A Book a Week - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Book Two of the Book a Week Quest

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, 2005

This one started out a little shaky, to be sure.  Nine year-old Oskar Schell lost his father on 9/11, and -- this is going to sound really harsh here for a minute -- the way Foer chooses to depict this kid, I really could've cared less.  Oskar is much too wise for his age, talking about atheism, astrophysics, sexual positions -- I mean, come on...a nine year-old?  No matter how liberal his New York City parents raised him, I can't imagine the mindset of a nine year-old including those thoughts.  Bluntly, the kid was simply obnoxious and annoying.

Added to that, the author strangely changes writing styles from chapter to chapter.  Chapter One may be told by Oskar in the first person, but then Chapter Two may appear to be a letter written by an unknown person addressed to an unknown person.

Admittedly, I was about 100 pages in and I was ready to toss in the towel.

I'm glad I didn't.  

As the book progressed and the various writing styles begin to make sense and fall into place, Oskar becomes much more childlike in his mission to find out more information about his deceased father.  Along the way, he meets a variety of odd characters and it's partly through the way others view Oskar that we, the reader, come to care about this nine year-old boy.  

By the end, I really did come to care for this odd little kid, and I was genuinely moved by this story of loss and love.  Now, it's still a weird read, and it's definitely not for all, but it was certainly interesting...definitely the most "experimental" book I've ever read...