe even anger to fleet across our brow. We pick up our pace wanting to find answers to these emotions. We speed along viewing the various stages in the lives of these individuals alternately embracing and shunning these characters as we move through the story. We reach the end of the exhibit and suddenly we realize that Foer has surreptitiously been guiding us through a reflective exhibit designed to bring us to a point of clarity regarding love.

The reader begins the novel with the understanding that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is going to be exploring the topic of grieving through the character of 9 yr. old Oskar Schell who lost his father due to the terrorist acts of September 11^th. It is a difficult task for adults to delve into the grieving process of a 9 year old, but Foer ushers the reader into a position of comprehension of, and empathy for, Oskar. We, the reader, internalize every emotion Oskar emotes, and through Foer’s subtle artistry the reader is also guided on a path to self-awareness. Foer’s choice to have Oskar play the character of Yorick in a production of Hamlet is layered with meaning. Essentially, Yorick is nothing but a mere skull, a dead friend whom Hamlet once knew. Oskar is mourning the loss of his best friend, his father. Oskar is being confronted with his first experience with death. It is his first experience with real loss. It is his first experience with the death of love, pure love. It is a graphic image of the slow painful emotional death of Oskar Schell. It is a mirror to the reader of their own losses, their own duels with death. Yorick signifies the inevitable, that everyone knows about and no one wants to acknowledge. In both Hamlet and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Yorick requires both the characters and the audience to confront the fact that death is inevitable.

A second way we look at grief is through the character of the grandmother. She has always loved, but she has never had the opportunity to experience that true, deep, soul-altering love that only comes from a relationship where there is a real meeting of the souls. She experiences parental love, and grandparental love, but she is never allowed the opportunity to know what it is like to share her life, the deepest inner-most part of her life with anyone. She grieves this loss throughout the entirety of her life. We look at her, and we love her as a character, but it is difficult to understand some of the choices she makes when trying to communicate her grieving process to her grandson Oskar. Grandmother has lost everyone she has ever loved, with the exception on Oskar, and she is fully invested in writing a letter to him that allows him to understand how important finding that soul-changing love is. She makes some choices that at first may seem awkward and even wrong when discussing her sexual life with grandpa. Although, it is impossible to get to the depth of complete understanding concerning the complexities of the bond that comes from that one physical and emotional connection. She needs Oskar to understand when he grows up that sex is sex, but love in its purest and most vulnerable form is most profound with your soul mate when in the act of making love. She doesn’t want Oskar to spend his life grieving, and she is willing to go to any extreme to make that clearly understood to him. In the end Grandma brings us the most complete understanding of love in all of its forms.

A third way we look at grief is through the character of the Grandfather. His representation of grief to us is the rawest; the most destroyed by the ravages loss can take upon one’s soul. We see the steps of the grieving process the most clearly through the character of the Grandfather; not because he is able to complete the entire process, but because he becomes stuck in one spot and never leaves. After the loss of his first, and only true love Anna, he walks into the grieving process and finds nothing but quicksand. As he tries to move forward he is slowly sucked under the weight of the grief he feels until he loses his ability to speak. He doesn’t want to be there, but he doesn’t know any other way out. He goes so long within that quicksand quagmire that no one, not even himself, can recognize how lost he is in the maze of his emotions. Grandfather’s inability to cope in turn causes much more grief upon those he loves, which he has no idea how to deal with either. His inability to move forward from that one point in grief frustrates the reader, it angers us and makes us sad all at the same time. In the end the Grandfather is a very necessary character. We are able to see inside the desires and motivations of someone who can’t move forward no matter how hard he tries. We are also able to see what a devastating effect that can have on all of those around him, and he teaches us the moral to continue to push through that pain. He is a great example for every reader what will happen to them and their loved ones if they allow themselves to sink within.

Foer’s gallery of life, love, learning, and grieving is a complete picture of reality. He doesn’t tie up the end in a nice little bow, so that the reader can finish the novel knowing everyone was okay, and forget all about it. Foer continues to stick to a realistic journey through the difficulties of life. No one ever has it all figured out, and Foer doesn’t try to play God, he leaves you with clear pictures and moral lessons for life, but in the end no one knows everything about life it still continues on even when you cease to be. It is the legacy that is left behind for those you loved and are in relationship with, to continue on loving, learning and growing. There is not a single person who could not benefit from this book if they are willing to be vulnerable and open-minded. There is a lifetime full of lessons contained within Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Book Review for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Lindsey Smith

2009-10-02T22:40:00.000-07:00

Lindsey Smith

Book Review

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a novel about a young boy named Oskar Schell who, upon finding a puzzling key, sets out on a quest to find the lock that it opens. Thomas Schell, Oskar’s father, died in the tragic events of 9/11, leaving his son, his wife, and his mother each to cope with the loss in their own way. Oskar’s mother finds a new “friend” named Ron, his grandmother takes in a mysterious renter and clings to Oskar more than ever, and Oskar wanders the streets of New York City in search of the lock, hoping for anything that will bring him closer to his father. The history of Oskar’s grandparents provides a rich sub-story within the novel, with the details given mostly in epistolary form as Oskar’s estranged grandfather writes letters to the son he has never met. As the story unfolds, many other characters emerge for us to love, pity, question, and even hate.

The book’s author, Jonathan Safran Foer, has been both celebrated and chastised for his innovative style and unorthodox techniques. You will find that this novel is quite unlike its text-only counterparts. Foer’s book is scattered with photographs, blank pages, a flipbook, editorial red pen, and text that runs together so that it becomes unreadable. Some think his tactics are childish, others find them compelling; I think Foer is a literary revolutionary, rebelling against the antiquated standard of regularly spaced black and white print.

His rebellious additions include the test pages from a craft store where people have tried out several colored pens. Though we are told about them in the narrative, the visual is more interesting and supports the clerk’s assertion that people tend to write the name of the color of the pen they are using. Most of Foer’s unusual pages serve to accentuate ideas or pieces of the story in this way. Are some of the pages extremely weird and incredibly frustrating? Absolutely. There are three-and-a-half pages of single-digit numbers pushed on a pay phone to “spell” words that cannot be spoken, and three-and-a-half pages of text being squished closer and closer together until it’s on top of itself, becoming an unintelligible black mass of nothing – these pages are the most vexing. But would the novel be nearly as effective without all of Foer’s eccentric inclusions? As Oskar would say, “Jose!” (That means “No way!” for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of meeting Oskar.)

This novel is brilliantly constructed. Foer continually provides the element of shock and surprise, filling the novel with “Oh!” moments and keeping us guessing as to how everything will resolve. Every time I formed an opinion about a character, another veil was lifted and I was forced to rethink my previous judgment. The novel jumps time and voice with almost every chapter, but it keeps the story fresh, never stagnant, always moving along. Combined with the vivid images and unexpected breaks provided by blank pages or strange text, my mind was constantly engaged as I read the novel. I think that the fast pace of things today give us all a sort of attention-deficit problem and if something moves too slowly or gets boring, we lose interest quickly. If literature wants to keep up with the rest of the world, I think that’s okay.

I really enjoyed the story and the book itself. I think it would be a great read for almost anyone. There are so many terrific elements all incorporated into this one novel that I’m sure readers of all kinds will be able to find something that they like about it. I am amazed at the brilliance of Foer. Though he’s so young, he has an amazing gift and I am looking forward to reading more novels from this literary revolutionary.

Review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jeremiah Croskrey

2009-10-02T21:36:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is not your every day read. Telling the story of a young boy’s journey to discover more about his recently deceased father, this book is part of the evolution of the novel as we know it. With the use of different voices, time periods, page layout, and images, this book defies the very idea of a classic novel. The story revolves around the main character, a very intelligent nine year old boy named Oskar, whose father recently died in the tragic attacks on the World Trade Center on 9/11. I know what some of you may be thinking right now, “Who would write a book about 9/11. It’s too soon!” Well don’t have a hissy-fit; this book isn’t about the events of that day. They are only referenced because they are an important day for Oskar, as well as all of us. The book is really about a boy’s journey to discover the purpose of a key that his father left to him. In Oskar’s journey, he comes across many people in New York City who come to shape his character throughout. In the end Oskar learns about his father, his family, and himself. Other mysteries ensue as Oskar’s grandparent’s characters are developed through letters and a brief history of the tragic events of Dresden in 1945.

The real excitement from this book does not come from just its characters. The story is told through many voices and many narrators, each with its own style and tone. Oskar’s story is very comedic and really makes you love his character. His journey brings you up and down as he learns truths and uncovers more questions about the meaning of being alive. His grandmother tells her story through letters she sent to Oskar. Though very inappropriate sometimes, she is a very honest and leave no details of her story out. Oskar’s grandfather also tells his story through letters to his son, Oskar’s father. His own story sometimes conflicts with Grandma’s leading us to wonder who the more reliable narrator is. He too writes in a much more serious tone than when Oskar tells his story. Foer keeps these two characters mysterious by revealing their story in reverse.

Foer also challenges the idea of the novel by using images throughout his novel. The images represent pictures taken by Oskar, such as the hands of his grandpa, and the very thoughts Oskar has in his head. These images bring the novel out of the pages and into a more visual field. We get to see what Oskar sees, instead of having to imagine them. The novel ends with a flip book of a man who had jumped out of one of the World Trade Center buildings, only instead of seeing him fall, the images are reversed, seeing him rising up into the air, and as Oskar says “If I’d had more pictures, he would’ve flown through the window, back into the building and the smoke would’ve poured into the hole that the plane was about to come out of.”

Many critics dislike this book for the very reasons I enjoy it. It is more than just a novel. It is more of an experience in reading. The use of multiple voices and images bring the novel from a simple story into a complex series of highs and lows. The visuals bring the story out of the page and give us more to “hold” as they would say. I recommend this novel to adults who can handle an evolution in writing. Many think pictures and strange formatting as an amateur way to add substance to the novel. This book didn’t need the pictures to add shock value; the pictures bring the book out of the page and into a world we can really see.

Foer Review by Jaclyn Brown

2009-10-02T19:55:00.000-07:00

This review written and submitted by Jaclyn E. Brown

Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a novel written by Jonathan Safran Foer

Jonathan Safran Foer’s 2005 novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is one of those things you either like or hate; either way it’s an experience. After reading the first pages of run-on senten.ces, interesting ideas and crazy inventions from the perspective of a nine year old, you’re either going to eagerly read more or need a nap. Foer is a new breed of writer and that of an acquired taste. His characters, diverse storyline, and organization of this book make and break a unique journey each reader experiences. Foer is both provocatively original and insensitively bold; I’d recommend his writing to anyone.

Nine year old Oskar Schell is Foer’s leading character/narrator. Oskar is a little bit of everything who knows a little bit about everything – or so he thinks. He's an avid Beatles fan, plays the tambourine, only wears white, speaks French, is a pacifist and has a wild imagination. He also happens to be a former atheist, a jeweler and most importantly a son. He frequently uses quirky sayings such as “José?”(no way) and “heavy boots”(being unhappy); I found these to be endearing although you may not. Oskar’s comfortable yet awkward manner is a good representation of the 8 to 12 year old age group. He seems to be inappropriate and kind of annoying yet charming in most cases. -- He is a literary character of whom I think we might all be able to relate our childhood self to in some tiny way.

