Extremely Loud and Undeniably Incredible

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.