Book Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Book Title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Book Type: Novel
Pages: 368
Date: April 1, 2005

Summary: Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination.
Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist, correspondent with Stephen Hawking and Ringo Starr. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11.
An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.

Opinion: I must say that when my friend gave me this book to read I had never heard of it and had no idea what to expect. I immediately fell in love with Oskar, the main character who is 9 years old. He was definitely a unique kid and I felt so sorry for him as he grieved his father's death in his own way. It reminded me of that terrible day of 9/11 and all of the confusion, grief and chaos that Oskar experiences in this book remind me of the same feelings I went through as I saw the horrors of what happened then. I couldn't imagine being a 9 year old child and losing my father in such a horrible way. I really like Foer's unique writing and the story kept my attention page after page. If you have a book club, I would recommend this book. It will bring up some interesting conversation and give you a sense of what happens to those that experienced 9/11 first hand. It will change your life.