The book’s main story revolves around Oskar’s search for answers about a key that was owned by his father, who was killed in 9/11. The key, found in an envelope labeled “Black”, triggers Oskar to alphabetically investigate every person in New York City with the last name Black. This search consumes Oskar and ultimately helps him to overcome the loss of his father.

The chronicle of this liberating journey is mixed with an oddly placed back story of Oskar’s German immigrant grandparents. Again, as a reader you either find great interest in this story of needed and lost companionship or you want to skip it all together. Products of the WWII Dresden bombings, Oskar’s grandparents also have a unique story that Foer tells through the use of completely blank pages, pages with single sentences and indecipherable morphed together words. This unusual form of artistic writing inserts the reader into the story, developing a better understanding of the grandparent’s relationship. At times I appreciated it; other times I was very annoyed.

There are many different adventures and relationships happening throughout the novel. Although the grandparent’s story is enlightening, I wish we could know less about it and more about Oskar’s interactions with all of the Blacks. Foer’s lack of expansion on most of Oskar’s encounters with these interesting people is disappointing to say the very least. The people really seem to have an appreciation for Oskar despite his peculiarity. At one visit Oskar asks a forty-eight year old woman “Can we kiss for a little bit?”, at another he meets a man over 100 years old who hasn’t left his apartment in the last 25 years and at another meets a woman who lives atop the empire state building. -All of which are quite intriguing and inspire the reader to want and need to know more. However, this need is not met; instead we are constantly interrupted with the confusing, sad grandparents. Some might value the grandparent’s story; for the most part, it was not for me.

One could say that parts of this novel are hit and miss. I would agree, but insist that most parts are a direct hit. Foer’s unique and overconfident writing style is different yet effective. He exemplifies his talent in great perspectives; for instance Oskar’s father’s solution to how “relatively insignificant we are [in the universe…]”. Oskar’s father explains that if Oskar were to move a single grain of sand in the Sahara desert he would change “…the course of human history!” Foer’s talent is also illustrated in many of Oskar’s thoughts for instance “What if everyone swallowed them [tiny microphones], and they played the sounds of our hearts through tiny speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls.” Finishing the paragraph with “…And at the finish line at the New York City Marathon it would sound like war.” What imagination!

We give credit to the character Oskar, without realizing that he is Foer’s genius written creation. Foer’s fluent, ingenious narration of Oskar throughout the book depicts a remarkably intelligent, mature, somewhat peculiar boy fighting the overwhelming reality of grief, disappointment, and every-day life. It is this character and Foer’s distinctive and artistic writing style that give this book its undeniable appeal. The story of Oskar Schell teaches us about closure, forgiveness and undeniable love while challenging us to question how we face our own problems. It is leisure reading that is enjoyable and thought provoking. As I finish Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close I expect great things from Foer, knowing this is only one of his first attempts at a great career.

Review of Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2009-10-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a unique and cleverly written novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. The main character of this novel is Oskar, a nine year old whose father died a year previously in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attack of 9.11. Since his death, Oskar has been having difficulty finding closure, feeling that he is the only one suffering. However, Oskar comes across a key in his father’s closet and quickly becomes obsessed in discovering the lock it belongs to, hoping it will help him find some kind of comfort.

As the reader goes on this journey with Oskar in search of the mysterious lock, they will discover various characters and tales that are either filled with sadness or hope, and sometimes both. Thus Foer’s novel is not the typical ‘happily ever after’ tale, but faces the reality that many try to avoid. Nevertheless, it is a very touching story that may appeal to a wide range of audience; but its form, presentation, and content may not necessarily be to everyone’s taste.

As one progresses through Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the reader will discover that the form of writing will change periodically. Foer has cleverly done this to illustrate the voice and personality of the various characters who are telling their story within the novel. Ordinarily, an author will choose one style of writing throughout their novel for consistency, but Foer goes against all norms of writing and in result he presents a captivating way to exemplify his characters.

There are three essential people who are telling their story—Oksar, Grandma, and Grandpa. As the chapters switch from character to character, Foer’s writing style will also change to fit the personality of his characters. For instance, Oskar’s chapters are narrations that contain run-on sentences. Foer does this to illustrate that this young intelligent boy has a lot on his mind, and thus feels that he must let it all out at once before it escapes. In contrast, the grandmother’s chapters are letters to Oskar in which she uses simple, basic sentences as if she is carefully selecting her words before writing.

The most peculiar and unique writing is the grandfather’s, whose chapters are also letters but to his son. His writing is in a block format, not containing any paragraphs. This gives the impression that he, like Oskar, is trying to share and express everything in his mind. However, there are some areas in which he will write a small, simple sentence on a blank page. Years previously the grandfather decided to stop talking because of the immense sorrow he was suffering from, and therefore these almost blank pages are when the grandfather is communicating with others. Thus Foer uses the block pages to illustrate that the Grandfather has a lot on his mind, but is unwilling or scared to share his pain and thoughts with others (as is demonstrated with the almost blank pages).

Besides the uniqueness of how he illustrates the characters’ personalities through the various writing styles, Foer also presents an assortment of images throughout the novel—some very disturbing. These images are pictures that Oskar has either taken or found for his scrap-book called Stuff That Happened to Me. These images are beneficial to the novel in helping the readers to see with more clarity what Oskar sees, and helping them to feel and comprehend Oskar’s emotions.

Some writers or critics do not appreciate Foer’s usage of images and writing style because they feel it is all too distracting. They believe that this novel would make some people very frustrated, especially those who prefer the traditional ways of writing in which there is a set form and order throughout the book. Mark Oppenheimer, a critic for the Jewish Journal, stated that “Foer's writing is nearly as magical as his admirers say. But magic is dangerous when not properly controlled.” However, Foer’s unique writing style and presentation is what makes this novel so stimulating. While reading this story, you never know what to expect on the next page.

This novel is open to a variety of readers, but the content is written for a mature audience, even though the main character is just a nine year old boy. A few stories within contain some explicit sexual content, making it impossible to recommend to a younger audience. The novel also contains graphic word imagery of the Dresden bombing and a disturbing image of a man falling from the World Trade Center during the 9.11 terrorist attack. These images and content may be too disturbing for some individuals.

The novel, however, focuses not upon these disturbing things, but upon finding closure, and forgiveness. This novel takes the reader on a wonderful journey with the characters who are trying to find answers to their suffering. Foer’s writing style and pictures work perfectly in pulling this story together. While reading, one should not waste their time in trying to pull apart the writing and presentation of the novel, but should instead enjoy Foer’s touching tale about hope, forgiveness, and the importance of saying “I love you.”

2009-10-02T16:06:00.000-07:00

Review of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer has received a lot of criticism for his novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Some people are awed by the daring experimentation presented in the novel, while others are horrified by the unconventional, everything-is-allowed structure of Foer’s book. Either way, Foer’s graphic novel generates some sort of response.

The pictures, pages of numbers, pages with only a sentence on them, red editing marks, and completely blank pages certainly contribute to the plot of the story (they are not random), but could also serve as a shock factor. Part of Foer’s intention, it seems, is to shock his audience, or at least, to create a strong response.

One of these strong responses is the last pages of the book: the pictures of a man falling up—an ascent—is quite moving. The very last line, “We would have been safe,” was touching, but it was the ascent that really pounded the message home. Also, on a further note, the last line—the concept of being safe—speaks for the whole novel: all the characters deal with their grief in separate ways, yearning for a safe place. The grandmother was reconnected with her husband, the grandfather buried the letters in his son’s grave (making peace with himself and finding closure), and Oskar and his mother were finally able to communicate together and get their feelings across. One marking point is when Oskar finally cries in front of his mother. Something ironic also happens here as well: Oskar, while hiding his father’s last voice messages from his mother, finds out that his mother was doing the same thing that he was. She had gotten voice messages from her husband and did not tell Oskar. Oskar and his mother finally became honest with each other and found a “safe place,” a shared grief.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close also serves as an examination of the process of grief. All the characters—although in the same family—deal with their grief in drastically different ways. Oskar’s mother finds comfort in the companionship of Ron, a man who lost his wife and daughter in a car accident. Ron explains to Oskar, “Your mom and I met in a group for people that have lost family. That’s where we became friends.” Ron has common ground with Oskar’s mother—who is nameless—but he also shares ground with Oskar as well. Oskar says, “What’s weird…is that I never see you cry.” Ron assures Oskar that he cries “all the time.” Oskar doesn’t think anything of this as far as he’s letting the reader know, but the connection between the two of them is strong. Ron cries “all the time” in private and Oskar bruises himself quite regularly in private.

Oskar’s grandfather, upon discovering the death of his son, returns home. He finds some kind of mutual reconciliation with his wife whom he abandoned forty years before. He also buries years and years worth of letters to his son in his son’s grave. While digging up his father’s grave, Oskar asks his grandfather, “So what’s all that paper?” His grandfather answers, “Things I wasn’t able to tell him. Letters.” The grandfather went almost a lifetime without speech (he lost his speech after losing the woman he loved in the Dresden fire bombings). With only words scribbled onto the pages of a daybook, the grandfather, has difficulty communicating with people, often leading to misunderstandings and things left unsaid. For example, when he left his pregnant wife and she begged him not to go, he justified himself by writing, “I do not know how to live.” This one lines sets into motion a series of heartaches and misunderstandings. When he buries the letters, he is finally able to tell his son the things he never could say while his son was alive.

Oskar, since he is the narrator, is given the most space and development on the page. Oskar constantly thinks about his father, wanders New York City in search of a lock that he hopes will have some final clue about his father’s death, digs up his father’s grave, bruises himself, sees a psychiatrist, dresses in white, and makes a scrapbook titled Things That Happened to Me. Because of the loss of his father in a horrific act of terrorism, the grief created from this causes Oskar to internalize strong feelings of anger and fear. And seeing Dr. Fein, his psychiatrist, doesn’t seem to be doing much good, since Dr. Fein just wants to hospitalize Oskar. Oskar admits to being afraid of a whole array of things: Arabs, coffee, theme park rides, elevators, buses, and pretty much everything that could threaten or shorten his life. His internalized anger is what is striking, though. On the outside, he appears to be a smart, witty, calm, and very well-behaved child. But his inner thoughts and fantasies are violent. For instance, while acting in Hamlet, Oskar gets teased by a fellow classmate. Oskar imagines, “I pull the skull off my head. Even though it’s made of papier-mâché it’s really hard. I smash it against JIMMY SYNDER’S head, and I smash it again. He falls to the ground, because he is unconscious, and I can’t believe how strong I actually am” (Foer’s italics and capitalization). Oskar’s grief morphs into brutal anger which he internalizes, causing it build up, until at the very end of the novel, he lets go and cries.

Foer’s unconventional, experimental novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close may not be suitable for everyone (as it is a graphic novel with the haunting backdrop of September 11, 2001), but it explores the different expressions of grief and how people heal from such grief. Its basic themes of loss and grief, sorrow and confusion, is something everyone can relate to.

