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.
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