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.
No comments:
Post a Comment