Book Review

2009-10-02T11:16:00.000-07:00

Rachal Stoll-Moorer
10/01/09
Book Review

One of the greatest benefits from reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, was being able to discuss this novel in a class room setting and see how this book appealed to others not just myself. It allowed for more personal thought and expansion of my classmates thoughts and opinions to develop a really solid understanding of Foer’s reasoning and purpose. I also especially enjoyed reading through and analyzing other author’s who have written about Foer’s work. I will admit that I have not read Foer’s first novel Everything Is Illuminated, but most feel that the comparison between that literary work and this one are miles apart. Mark Oppenheimer, a novelist and journalist wrote in his review, published in the Jewish Journal, that Foer has found his true voice. Of course not all reviews are praise, a review by Harry Siegel revealed Siegel’s problems with the novel, that make the reader question if Siegel ever read the Extremely Loud or Incredibly Close, despite the fact that Siegel has some kind of personal problem with Foer, and people of different race or religious affinity, which totally discredits him as a critic. My reading brings me to the conclusion that Foer is a daring author willing to take risks as a novelist and willing to write the truth about human experiences.
In many of our discussions we were asked do the pictures add or subtract from the novel. My opinion is that they add. I think this is very trend setting for Foer to include in his novel so many blank pages with only one line, pages that are completely blank, pages that have writing that blurr into blackness, pages of coloring and pictures. The art of reading allows the reader to imagine what could be or what is to come and many would say that their imagination has no more use if when to imagine a house that is nothing but the door, frame, lock and keyhole is laying right before you in a picture. Oppenheimer mentions in his critique that these novels are all the rage now a days but I feel that many are still of a very traditional mind set. While I feel that imagination is necessary I feel that Foer is very creative to add these new ideas to his novel. Many people, like me, are very visual learners and I felt that the pictures helped me to not get lost and to feel even more a part of what I was reading.
While I feel that Foer’s creativity in the use of color and pictures has some genius, I feel that the content of the novel spoke volumes. Foer’s use of tragedy to bring out the comedy of a young boy, Oskar Schell, 9 years old who is a pacisfist, an atheist, writes to Stephen Hawkings, wears only white and is so imaginative that it is hard to imagine that he is infact 9 on an adventure to bring himself closer to his father, Thomas Schell who was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the “bombing” of the World Trade Centers in New York City. Foer’s set up allowed for the reader to be a part of the tragedy, the comedy and the adventure and to delve into Oskar’s life and the subplots of many well developed characters and their very humanistic truths.
Oskar who is the only person to hear the voice of his father before his death, has found a key with the name Black and has made it his mission to find out to whom the key belongs and how that person knew his father. The words of Oppenheimer echo to me saying that Foer is a master descriptor. Foer’s ability to invent so many Blacks that are of such diversity and significance is incredible and exciting to the audience. While Oskar is on his mission he is also dealing with his mother’s new man friend Ron and coping with his father’s death has brought a barrier between him and his mother. I feel that the reader can really identify with these relationships because so many families lose loved ones one way or another and have to learn to make room for new additions. Children have the hardest job in all of that because they are just learning how to understand relationships between people and it’s always difficult to understand that not everything is black and white.
The other relationship that I enjoyed because of its great literary development was between grandpa and grandma. In the beginning all we know is that grandpa has left grandma, not how, when or why. As the novel progresses the reader learns that grandpa left forty years ago. He never met his son, Thomas Schell Jr., because he left grandma before Thomas was born. We learn about the struggle between grandma and grandpa, their nothing places, grandpa’s need for escape, grandma’s need to be loved, and the rules that they made: no children. These characters make a journey through the novel that is completely full circle. I felt that both characters were so realistic it was hard to tell if it was a novel anymore or a life story. Foer used these characters to help guide Oskar through his journey, but also to talk to his audience as his voice. In the end Oskar is able to find some closure, I would have preferred more, but it’s also sometimes nice to use your imagination and find a new chapter somewhere else.
Through reading our discussions and getting ideas of how our class felt about the novel, someone mentioned that Foer while he has incredible ideas that it was a very subtle novel, they felt that was genius. I couldn’t disagree more it was extremely loud.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Brings a Warm Heart to a Cold Tragedy by Katy McAlary

2009-10-02T10:59:00.000-07:00

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a novel written by young and talented writer Jonathan Safran Foer, details the direct effects of the September 11th tragedy on those who survived their family and friends. In creating a promotional video for his new book, Foer claimed that his initial intentions in constructing the book were unbeknownst to him until after the novel was nearly finished; he stated in the youtube video, “I definitely didn’t want to write about [9-11]… but I tried to be honest.” Foer constructed a character, Oskar Schell, a precocious nine-year-old boy who is bold, brave, intelligent, curious and opinionated. In the creation of his protagonist, Foer indirectly began building the world around Oskar, endowing a fear of skyscrapers and heights, ultimately creating a devastating atmosphere depicting the aftermath of one of the most pivotal national tragedies in history.

The style in which Foer delivers his novel is comparable to that of works written by cornerstone Modernist, James Joyce; Oskar’s stream of consciousness consisting of random facts and arbitrary ideas resemble Joyce’s Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man. Yet, Foer seems to capture the essence of Oskar’s thoughts as well as his mannerisms in an enjoyable way which is contrary to how Joyce’s protagonist, Stephen, is received when his stream of consciousness reveals a cornucopia of useless information. Also unlike Stephen in Joyce’s novel, Oskar becomes a likable character as per the way in which Foer formulates details and actions through the eyes of a curious and loveable boy.

In writing the novel, Foer allots numerous pages to developing his three main characters who share their life stories and lessons learned (or the process of being learned). Oskar is the main focus of the novel, but shares the pages with the other two main contributors to the novel, his two eccentric grandparents. Oskar’s grandfather, who was absent from both Oskar’s and his father’s life, no longer speaks because he lost his words after suffering through the atrocities in life. In order to communicate, he has tattooed “YES” and “NO” on each hand and keeps a notebook handy to write down what he is unable to voice. Oskar’s grandmother has lived a life where everyone dear to her has left her alone; her sister died in the Dresden bombings, the only man she ever loved walked out on her when he found out they were going to have a baby and her only son died in the twin towers on the day of the 9-11 attacks. Even though the novel does not blatantly inform the reader of narrator changes, the reader is indirectly cued in by the difference in voice and unique style which each of the narrators embody. In narrating their sections, these three characters share their sorrows, their flaws and their humanity.

One very interesting aspect of the novel is the fact that Foer utilizes graphics to accompany the narrators’ words. The graphics aid the reader in better depicting the scene which the narrator is transcribing and even helps the audience indicate from the style of font which character is speaking. For instance, Oskar’s grandmother’s narrative is written in diminutive, choppy sentences while Oskar’s grandfather’s narrative is in block paragraphs which, at one point, reduces to a smaller font and reaches a point where it is illegible because the words are so crammed together. The graphics and stylistic elements Foer implements only benefits the reader’s understanding of who the narrator is and how the story unfolds for that particular individual.

Another fantastic element of Foer’s novel is his subtly integrated profundity which spills out of his characters as if sagacity grew on trees. Many times, I was astonished that I was receiving life lessons through the everyday speeches of Foer’s characters. For instance, quotes like “It’s a shame that we have to live, but it’s a tragedy that we get to live only one life” and “You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness” stops the reader dead in their tracks and makes them think (179, 180). It is a very talented writer who can articulate insightful messages with the precision the way Foer does. Of the numerous penetrative statements, the one that hit me the most was one that Oskar’s grandmother’s father wrote to her in a letter, “I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love" (76). When a reader can provoke an emotional response to a novel, I believe they are a good writer, but when one can do that and provoke a philosophical response as well, that is a quality of an amazing writer. I believe Foer can be categorized as one of those amazing authors.

As a whole, I think Foer wrote Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close to bring about a very real awareness of a tragedy that affected so many. Just as his other novel, Everything is Illuminated, is about one of the most horrendous massacres of all time (the holocaust), Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close takes the most recent catastrophe and gives it a very "real" feeling. I think Foer wrote this novel as well as his prior one so that people can put themselves in a state of empathy. By seeing the effects first-hand of these terrible occurrences in history, one can see through someone else's eyes how broken their world becomes when confronted with losing those you love.

We should read novels like Foer's because he brings about humanity in the most unique ways. He brings life to a time of death and sorrow and shows growth in a time where destruction reigns and growth seems impossible. Foer's novel, if nothing else, sends the message that there are such things as second chances, life after the death of our loved ones and hopes for a brighter, less broken tomorrow. It is an amazing page-turner and worth the read.

Thinking Through Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

2009-10-02T10:58:00.000-07:00

In a fashion that asks more questions than it answers, Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close inspires its readers to think about what it means to be human. Foer’s main character, nine-year-old Oskar Shell, is constantly thinking and inventing and his story, along with those of his grandparents, takes the reader for a unique ride through what we thought was a familiar neighborhood. Tragedy and life after “the worst day” are not new concepts in literature, but Foer’s interpretation is.

Foer looks at the age-old issues of loss, forgiveness, and what truly matters in his book. The questions he forces the reader to think about are timeless, but his approach is distinctive. Faced with the loss of his father in the 9/11 Twin Towers incident, Oskar’s story is not the in-your-face tragedy one would expect from the book title. Time has passed and the reader follows Oskar through his ups and downs as he tries to deal with the implications of his loss. In an effort to stay close to his father, Oskar searches New York City to meet a series of people with the last name Black and to find the lock that the key he found in his dad’s closet will open. The novel deals with the aftermath of “the worst day” and the frenzy of those first few days after 9/11 when the nation was in a panic is recalled, but not relived. Foer does not downplay the effect of 9/11 on the American mind, but instead relates the event to other moments of pain on personal, national, and international levels.

However, more than Foer’s surprising use of 9/11 as background, his writing style is truly what makes this book an atypical read. Oskar is neither an average nine-year-old boy nor a typical leading character. He is in many ways beyond normal, and this gives him truly a human personality that is so strong it is a fault. Oskar writes letters to Stephan Hawking and likes using French phrases, but he is not familiar with Harry Potter and only wears white clothes. Many young people have a famous role model whom they would love to talk to, enjoy showing what they know, are not familiar with every aspect of popular culture, and have a favorite color. These traits make Oskar a human character the reader can relate to, but in the specifics, he is clearly not average and this is a fault that makes him both improbable and human with flaws, just like the rest of us.

The combination of characteristics that is Oskar makes him both unrealistic and so “true” that Oskar’s pain is the reader’s pain. Oskar’s father valued truth and Oskar is in search of the truth as he tries to find the lock to the key his father left behind and therefore Oskar is often hurt by things and suggestions that do not stick to the scientific rules that he believes in. Oskar relates, “Even though I’m not anymore, I used to be an atheist, which means I didn’t believe in things that could not be observed. . . . It’s not that I believe in things that cannot be observed now, because I don’t. I just believe things are extremely complicated.” Even though the truth hurts, Oskar does not want anything less. Through various techniques such as pictures and conversations, Foer gives shocking glimpses of life as true and as complicated as Oskar sees it. The reader sees the images Oskar thinks describe his life. One of the most frequent and important is a photo Oskar copied from a foreign website of a body falling from one of the Twin Towers. This is one of the many deaths Oskar invents for his father and it ties in dramatically to the very human concern about the end of life.

Following one of Oskar’s conversations is also enlightening. One minute Oskar is betraying the depth of his emotional pain and telling his mother, “If I could have chosen, I would have chosen you [to die]!” and in another a shy little boy asks “Can I pet him?” referring to a small baby held by a young father. Foer demonstrates through Oskar how difficult it is to be human and to try to deal with all the conflicting feelings that bombard a person at any given point in their lives. In fact because he is so confused, Oskar wants to invent a shower that enables a person to know how they are feeling by color coding their body. Who would not like to be able to truly understand themselves?

