"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" follows Oskar Schell, an extremely creative boy who lost his father on 9/11. He sets out to find the lock for a mysterious key his father left behind, traversing New York’s myriad neighborhoods. The novel has moments of greatness, particularly Oskar’s grandfather’s descriptions of the bombings of Dresden, and the child’s initial encounters in his journey. Foer also allows the reader to enter the protagonist's imaginative mind through the book itself, which intertwines text and images beautifully, and even plays with the typeset. The last third of the novel, however, feels rushed, as it attempts to resolve several complex storylines in a limited number of pages. By the end of the book, Foer has built a complex mythology around Oskar's unique vision of the world, but fails to fully develop it, thus providing a lackluster climax.The novel is often heartbreaking and reminds us that we would all like to be able to respond to tragedy like children: to imagine that skyscrapers can grow roots to avoid ever falling down, and that our loved ones left us an impossible mission so we can stay close to them even after they depart.
Recommended (B+)
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