Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Description of the book (as taken from the Web) :

Nine-year old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father's closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace.

My Take On This Novel

I finished this book in late December 2014. This book is about the close relationship between a father and his son. Oskar Schell is a very smart but eccentric nine-year old who is very much loved by his parents and his grandmother. He is a child who likes to think about a lot of things and like a lot of children has wild imaginations. Thomas Schell encourages his son to always be enthusiastic, inquisitive and imaginative. To me, the Schells as a family puts a lot of emphasis on independence, a love of learning and a strong sense of individuality in their parenting of their only child. Oskar in some ways is a child way beyond his years. He does not really have any friend his own age but he easily makes friend with adults.
On September 11th, 2001 Thomas Schell has a meeting in one of the WTC buildings. He becomes a victim of the September 11th attacks and his body is never recovered. Perhaps trying to put a closure to their horrific ordeal his wife and his mother arrange for a funeral to be held with an empty coffin which is buried in a grave later on. Oskar is frustrated and angry with the funeral as to him it is a lie. His deep affection for his father strongly compels him to search for the mystery of the key. If he doesn't solve the meaning of the mysterious key, Oskar feels he doesn't love his father enough even if his father is dead.

This is a story about the trauma of a child losing his beloved father in a horrific accident. Imagine his feelings when he sees people jumping from the windows of the burning WTC buildings into their deaths. It is an attempt by a smart nine-year old to try to find closure and healing after going through a very traumatic loss.

For the first time, I encounter a different style of writing by Jonathan Safran Foer in this book. For example, dialogues are not placed within double inverted commas and there are a few pages where the wordings become illegible after some time. It makes me feel a little strange at first. There are photographs in the book which are like mysterious symbols to the plot of the book. That is my guess.

A Little on Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer (born February 21, 1977) is an American writer. He is best known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005). In 2009, he published a work of nonfiction titled Eating Animals. He currently teaches creative writing at New York University.

Foer's second novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, was published in 2005. In the novel, Foer used 9/11 as a backdrop for the story of nine-year old Oskar Schell, who learns how to deal with the death of his father in the World Trade Centre catastrophe. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close used many non-traditional writing techniques known as visual writing. It follows multiple but interconnected storylines, is peppered with photographs of doorknobs and other such oddities, and ends with a 14-page flipbook. Foer's use of these techniques resulted in both glowing praise and excoriation from critics. Despite diverse criticism, the novel sold briskly and was translated into several languages. In addition, Warner Bros and Paramount turned the novel into a movie with the same title directed by Stephen Daldry with Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock as the leading characters.


Something Interesting

A Francophile (or Gallophile) is an individual who has a strong positive predisposition or interest toward the government, culture, history, or people of France. This could include France itself or its history, the French language, French cuisine, literature, etc. 

A person who opposes the use of war or violence to settle a dispute is called a pacifist. If you are a pacifist, you talk through your differences with others instead of fighting. A pacifist is a peacemaker and avoid physical confrontations. The beliefs and actions of peacemakers can also be described as pacifist.

A vegan is a person who does not eat or use animal products. Veganism is a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as is possible, all forms of exploitations of, and cruelty to animals, for food, clothing or any other purposes.