Along with integrating pictures and conversations, Foer uses pages with no words, few words, and too many words to great effect. The reader is not left alone to imagine the world the author has created in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, but instead given guidelines that direct him or her to a greater understanding of the pain and challenges faced by Oskar and particularly his grandparents. The trouble the grandparents have expressing themselves is an integral part of the novel and Foer captures that struggle in the way he presents their words on the paper. Oskar is the focus of the novel, but the stories of his grandparents lend weight and substance by bringing the understanding that only age and experience can share. The loss of Oskar’s father is not the first tragedy in their lives and they are able share thoughts of wisdom such as “When I looked at you, my life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible.” Foer, through the grandparents, encourages his readers to reflect on life and the decisions they make.

One of the most thought provoking aspects of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the attempts of Oskar’s grandparents to define everything as either Something or Nothing. They classified rooms or even areas of rooms as Something or Nothing by taping off certain sections of their apartment. If a person was standing in a Nothing area he or she was assured of complete privacy and could not be seen by the other. They wanted a place to escape too, Nothing, and tried to define what was important in life, Something, but eventually the noise or light from a Something area would violate the sanctuary offered by a Nothing area. Life is complicated and their attempts to categorize it in such a simple fashion forced them apart instead of bringing them closer. The concept of categorizing the world as Something and Nothing, what matters in life and what does not, keeps the reader thinking long after the book is finished, however. What really matters in life and what makes it Something rather than Nothing?

Another distinctive aspect of the book that addresses old questions in new ways is the back and forth movement of the story in time. Part of the story is told by Oskar as he relates and thinks about his search to be closer to his father by investigating the key left behind. For much of the novel the search is both the past and the present. The search is in the past, but the emotions are still present in the way life truly is impacted by the past. Meanwhile, the grandfather’s letters are offered as present tense and dated in the past. In his unique time jumping fashion Foer reminds the audience that the past is both the source of our future and our key and solution to it.
Foer’s approach to writing and life may not appeal to every reader. Oskar is not an average protagonist. The flow of the story has the potential to irritate a reader who needs to follow a predictable rhythm. The pictures and text variations do not fit into the traditional definition of a novel while some of the revelations to Oskar from his grandparents seem inappropriate. However, appreciate the techniques or not, Foer makes a reader think.

Essentially, throughout the entire book Oskar and his grandparents are thinking and their concerns are the ones humanity has been facing forever. Oskar often calls this inventing, but in many cases he is truly just trying to imagine a solution to his pain, thinking about a way to cope. This is the purpose of the novel as a whole. It is both why it should be read and perhaps Foer’s intention in writing it. It is not about liking or disliking the novel, but about thinking and questioning. The lessons the book shares are more important aspects of the novel than liking the book itself. Foer would probably be fine if a person said that they did not like his novel, but it made them think.

One of the book’s many intriguing characters, a Mr. Black who lives upstairs in Oskar’s building, makes Oskar and the reader think. Mr. Black is over a century old and a former war correspondent who wrote one word biographies for everyone he ever met. He helps Oskar with his search and in his succinct and original fashion, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close can be defined in the following one word biography:

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Life

A Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

2009-10-02T09:34:00.000-07:00

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a fictional novel published by First Mariner Books, and written by Jonathan Safran Foer, the American author of Everything Is Illuminated. It is the heartfelt journey of Oskar Schell, a ten year old boy whose world collapses parallel to the loss of his father in one of the towers of 9/11. Accompanied by his imagination, Oskar sets out on a search through the five boroughs of New York, lead by a key he found in a vase which belonged to his father. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close also tells the story of Oskar Schell’s grandparents who survived the 1945 Dresden bombings of World War II. Foer’s novel is fueled by tragedy and loss. As his readers unfold the life stories of the Schell’s, piece by piece, we feel the ache of their loss and endure the torture page by page while they search for answers that do not exist.

Foer’s story reads like a puzzle as it switches from the different segments of one character’s story to another. It challenges the traditional reader to stray from the norm and take in his work, not with their own imagination, but alongside the lives of the characters in his novel as the story is being told. It is remarkable how this puzzle comes together in its closing stages.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is complimented, yet interrupted, by black-and-white pictures, color images, and even blank pages. The illustrations and layout of Foer’s novel forcefully immerses its reader into the lives of his characters, sometimes annoyingly, but interestingly just the same. I find them appropriate for bringing the reader into the mind of someone who is besieged by their suffering. Just as his characters search for hope, and closure, his readers may find they are doing the exact same thing. The novel is crafted in such a way that it makes its reader eager and impatient to reveal the story in its entirety in order to make sense of the torture he puts his readers and characters through.

The curious technique of Foer’s writing will repel the unwilling, traditional reader. His imagination is at full capacity as he constructs each character introduced in this story in an extraordinary and distinct fashion. Oskar, for example, is an “inventor, jewelry designer, jewelry fabricator, amateur entomologist, Francophile, vegan, origamist, pacifist, percussionist, amateur astronomer, computer consultant, amateur archeologist, collector of rare coins, butterflies that died natural deaths, miniature cacti, Beatles memorabilia, semiprecious stones, and other things.” Oskar’s character has an old soul. He knows more than he wishes he did, and feels the weight of the world on him, which gives him “heavy boots.” Oskar is the inventor of things that may aid his escape from the fears that developed from the “stuff” that happened to him, which he documents, particularly the events of the “worst day,” which are the driving forces of his journey.

I appreciate how Foer developed his characters so attentively. Oskar, for example, has been wearing only white since the death of his father, a true Francophile, as Oskar claims to be, would know that only someone in the deepest of mourning would wear white, not black, which is a detail that Foer did not neglect. It is known as “deuil blanc” or “white mourning” and it was a custom among the Queens of France from medieval times even into the 1930’s.

At first glance, Foer’s work may seem annoyingly clever, but if you look deeper you can see the care he took in developing his characters, they are neither odd by accident, or for the sake of being odd. In the eyes of someone like Foer’s character Oskar Schell, the people he encounters on his journey are distinct because he is curious and sees more than what is at face value. He is searching, and attending to the most obscure details. The characters are meant to be peculiar to Oskar, and therefore to the reader, not the other way around. The beauty of Foer’s writing is in the intricacy of these details.

Foer accomplishes the task of exposing his readers to tragedy, the kind of tragedy that seems so senseless that bereavement seems impossible; it exemplifies how people mourn loss, the debilitating capabilities of mourning a death, how it affects relationships, and how a person perceives the world around them while they are mourning. Those who have lost someone in an unnatural way may have a greater respect for what Foer accomplishes with this novel. How he connects the multiple story lines in this novel with shared grief, sorrow, and guilt between the generations gives it more broad appeal to a diverse range of readers. He accomplishes this task with Oskar. The innocence of a child is one that is impossible to ignore. Loss from the perspective of a child allows the reader to make a deeper connection with Grandpa’s dilemma, and makes his suffering less distant. People are often able to look deeper into the heart of a child than they do when viewing the pain of an adult, and their expectations for how adults deal with pain is often different than what they expect of a child. Oskar’s character allows the reader to abandon their expectations and feel real sympathy for the other characters of the story.

His story is dark enough to be real, and humorous enough to fall in love with.Regardless of a readers experience with loss or death, his efforts demand respect for his ability to craft a well-written story whether it is read in spite of his unconventional methods, or in appreciation of them. Reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is worth the challenges it presents for its reader.

A Book Review on Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2009-10-02T08:48:00.000-07:00

The first thing every college student needs to do upon beginning classes is to make that financially painful visit to the bookstore to get their textbooks. So it happened that I found myself holding a copy of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. My first impression was “this is weird.” My mom and sister’s first comments about the book were the same as my first thought was. Just flipping through the book, one’s eyes are met with random pictures, pages with only a few words written on them, even blank pages and pages black from the layers of text upon them.

As it turns out, Foer’s novel involves several narrators, one of which is a ten-year-old boy named Oskar, a child dealing with the traumatic death of his father. We also hear from his grandfather (whose life is scarred by the past that haunts him) and his grandmother (who tries to deal with both present and past tragedies). Oskar grows up without knowing his grandfather, but has an incredibly close relationship with his grandmother. Foer’s novel includes events such as the suicide bombers’ attack on the Twin Towers and the Dresden bombing (even a brief reference to Hiroshima) that create a sinister undertone shaping and defining the characters’ personalities and actions in many ways.

On top of all of this, the novel is a cleverly crafted puzzle, providing only enough information to peak the reader’s curiosity before it teasingly moves on to the next (seemingly unrelated) piece of the puzzle. This pattern continues throughout the whole of the book, which traces Oskar’s search for the lock that matches a key he finds in his late father’s room. Ultimately, Oskar seems to be searching for a way to keep his father alive. When Oskar is trying to explain how he feels about the search for the lock, he makes the statement that “looking for it let me stay close to him [his father] for a little while longer,” and that he “didn’t want to hear about death. It was all anyone talked about, even when no one was actually talking about it” (304, 295). It is clear that Oskar is forced to understand at a very young age the absolute inevitability of death. It is also clear that he is looking for ways to cope with that understanding.

One might easily get caught up in the depressing aspects of this novel. This seems to be, to an extent, Foer’s goal. Foer provides detailed experiences of drastic and horrific events in history. He gives us a detailed description of the Dresden bombing from the point of view of someone who was in Dresden at the time. We are told, “the second raid began…there was a silver explosion, all of us tried to leave the cellar at once, dead and dying people were trampled…I ran through the streets and saw terrible things: legs and necks, I saw a woman whose blond hair and green dress were on fire, running with a silent baby in her arms…” (211) The rest of the description is just as graphic. Readers are not given a softened version of the story. We are not given impersonal statistics or an image of a Hollywood “boom.” We are given the grotesque and raw view of someone who was forced to live through the event. In this way, Foer pushes his audience to recognize the absolute lack of respect a bomb provides. The dead are not left intact, their bodies preserved. Foer’s novel does not give readers the idea that they are. In this way, Foer does not remove his readers from the horrors, the sorrow, or the terrified confusion of the bombing.

This is just one of the grief-stricken stories we are exposed to throughout the course of the novel. Foer shows his audience that being hurt can happen in a number of ways. He presents the Dresden bombing, the Nazi death camps, and the bombing of 9/11 alongside Oskar, who loses his father in 9/11 and has to learn to live with that in his everyday life, people who have lost those they love to old age or death and still hold onto the sorrow of that loss, and the grandma who lost her sister in the Dresden bombing as well as her lover to his own inability to face the life before him after all of the sorrows behind him. These are all treated with the same amount of respect. No sorrow is guffawed. In fact, many of the quieter, day to day sorrows are displayed as reactions to more “newsworthy” events. They are all equally important and Foer presents them in such a manner. In essence, Foer tells his readers that all sorrows are equal and that no one of them can be ignored or belittled because of the context from which it arises.

