Review of Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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[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

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.