Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close #2

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly close," is has an original plot with an original twist--as well as a most imaginative perspective on the very real tragedy of 9/11. Not only is this an interesting and mentally challenging book, it presents this great loss that we all suffered in the perspective of a determined and resilient child--this child could almost be symbolic of us all as a nation, as we each found ways and continue to find ways to cope with our great losses and our lessor ones. The story of Oskar Shell and his search for a connection to his dead father is just the beginning; the story is about family and relationships, and what it means to be someone's father or mother or son. It's about why living is so much scarier than dying. On a few rare occasions, the story seems artificial and unrealistic, but most of the time, the emotion is so real that you have to stop for a minute and compose yourself.


Foer has a wonderful way with humor and fantasy--using it to have the reader understand which characters are likable with the author, as well as enriching the story line. It is great fun to read this book, though it's very sad. However,  Foer slips in the tender and heartbreaking parts subtly, while casually mentioning "the day before the bad day" as the day before the father was killed at the Trade Center bombing. He uses magic realism, fantasy, unique and well written characters, and has a way of expressing true and real feelings in his drawing of 9 year old Oskar Schell, who we accept as "precocious".


What's so intriguing about this book is that even doorknobs and keyholes have multiple meanings. One-word biographies are matched against one-word obituary summaries. Books serve as walls, diaries, and means of communication, while telephones become typewriters for the mute. Time is ever-present, which is measured precisely, but flowing loosely, frozen in images and recorded voices just as the book's characters wish to freeze of reverse time itself. A charming fable about Manhattan's lost sixth borough links Central Park to a myth of childhood dreams. And then there are Oskar's dark/anxiety filled inventions: his birdseed shirt, an ambulance that sends messages to everyone the patient knows as it passes their windows, the gun whose handle senses when you are angry so it won't fire, buildings that raise and lower themselves instead of using elevators, and best of all, his pillows that funnel everyone's tears into the reservoir in Central Park (when something really bad happened, a loud siren would tell everyone to go to Central Park to put sandbags around the reservoir).


Though this book is flawed, no other book has really dived deep into the psychological affect 9/11 has on children, and I give Foer props for that. However, I think this is quite an interesting read, as the author's style of writing is very different and unique. At the same time, Foer's intense creativity does allow a certain vagueness to spread throughout the narrative. All in all, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is an ambitious, yet flawed book tries to capture the sorrow, guilt and loss of 9/11, in an original way.