As depressing as all of this sounds, Foer delivers a shimmering ray of hope for his readers. He uses these situations to show us the importance of telling those we care for that they are loved, even if you don’t think you need to. When Oskar’s grandmother is talking about telling those you love how you feel about them, she tells Oskar, “it is always necessary. I love you” (314). Foer sums up one of the main messages of the novel in these few words. Throughout the story there is so much pain that it gets hard to focus on what good there is in life. Foer urges his audience to recognize that there is still good in life, even when it seems shrouded by sorrow, and that it is always important to recognize and appreciate that good.

He also sends the message to his readers throughout the story that sometimes our sorrows bring us together with other people who can influence our lives. There is a whole world that Oskar had never explored before he begins his journey to find the lock. By the end of the novel, he has met a lot of people, each one dealing with their own issues. By the end of the novel, we see how interconnected sorrow can be. In a sense, Foer tells his readers that we are brought together by the fact that we all feel alone at times.

All in all, Foer’s novel is well written and delivers a powerful message to readers about the importance of life. He sends us away a bit wiser than we were before we read his book. By forcing us to look at the not-so-pleasant aspects of life, he shows us how to appreciate those aspects with which our life is blessed. As a person who will never forget the day the planes hit the Twin Towers, I feel that this book has helped me to look at the world in which I live differently and come to some realizations about life and about my own generation that are both relevant and valuable.

The Last Retelling of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

2009-10-02T01:53:00.000-07:00

By the end of the novel, my willing suspension of disbelief had departed, and I began to see major flaws as I re-read the book. What led Foer to write about this subject, and why through the eyes of a child? In my investigation of this question, I realized that it’s a situational dramedy[1] with a backdrop of hysterical realism[2]. The characters seem to do things just for the sake of symbolism, as if trying to write their psychology into the world. On first reading and a short distance into the book, I felt like Oskar and I had a lot in common. We’re both atheists, and we’re both creative. Then came Oskar’s mannerisms, his interaction with others, and I began to think of Napoleon Dynamite. In fact, I imagine Oskar as a pre-pubescent Napoleon now. He makes friends with everyone he meets, except anyone his own age. Napoleon was probably charming when he was a young know-it-all, but around puberty it becomes awkward and a little bit creepy.

Even as Foer paints the fourth wall[3], a tactic familiar to consumers of esoteric literature, he struggles to draw the reader in while trying to tell several characters’ stories simultaneously. He relies on special effects, such as the triumvirate of characters with a hybridized format. He is content to say little with more words, rather than to say more with less. Most reviewers cite the author’s exposition on his inner child as a major reason for their discontent. The general contention over form is not so much the novel’s awareness of its medium as the failure to effectively use that awareness. As writers go, Foer feels amateurish. Simply, it feels derivative in every sense.

Derivative of what, though? This is a novel told from three different perspectives about a disastrous situation that takes on issues of family, loneliness, and what it means to lose things. This is a remake of House of Leaves, by Mark Danielewski. So why do I prefer House of Leaves to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? The parallels are uncanny, but laughable. Instead of the labyrinthine closet we get yet another September 11^th cliché. A mute graphomaniac[4] replaces the blind graphomaniac. A nine-year-old author insertion replaces the tattoo artist who is slowly going mad. For the grandmother, who really isn’t essential to the story given Oskar and the grandfather’s narrative, House of Leaves has an appendix containing letters the tattoo artist’s mother wrote to him from an asylum. The cohesive parallel narrative of House of Leaves is replaced by a disjointed serial narrative that seems like it should run in parallel.

Reading either book will likely remind you of the other. House of Leaves is a mysterious ink-blot-test-like book which, depending on the way you look at it, may be a fractured love story, a Lovecraftian horror story, or a satire of academic critique. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a train wreck, and won’t age well. If you hate it, it will get worse the more you look at it. If you enjoyed it the first time, it will get better with additional readings.

[1] Dramedy – a portmanteau of drama and comedy.

[2] Hysterical realism – coined by James Wood while describing Zadie Smith’s novel White teeth, meaning a "big, ambitious novel" that pursues "vitality at all costs" and consequently "knows a thousand things but does not know a single human being."

[3] Painting the fourth wall – the use of metafictional devices, such as fonts and text position in a book, to indirectly convey a particular story-related message by deliberately breaking the accepted conventions of the medium.

[4] Graphomaniac – one who writes excessively.

The Incredibly Close World of Oskar Schell

2008-11-07T11:44:00.000-08:00

We all have 9/11 stories. Ask one of your co-workers or talk to one of your fellow students. They will tell you where they were, what they were doing, who they were with, and, probably, how they had to sit down and absorb the initial shock of that horrific event. This many years later, they will also tell you what has become dear to them. And, they might throw in something about “naiveté loss”.

In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, we have one more story. The face on this 9/11 story belongs to the main character of his novel. His name is Oskar Schell and he's 9 years old. His father died in the collapse of one of the Two Towers and now this diminutive, precocious Everyman is confused and hurt. He seeks a resolution of understanding for having part of his soul torn out. He has experienced the immediate loss of a principal figure in his life. This is not Death in the prolonged, drawn-out form of a lingering illness. This is Death in a more callous form--one that cruelly provides a missed opportunity to say good-bye, a last chance at a final conversation.

The reader is drawn into Oskar's world. His world is New York City where he says the cellular matter of his father floats around in the very air. In trying to reconcile the “worst day” of his life, he admits to having “a hole in the middle of me that every happy thing falls into.” Because Oskar is carrying around so much emotional baggage (what he calls “heavy boots”), Foer slowly and meticulously draws the reader into setting aside their own baggage and, over the next 300 pages, helping Oskar with carrying his.

Foer skillfully pulls us into Oskar's world by portraying this bright and troubled hobbit on his personal Quest seeking a lock for the key he has found amongst his father's belongings. As we join Oskar on his seemingly impossible journey over an eight-month period to find the one lock that this key will open, we are drawn into a world of the Five Boroughs, a mythical Sixth Borough, and interwoven images (actual pictures) of doorknobs, locks, keys, people and places famous and not so famous, and a haunting blurred image of a person falling from a skyscraper.

While at times disconcerting, these pictures plus textural alterations, like red corrections of an unsent letter from a distant relative, help to flesh out the various story lines of the people surrounding Oskar. There is his mom adjusting to her own sorrow and her growing relationship with a friend named Ron. Oskar does not tell her about his key/lock quest because “The lock was between me and dad.” He has a grandmother living in an apartment across the street who is his constant sounding board and guardian angel, always available through the walkie-talkies they each share. There is a mysterious renter living with her who plays a large part in the story. (I wish I could tell you more, but I'm not a spoiler.)

Oskar is a people magnet. Foer has them wash over us in a continuing and varying series of human waves. They fill up Oskar's life and, like layers peeled off an onion skin, the revelations concerning them converge before us and we see further examples of pain and suffering and joy that we all experience, not just in a post 9/11 world, but in any world lacking in conscious effort or inability in expressing the heartfelt love for others.

Interestingly enough, Foer does not hit us in the solar plexus with graphic 9/11 images that we have already seen too many times (and with too much pain). He does have, however, dramatic corollaries from history: the World War II firebombing of Dresden and a fictional account of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. For this reviewer, it was one bombing too many and the redundancy lessens the impact of the Dresden event which has a major role on the people in Oskar's family.

At times, Foer's writing shines with the sparkling quality of a clear-white light through a crystal held very carefully in the reader's hand. This brings into question the concern about the need for all of the visual additions that he has included in the novel. Perhaps, like a sparse, clean-written sentence, fewer would have been better. This, however, is not a back-breaker for the reader to handle in this complex and moving story of yet one more survivor; not just a survivor of a post-9/11 trauma, but a survivor faced with the vicissitudes of an imperious and coldly uncaring world. Foer shows us that people struggling through and overcoming, slow measure by slow measure, can have the sound of many heartbeats joined together...and that can be extremely loud.

I made it!!!!

2008-10-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

Hi all I finally have arrived!!! Jill and I have been trying to figure out why it would not let me join the group and all of the sudden it just did...weird!!! Anyway Thanks Jill for your understanding!!!

Reviewing Foer

2008-10-07T22:50:00.001-07:00

Julie Kvern
Advanced Writing/Comm.
Professor Jill Rossiter
October 4, 2008

Reviewing Foer

In literature writers can capitalize on disaster. By using these stimuli is alienation an aspect for those realistically impacted, especially when the literature in question is, although based upon real events, fictional? Instances like war, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, and political injustice can be used as jumping off points for people with writers block in addition to those writers solely interested in making quick cash. Does Jonathan Safran Foer do this? Does he piggyback on the pain associated with 9/11? I would have to say yes if his book wasn't so well written. Rich with alternative layout and style as well as bursting with realistic characterization it's hard not to get attached to the novel.
Foer's latest publication Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is urgent and raw. Emotion guides the piece into a vigorous prophecy for finding a new way to live after loss. After nine year old Oskar's father is killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9/11 we are taken on a journey. He takes us to the homes of people named Black, to the struggles of understanding each other, and to areas of life that far exceeds a nine year olds maturity level. He is a tambourine player, a pacifist, a cat owner, a grandson, an atheist, a letter writer, an intelligent and creative young man who at times is unbelievable because of how truly gifted he is. However Foer realizes his audience, he understands the readers' desire for human traits and flaws in fictional characters. He makes Oskar real with the things he doesn't know.

The list in my head was getting incredibly long: Francis Scott Key
Fitzgerald, powdering her nose, Churchill, Mustang convertible,
Walter Cronkite, necking, the Bay of Pigs, LP, Datsun, Kent State, lard, Ayatollah Khomeini, Polaroid, apartheid, drive-in, favela, Trotsky, the Berlin Wall, Tito, Gone With the Wind, Frank Lloyd Wright, hula hoop, Technicolor, the Spanish Civil War, Grace Kelly, East Timor, slide
rule, a bunch of places in Africa whose names I tried to remember but
had already forgotten. It was getting hard to keep all the things I didn't know inside me. (154)

Oskar also has tremendous pressure put upon him. He has the weight of solitary knowledge of his father's last words as he arrives home early from school, alone. The phone even rang while he was there, presenting the final opportunity for him to speak to his father before his death, and Oskar was understandably afraid. He couldn't answer. Hiding this from his family he is motivated to discover as much as possible about his father's life when he found a key belonging to someone with the last name Black. This adventure is the active driving force of the literature, pushing it forward, equaling the struggles and achievements in self-discovery.

His mother, a busy working mom and assumed lax parent was estranged from her son during most of the novel because he wasn't capable of understanding her attempts to try to move forward with her life. He also had no idea until the end that she knew about the key and the quest to find the owner. "All of a sudden I understood why, when Mom asked where I was going, and I said 'out,' she didn't ask any more questions. She didn't have to, because she knew" (291).

Oskar's grandmother appeared to be the most understanding and accepting character in the novel. Throughout the book letters written by grandma serve as a parallel guide. Her understanding of event specific to her own childhood as written to Oskar coincides with his discoveries in part. Through these letters we have adequate knowledge into her background on how her family was killed in the Dresden Fire Bombings, how her sister was impregnated and in love with a man, how that man was grandma's future husband, how they met, how he cannot talk, how they lived with Nothing places and Something places, how they tried and how Oskar's grandfather left when she was pregnant. Grandpa also has sections in the novel where he is writing to the son he never met. Through these sections we get another view at the relationship between grandma and grandpa but also a lesson. Serving as more of a metaphor than a real character in the book he is used for explaining silence and how even though it may appear to be devastating, it doesn't always mean that there is nothing. The story of grandpa and grandma connects the things that are out of everyone's control like disaster and death.

As the novel proceeds we discover the intricate details Foer inlays, his interweaving themes and character interaction is masked as early confusion. For instance may readers became confused to the mother's lack of attention to her son. To some it is mind-boggling that a nine year old would be allowed, let alone remain unharmed by the 200+ "Blacks" he planned on visiting in search of where the key fit. However as we read on we find that she wasn't as absent as first led to believe.

Also of mention is the different styles of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Foer has the tendency to write streams of consciousness where some readers get lost in the mass of it. There is also alternative textual designs of parenthetical separations, photographs, single words or phrases used as a visual for grandpa's speaking style in daybooks, numbers representing his phone conversation, red editing marks that reinforcing readers knowledge on Thomas Schell's character habits, text that runs together, and blank pages representing a life story. Do these differences take away from the text or have their originality made the work stronger? I think the latter because in this media driven world it not only keeps interest of the reader but it helps with character development and understanding.

Foer's latest work not only institutes new ways at visual comprehension but also the work, the literature in itself conquers. The characters, the story line, and the overall way the work makes the reader feel deserves recognition. Foer creates a world as complex as our own lives and as intricate and incomprehensible as our own thoughts. By appointing a child narrator, he gives us insight into our own childhood workings through Oskar's dialogues, questions, and blatantly honest explanation to the reader.

2008-10-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Extremely Moving and Incredibly Touching

“What about a teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me?” This is how Jonathon Safran Foer starts his novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a novel that appropriately enough, has an opening chapter entitled “What The?”. It is with this type of language that Foer is able to draw his audience into the story. Through this first chapter, Foer is able to slowly build up the audience to the introduction of the main character, Oskar, a nine year old boy whose expansive imagination, and beloved savant-like innocence pulls at the heart strings of all that he meets.

As you read, you discover that Oskar has recently experienced the loss of a parent. While Foer doesn’t come right out and say it, Oskar’s father was one of the many victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks. It is this loss that is at the heart of the story. Oskar and his father shared a special bond, as special as any father and son could have. The loss of his father left a void in the young boy, a void that Oskar was having a difficult time both explaining and accepting.

In an attempt to rekindle the connection to his father, Oskar frequently spends time in his father’s closet. For as Oskar put it, “Even though Dad’s coffin was empty, his closet was full”. One evening, on the highest shelf of the closet, Oskar found an envelope hidden within a blue vase. In the envelope was a key, “It was a weird-looking key, obviously to something extremely important, because it was fatter and shorter than a normal key”.

Determined that this was a clue left for him by his father, Oskar sets out on a journey to discover the lock that the key belongs to. The journey to discover the hidden lock takes Oskar up and down the streets of New York. Along the way he meets a memorable cast of characters and learns many valuable lessons about love and loss.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is an amazing journey towards healing and acceptance; a story in which one learns that a day should never go by without saying “I love you”. Jonathon Safran Foer is a master at his craft and the story that he paints will capture your imagination and your heart.

For Everyone

2008-10-07T12:15:00.000-07:00

At first glance, Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, seems to be about just one horrific instance, concerning one boy and the loss of his father. However, in looking deeper into the story, the reader can find many human tragedies. When looking further, we find that Foer not only focuses on the hardships of Oskar, the fatherless nine-year-old, but he also the obstacles faced by the widowed mother, divorced woman, the recluse old man, the estranged grandfather and others. The struggles that man-kind endures everyday creates a common ground that unites us as humans. This book reaches a wide variety of people. The passion and feeling in this book will consume any reader.
Obviously, the people who were directly affected by 9/11 will identify with Foer’s novel. They may see themselves within the characters. Although reading this story would bring pain and suffering to loved ones of 9/11 victims, they may find it healing and a sense of closure. Any parents can relate to Oskar and also look at him as a child of their own. Oskar not only lost his father, but he also lost the only person who spoke his language. The fatherless boy is left to overcome this tragedy on his own. He set out on a quest to explain the key he found in his father’s closet. This journey was so important to Oskar that he was willing to face his fears of tall buildings and subways to find the answer. During this search one child’s pain later becomes another’s healing.
Beyond the obvious audience, adolescence and young adults can also benefit from this young boys search for life’s answers. The questions raised in this book are questions that even some adults have never asked themselves. It forces one to re-evaluate what is important in life. Instead of Oskar’s grandmother using up all of her energy being angry at her husband’s abandonment, she focuses on raising her child. In Oskar’s search for the truth, he won’t settle for any answers short of that. When his mother tells him that Oskar’s father’s spirit is in the coffin, he won’t accept it. He sees the coffin as an empty box. Another lesson that Oskar shows us is to not give up. He doesn’t accept his mother’s explanation for what is in the coffin, so he takes it upon himself to rectify the situation by placing the Renter’s letters in the coffin. This is not the only instance of Oskar not giving up. This lesson is consistent throughout the book.
The most general audience that this book draws in is any person who has ever experienced life. The human experiences that the characters in the story endure are ones that touch all of us in one way or another. Every human emotion wrapped into this book is felt by every human being. The characters face tragedy, love, hope, faith, loneliness, trust, distrust, pain, fear, agony, and anger.
Some readers will associate Oskar’s grandfather with society. At one time he could speak fluently, but as time went on lost the ability to speak. In the same sense, members of society find it hard to talk about some things and fear that they are crossing the line if they do. They find themselves muted when it is most important. When Grandpa came back from Europe, he couldn’t explain to Oskar who he was or where he came from. After 9/11, many people couldn’t ask the questions they should have been asking nor could they explain why in many cases.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close pushes people out of their comfort zones. Just as the title eludes, the questions and conflicts in this novel are so personal that they are difficult to wrestle. It can be uncomfortable as well as healing. The reader accompanies Oskar on his tumultuous journey to find answers to life. By the end of the story Oskar as well as Grandma, Grandpa, Mom and Mr. Black, have found closure.

Jonathan Saffran Foer - Master Composer

2008-10-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Safran Foer, a brave young author of the new millennium, has offered us a story about an incredibly bright nine-year-old boy, Oskar, unhinged by the loss of his father in the tragedy of 9/11. In his second novel, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”, Foer not only intrepidly tackles 9/11 as it relates to Oskar’s family but also successfully layers and interrelates the experiences of his paternal grandparents at the bombing of Dresden, Germany during World War II. In fact, this duel narrative is a masterful syncopation of aftermath experiences which depend on each other until the end of the tale where they coalesce into insightful personal revelations. When all comes together at the end, we witness a metamorphosis of sorts - the crawling caterpillar takes flight as a butterfly - and, while they are far from being a perfect family, they strike up a fresh, innovative beat. The new pulse, unlike Foer’s allegory of “the place in the hospital where babies are born would sound like crystal chandeliers in a houseboat, because the babies wouldn’t have had time to match up their heart beats yet…,” relates well to what the family leaves behind.

Foer sets the rhythm of the breeze pulsing off the butterfly’s wings on page one and doesn’t stop. His word and phrase associations set the moods, tone, and a percussive dissonance that keeps his audience on their toes, or turns them away altogether. “Raisons d’etre” and “incredibly bad fart” in sentences next to each other were marvelously prophetic in terms of tone, for example. Oskar is a walking, talking paradox, as is the predicament of his grandparents. And when Foer moves to free associate his thoughts, it’s pure four-count jungle beat. Bo Diddley was known for pounding out a four beat on the drums called the “happy hardcore.” This author’s upbeat exhalations burst forth in necessary parts pulling us to our feet from our vulnerable, exposed position in the dirt with the character who hurts at the time only to dance us on to the next scene. We figuratively take a roller coaster ride with Oskar, as well as his family.

Through Oskar, Foer launches us on an absurdly complicated quest from the outset. Even with clues beating en mass through the air like a diminutive thwumping wind in the form of pictures and written images, it still took reading the entire book for me to finally unearth the treasure of the doorknobs. Foer layers these seen-through-a gauzy-reality re-enactments of two actual cataclysmic man-borne disasters with extremely loud pain and incredibly real emotion from characters that his audience invests in heart and soul. They are the walking wounded. They are the very sensitive spirits who carry the reservoirs, of which Oskar invents, available for the tears of others in their souls. When Grampa returns to Anna’s home to see what remains after the Dresden disaster, all that is left is “a patch of the façade which held the door up.” I distinctly remember the first images shown on TV after the thick dust and fine mist began to clear from the area around the grounds where the Twin Towers once stood. What remained was a piece of the façade – skeletal remains of a gargantuan building which once house the dreams of many. Scores of those people burned. For some reason, Grampa grabbed that door handle and it was so hot it took his skin off. Grampa became cataleptic after an amalgam of painful events in Dresden. This subtle layering of innuendo and abject imagery enhances the experience of reading Foer.

The balance of humor elevates the reader to a place of rest and recuperation in order to endure to the end with Oskar and his family. The young genius forms an unconventional friendship with the driver of the limo that transported Oskar, his mother and grandmother to his father’s funeral. The limo driver is willing, albeit uneasily, to listen to Oskar’s ramblings. The precocious boy carries on a fast paced conversation with the driver that contains references to inventing such things as a limo long enough to stretch from a woman’s VJ to a mausoleum. He goes on to butchers the English language, as little boys often do, in my experience. At one point he blurts out, “Well, succotash my balzac, dipshitake.” I personally spent enough of my youth reproaching my brother’s well thought out rhythmic renditions of ‘Old McDonald’ and what the farmer had on the farm after the cow moved its bowels. So many times I remember regaling him with disgust and cries of “Eeeewww, I’m gonna tell!” I had no problem relating to Oskar, the intellectual titan, as a child. His creator made him vulnerable, distractible, and forgetful as children usually are.

Grampa, totally dispossessed of earthly materials, except for unsent letters to his son, returns some time after his son’s death, dragging the baggage full of one-sided conversations along. When asked by the man who took his passport why he came, Grampa replied, “To mourn.” And then, he said, after a pause, “To try to live.” And again, we hear the reference of rhythm, only this, a discord, which could muddle even more the harmony of this family - these ‘Foer’ hurting people. While Grampa’s answer to the man might have disappointed Oskar’s grandmother, had she heard, she has shown throughout her ordeal that touch, nearness, and an occasional “I’m ok.” are enough for her to keep pace.

Oskar carries his wealth with him at all times and distributes his riches as he travails. This is a chronicle of reciprocal enrichment, sweetly and mysteriously convoluted in the telling. His father unwittingly sent him on a journey to find the right Mr. or Ms. Black for a key he found hidden in his dad’s room in a vase with the word ‘Black’ written on it. Oskar is convinced he will uncover some hidden, intimately related secret to his father’s life at the end of this treasure hunt. This determined youngster, who repeatedly decries having ‘heavy boots’, decides to take up the baton and begin his investigation of all the Blacks in the phone book. The one and only trip to visit a Black by himself is in the very building in which he lives. Here, he begins an illuminating friendship with a man over 100 years old who accompanies Oskar on his special quest. Oskar goes on to meet the Mr. and Ms. Blacks of various degrees of depth, damage, need and desire to be needed. While he shares of himself, he allows them to grant him what they have to offer. Many of them show up at a school performance where he plays the part of poor dead Yorick, only his head showing to the audience. When he spies the various Blacks seated in the audience Oskar realizes that their presence effectually “lightens his boots.”

Oskar’s mother is the beat of his heart though, at times, it seems his grandmother holds that prized position. So many times this son refers to his mother, or doing something for her, as his raison d’etre, his reason to exist. There is discord with his mother, but in Oskar’s eyes that syncope lays in the precipitous beat of another man’s heart taking the place of his dad in his mother’s life.

I refer to Foer as brave, and intrepid, for one reason, because of his response to the force of criticism that has been thrown his way. For instance, John Updike reviewed this book in the New Yorker (March 14, 2005), and blasted Foer’s protagonist whose “family consists of a dog called Buckminster, an unusually permissive and remote working mother, a loving grandmother who lives across the street and talks to him through a baby monitor, and a grandfather whom the trauma of the Dresden fire bombing has robbed of the gift of speech…” as having “few accultured antibodies to heal the wounds of his father’s abrupt death.” I have to wonder, first of all, if he paid attention while he read the book, because his truths are helter-skelter. Apparently he didn’t catch the allusions regarding the fact that Oskar’s mom orchestrated his trips around the city, on the sly. Secondly, I am concerned that Mr. Updike was bother by the notion of a prepubescent child that is unaccustomed to dealing with death. He actually insinuates that Oskar would have, in ‘normal’ situations, learned vicariously through the past trials of his family to deal in a ‘healthier’ manner with the death of his father. I challenge Updike to look up the word ‘empathy’ in the dictionary and then practice the concept.

Harry Seigel, in his review “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False” in the New York Press, refers to a scene where Oskar’s grandmother and her sister Anna lay in bed at night and share a kiss. His perception of the passage made me wonder if he had actually read the book. He wrote, “Foer seems to have a soft spot for incest. At one point, the grandmother recalls lying in bed with her sister in their youth. The two of them kissing, with tongue…Sister’s kissing, young children walking city streets unaccompanied; it’s a wonderful life for worldly naifs.” Never once do we read that the sisters share tongue or does Oskar walk the night unaccompanied. My naiveté has been exposed, I suspect. I expected such an accusatory tone to emanate from actual fact. Never-the-less, in his interview with Robert Birnbaum, Foer in the Morning News, stated, “… rejection is integral to the publishing process and is no indication of quality.” which is a statement consistent with the patterns set forth in this book.

Whatever happens, no matter how it interrupts the cadence of life or of the pattern of our breathing, we simply must breath. The lesson I learn from Oskar, is to breath according to my own tempo, allowing for occasional dissonance. Indeed, I contend there can be something gained in the planning of an occasional rough ride, if only to quicken the rhythm of the pulse. Grandma’s lesson, I do so appreciate, since I am closer to her age. I am more determined to learn to be content in a world that, at times, really sucks!

The Devil's Advocate

2008-10-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Safran Foer recently wrote a novel that I painstakingly read, over coffee, because my bloodshot eyes were straining to hold their lids open throughout the turning of the pages. The novel was entitled Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and was written about a nine-year old boy and his Grandparents from irritatingly alternate points of view. One could argue that the main character is the father of Oskar, a ridiculous child constructed of Foer’s toilet humor and petty inventions. The man, Thomas Schell, is killed in the World Trade Center disaster of 9-11, and this seemingly pointless collection of thoughts, pictures and letters surrounds his life and death through the eyes of Oskar, his grandmother and his grandfather. Foer’s writing seems to be misleading to readers, juvenile grammatically, sadistic in nature, and disgustingly graphic. Oskar Schell is our first character, who is troubled, of course, by his father’s death, and goes snooping through his mother’s closet to find a vase with an envelope labeled “Black,” and goes on a journey through the entire city of New York (by himself, mind you) to question every person with the last name Black about the key found inside the mysterious envelope. This boy is a social outcast, who finds friends of the 103 year-old nature along the way, and asks a woman, Abby Black, who is at least ten years older than he, if he can kiss her. Promoting pedophilia, Abby tells him to kiss her later in the story, but thankfully, Oskar declines, saying that he is embarrassed. After the whole novel of searching for the missing lock to his key, which we are lead to believe will lead Oskar to one final tie to his dead father, we find out that this key actually has nothing to do with either Oskar or his father. Or us, as readers, for that matter. I felt tricked by Foer’s book; I feel like I was strung along on this journey with no real purpose. Throughout the nine-year old boy’s journey, we are repeatedly subjected to parts of the book which are Grandma’s “feelings.” The grammar and writing style in these sections are confusing, with needless line-breaks, and left-aligned paragraphs. Mr. Foer subjects us to interesting and immoral concepts like incest, particularly between Grandma and her sister. They share a kiss; with tongue, and Grandma expresses her love for her sister, which comes across more like the love you would have for your first crush. Eventually, we find out that Grandma marries her sister’s husband after her untimely demise in the Dresden bombings, which is another reference to war and death, almost as if Foer intends to just strangle his readers’ feelings by bringing up horrific tragedies for his own personal dramatic gain, I suppose, just like his first novel, which was supposedly about the holocaust. If these characters seem ridiculous, you will be blown away by the immature and intensely confounding Grandfather, who speaks to his audience through letters to his son he’s never met. The man left his pregnant wife, Grandma, whom he married after her sister, Anna died (if you’re following) in Dresden. He stopped speaking after Anna passed away while she was pregnant. Some of the pages whose voice belongs to Grandpa are single words, or a phrase, or even sometimes a simple picture of a doorknob. I stopped reading picture books in second grade. The day of 9/11, Grandpa shows up at Grandma’s house and they eventually make up, leading to a disgustingly graphic love-making scene in the book between the two that was utterly unnecessary, and left me reaching for my barf-bag all through the night. Overall, I think that this book was an overly graphic, immature, sadistic, and ridiculously pointless endeavor into a journey through time-space-New York. It left me extremely bored and incredibly confused. Jonathan Safran Foer’s writing style was wild, difficult to understand and all over the place. Luckily, I had two pots of coffee, a baby to keep me taking breaks and a classroom of peers to vent to while I suffered through the insufferable. Maybe someone could find some good in this filthy pile of dog pies; I, however, will stick to my Dean Koontz and Brian Weiss, who can keep me awake through the night with their awe-inspiring words.

Do Not Procrastinate

2008-10-03T13:08:00.000-07:00

Harvard graduate Jonathan Safran Foer leads a discovery tour through the 9/11 tragedy in his book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This fictional tale pulls the reader towards finding the most important element of preparation in regards to tragic and sudden loss of loved ones. The psychological effects of horrible tragedies are traumatic and long lasting. Daunting truth hovers over survivors of lost potential. What could have been will never be. What was will never be again. Jonathan helps us find a solution for some form of closure given the situation.
With an interest in knowledge and the finished work of modern musical and cinema geniuses he is more attracted to genuine art rather than what is shoved down the throats of the general public and called art by the visually and audibly illiterate. His writing incorporates the themes that infiltrate into his soul. Winding around each other intricately, Foer uses his favorite art form to capture his reader's imaginations while conveying what he finds deeply important.

An avid consumer of media arts like movies and music, Foer is a philosophical thinker and jumps into subjects like they are a pool of interesting knowledge molecules. In an interview posted on morning news in 2005 Foer states, “... the two things that make books books, that make them the art form I most love—are how much they give and how much they withhold. Like, books are generous things, they give enough to really stimulate your imagination. But they also have to withhold enough for it to be your imagination and not the author’s.” The interviews and profiles he has shared with the public show the sense of beauty that he holds, intellectualized yet genuine. He is inspired by beauty and strives to replicate it.

Books have been around for centuries. People will always enjoy escaping, learning, experiencing other points of view. Culture, at least in the last 100 years, changes from generation to generation, however. The generation that Foer has as an audience is more visual than ever before. Each day a ridiculous amount of images bombard the average person. Electronic media, like the internet or television, combine with the average person's habits of consumerism and forces every person to interpret everything they see. Discernment and attention span are highly practiced and attuned in visual elements. Literature, however, has taken a major blow with all the attention focused on images. Although the everyday novel can still be a breath of fresh air, this avant garde piece combines the two genres, visual and literary imagery, together. This targets the common person in a fresh new way. What better way to communicate an age old lesson so often ignored?! Foer adds his own twist and reaches people where their interest actually lies, and in a way, forces them to listen. Combining mediums in art is not a new concept and breaking out of the literary box has served Foer's purpose well.

Moved by world tragedies in some way or another Foer delves into writing a novel founded on the principles of their horrors and effects on human psychology. He searched for what was really to be learned from these events. Letting the people that you love know the truth of love is all an external party can really do in reaction and preparation to the events that Foer has chosen to cover in his books – the Holocaust, the Dresden Bombing, and the 9/11 Plane Wreck. He even briefly covered the horrors of the atom bomb in Hiroshima. It is what is beautiful and pure that makes life worth living - it is relationships that are vital. Love, loving and being loved could very well be the most beautiful things to ever exist. The survivors in the families of the innocent people from these tragedies didn't get to say goodbye. They did not get to communicate, “I love you!” in an intimate meaningful way that they now so badly wished they had.

A classmate of mine, Teri Lawen, once stated in a short commentary, “The book reminded me that life is precious…and it made me want to share those feelings with those who mean the most to me.” I have been fortunate enough in my short life to not have experienced too many life tragedies. After my father deserted my pregnant mother her father, my grandfather, stepped in to make sure that I, the baby, was loved and taken care of by a strong, confident, and moral father figure. He didn't have too much of a choice. My mom had to move back into their house for a while, for financial and emotional reasons. He did an excellent job. The summer just before my fourth grade year he died of a rare cancer. I was too scared to tell him that I loved him in those last days. I was afraid it would be my last chance. Somehow I felt that if I didn't tell him he would not die. There would have to be another chance. I was wrong. In many of the letters the truth that there may never be another chance to say what you needed to say is highlighted. My Papa knew I loved him, so he was a good person to have learned that lesson on. The grandmother's sister, Anna, should have also known, but Grandma was not so sure. Over 40 years later she regrets that in those last moments together she refrained to take the opportunity to tell her she was loved. She made sure to tell Oskar.,br>

Foer's book is a work of literary art. Instead of composing a memoir or autobiographical story he created the story and illustrates a point while bringing the reader closer to a subject that subtly remains on the hush. Not being a true account the book allows experimental writing style and doing so leaves the reader still pondering not only the subject but how the author's revelations are portrayed.
Jonathan Safran Foer's point of view was portrayed in a fictional light through the form of a collection of letters from various people. The story line is told with a clearly written but unstructured feel. The letter approach was done in an interesting and unique manner with the reader is not quite sure where it is being led. Simultaneously we are taken through the grandparent's past as we live in Oskar's present with the characters speaking both to each other and to you. We end up comparing the Dresden bombing of 1945 in Germany to the current 9/11 tragedy in 2001, nearly half a century later. The letters were all to either to Oskar, or his father. Since his dead father never received any of the 40 years worth of letters (most of which we did not have to read, either!!), they all felt as if they Oskar was the recipient. They also felt like diary entries – and occasionally were almost too intimate. When looked at from afar there was very little communication actually going on between the characters. This is overlooked easily since there is so much going on for the reader.

People of all ages and backgrounds will easily identify with the content of the story because of the many relationships, seemingly peculiar reactions and emotions in light of the situations outlined through story filled letters. The manner is which this book was written, however, can much more easily be understood by the visual generation - the generation more willing to break traditional for the sake of style. Those who thoroughly enjoy and digest this book may see that it is more of a “scene” avant-garde piece of fiction designed to dig into the hearts of the readers and open their views of not only literature and its capabilities but also to the effects of tragedies on families and relationships and the mind.

The too-big-for-comprehension 9/11 tragedy was made to seem smaller and more close to home. Seeing through Oskar's eyes to the loss of a father and role model was endearing. Being a child, he is automatically more vulnerable and innocent. Immediately this softens the viewer in the direction of sympathy and readies them for the whatever concept about to be encountered.

One downfall I felt the book had was it did not expand on many objects that were introduced. For example, the key. Even when Oskar's search was over I felt the situation was unresolved. The key didn't seem relevant to anything else in the book. Digging things up in central park and the information about the 6th burrow added a small amount of character and relationship development between the nine- year old boy and his dead father. Other than that they were not taken anywhere, either. Things like that seemed more of a distraction to any prevalent themes than an addition.

The sex scenes with the grandparents did not particularly seem completely necessary. They illustrated the strange relationship between the two well, but I'm not sure they had to be quite as graphic. Why this information would ever be included in a letter to your nine year old grandson I'm not really sure. It makes the honest and believable story a little questionable. It was interesting, however, how the phrase, “I don't know why people ever make love...” is used so often - about as often as they make love.

The way Foer used the concept of clues on multiple levels was a respectable trait I found in the novel. Not only does he have Oskar constantly investigating to discover things as part of his quest to find the truth and get closer to his deceased father, he also develops character traits by interactions with the man in his life that he lost. On top of this, Foer himself uses hard-to-pick-up-on foreshadowing. One great example of this is when Oskar is investigating the art store in search of an answer regarding the word black written in a red pen. This is where (through strange art clerk logic) he finds that black is really Black, a name. In this scene of the novel the name Thomas Schell is found everywhere throughout the store scribbled and scratched in the customer testing supplies. The art clerk didn't know how often they changed the testing supplies and Oskar's father, Thomas Schell, had been dead nearly a year at this point. This foreshadows a major piece of interest to come, but the moment of reading it is just a bit confusing. It confuses Oskar as well as the reader so Foer cannot be accused of using unclear writing. He simply disguises the foreshadowing as part of the story line for Oskar's quest.

A member of his very own audience, Foer knows who he was writing to. The large task of attacking the silent taboos of world tragedies in the form of a fictional novel is daunting. At the same time it, in and of itself, creates immediate tension with potential readers. This is just the first tactic Foer uses to keep and expand the reader's attentions and interest. He takes us to a world easy to identify with on many levels. Foer is a young writer that, although extremely talented, educated, and successful, has a long way to go before reaching where I believe his potential as a writer stands. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a work of art. It is also a learning experience for Foer so that his next novel will be more tightly wound, structured and hopefully contain less dead-ends, given that is the direction he intends to head. This book was successful no matter how harsh his critics so long as Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close leaves readers with a new understanding that saying what is vital cannot wait. Maybe now someone will not wait. They will not procrastinate. What Booklist calls “undoubtedly the most beautiful and heartbreaking flip book in all of literature, ” may have just changed one person's entire life.

Good Grief

2008-10-02T21:01:00.000-07:00

Good Grief

In America, the land of Hollywood and happily ever after endings, commercialized medication will put a smile on the face of the bereaved. Why trudge through the methodology of grief when a Prozac band-aid will wash away the pain? Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, written by Jonathon Foer, confronts 9/11 and the ensuing wall of grief that event encapsulated. He captures his readers with his unwavering craftsmanship and dances them through the process of grief and bereavement utilizing humor, open mindedness, and an understanding of the process needed to promote healing.

According to John Gardner, who wrote The Craft of Fiction, a great author’s power comes from his sane humanness and his absolute trust in his judgments and instincts. In other words, the reader must be able to identify with what the author writes, and the author has to have a basic understanding of what will, and what won’t work. The author must be able to sustain the reader’s suspension of disbelief.

In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar, the main character, is not your normal 9-year-old. In fact, at times, he’s unbelievable. For instance, his favorite book is A Brief History of Time, he speaks French, and has a subscription to National Geographic, but doesn’t know whom Winston Churchill, Walter Cronkite, or Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald is. He hasn’t heard of the Berlin Wall or the Bay of Pigs. But because Foer has mastered the craft of writing, it’s easy to become immersed in Oskar’s life, to suspend disbelief, and to keep reading.

In The Art of Fiction, Gardner discusses how a master writer engages a reader’s attention by depending heavily on precision of detail. This reminds me of Ann Lamont’s book, Bird by Bird. How do you write? By putting words on paper a bird, or detail, at a time, by showing, not telling, and by painting a picture out of words for the reader to envision.

Jonathan Foer, a master craftsman, describes the bombing of Dresden like this: “I walked over an old man. I walked over children, everyone was losing everyone, the bombs were like a waterfall, I ran through the streets and saw terrible things: legs and necks, I saw a woman whose blond hair and green dress were on fire, running with a silent baby in her arms. I saw humans melted into thick pools of liquid, three or four foot deep in places; I saw bodies crackling like embers (211)."

Foer engages our senses of sight and sound, and later he includes the sense of smell and taste. He captures us with his imagery and bang I feel like I am in Dresden experiencing the waterfall of bombs falling from the night sky.

Gardner states that “aesthetic arthritis” will set in if a writer tries to adhere to a set of rules and regulation when writing fiction. Foer’s writing doesn’t need a knee replacement. Foer disregards several rules along the way. His dialogue, for instance, is difficult to follow because it doesn’t obey the proper quotation format. However, it adds to the authors voice and to the characterization of Oskar.

Foer utilizes some interesting devices to layer the story, like single sentences and single words on an entire page, a page where the words run into each other until the page turns black, long paragraphs, and unusual photographs. The single sentences and the blackout page enhance the character of the grandfather, who does not speak and communicates with a notepad. The long paragraphs belong to the Grandmother, who writes a letter describing her life to Oskar. This device added depth to her character. I didn’t think the photographs added to the novel. Having taken a couple of digital photography classes, I found myself critiquing the quality of the photos instead of letting them flow with the story. They distracted me, and I chose to ignore them.

Oskar, a precocious 9-year-old, lost his dad in the twin towers on 9/11. Oskar shares some of his symptoms of acute grief. For instance, he writes, “A lot of the time I’d get that feeling like I was in the middle of a huge black ocean, or in deep space, but not in the fascinating way. It’s just that everything was incredibly far away from me (37).” Oskar also expresses his feelings of bereavement by saying he’s wearing heavy boots.

As Oskar attempts to process his grief, he bruises himself. His mom takes him to see a Dr. Fein. At the end of their session, Oskar tells Dr. Fein, “I’m gonna bury my feelings deep inside me. No matter how much I feel, I’m not going to let it out. If I have to cry, I’m gonna cry on the inside (203).” Afterward, Oskar’s mom talks to Dr. Fein. Oskar overhears Dr. Fein advising her to put Oskar in the hospital. I rejoiced when Oskar’s mom disagreed with the doctor.

Death touches the lives of many, and Oskar’s grandparents and his mother also demonstrate various ways to dive into the bereavement process. For instance, the grandparent’s witnessed the devastation of Dresden. It made the grandfather mute. After the death of my husband, I got a week off. When I returned to work, I was advised to get over it, to pull myself up by my bootstraps, and get back to the job at hand. Only it felt like my right hand had been cut off. It wouldn’t do as I commanded. It took the Grandfather, and me, years to come to terms with our losses. Foer’s writing demonstrates that sometimes, the grieving process takes a long time.

When I read the back cover of the book, I thought, I can’t read this novel. My son, Nikolas, died May 8, 2008, a day before his 18th birthday. What torturous teacher would want me to pick at what little scab had started to form? How could I bare it?

Of course I read the book and I’m glad that I did. Indeed, I’m passing it along to my daughter and other family members. I’m recommending it to the young writers I mentor and to my friends. This short, easy to read, somewhat confusing, madly entertaining book has helped me confront my grief. Foer shared the in your face, all encompassing overwhelming feelings of complete and total loss of control, that familiar falling feeling I experience every time I think of my son, in the pages of his book. Life goes on in spite of my pain. It was refreshing to read about it, to know that I’m not alone, not crazy, don’t need medication, and yes, I can survive.

Review: “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer

2008-10-02T13:06:00.000-07:00

Written by Teri Lawen
October 1, 2008

Something and nothing or extreme and incredible? Jonathan Safran Foer presents these as options to living in his book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” A book so profoundly exhilarating one can hardly bear to put it down.

Foer begins by introducing us to the inventions of a nine year old child, inventions to solve all the world’s problems as only a nine year old could: a birdseed shirt for those times when we non-winged humans need to take flight and make a quick escape; a device that could sense when the person inside an ambulance was approaching a loved one nearby and would emit a message to them; a teakettle whose spout turns into a mouth and provides comfort by reading in the voice of his father, who was killed in the 9/11 tragedies. Wait…death of his father? Killed 9/11? At this point, many readers might think, “Whoa, I’m not ready to combine literary fiction with the catastrophic, emotional attacks on our precious United States soil - the wounds are too fresh, the scars to deep.

While the backdrop is 9/11, the book’s focus is on loss, coping, and eventual healing. It is no coincidence that Foer’s writing includes such powerfully traumatic events as 9/11, the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima. These horrific events remind us, as Foer’s character of Grandma put it, that we should never assume there will be a tomorrow or that it is “unnecessary” to share feelings today. “It is always necessary” as there may not be a tomorrow.

The book captures the reader by presenting so many questions and peculiarities that along with Oskar, the nine year old protagonist, the reader finds them self searching. Oskar searching for the meaning of the key found in a vase in his father’s closet, and the reader searching for the meaning of the story. Along the way, the reader becomes emotionally connected to the characters and their relationships. Foer has something for everyone: the struggles of a boy dealing with the loss of his father; a mother dealing with the loss of a husband, and the emotional disconnect of her son; a grandmother coping with the loss of a sister, son, and an estranged husband; and a grandfather who coped by leaving his family because of his fear of losing the ones he loves.

Oskar lives life extreme and incredible. Everything he feels, sees or does is with depth. He is extremely curious about self-defense; the tambourine plays incredibly fast in his “The Flight of the Bumblebee” ring tone; his imaginary inverted skyscraper built underground so when the elevator button was pushed, that particular floor would rise up—“extremely useful” according to Oskar. Foer contrasts this intensity with the indifference shared between Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa established zones within their apartment that represented either “something” or “nothing.” In the nothing zones, they could disappear, not exist as their lives together eventually did.

“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” forces us into the grieving process of its characters and enriches our lives with hope at their ability to cope and persevere; challenging us to live our lives as either something and nothing or extreme and incredible.

Jonathan Safran Foer

2008-10-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Our first adventure on this website will be to review the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. These Advanced Writing students have spent the last month reading and evaluating Foer's book and have many exciting ideas to share. Enjoy!