Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer was in the (blogging) news again today. His book, Everything Is Illuminated, won the JBooks.com's People's Choice Award for the decade's best work of Jewish fiction. The Elegant Variation, where I read the news, was a bit snarky about the honor, and I have detected a bit of anti-Foerism floating around for, as far as I can tell, nothing more criminal than having one’s debut novel become a bestseller before one is thirty years old. I don’t care what anyone says. I think Everything Is Illuminated was one of the best books I’ve ever read.I do, however, agree with the critics that thought Foer’s second book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, did not match his first novel in its scope and power. I have been yearning to read something about September 11th that moves me, but while Extremely Loud was touching and intellectually stimulating, it was not quite enough of either.
The main character of the book is Oskar Schell, a precocious nine-year-old who lost his father on September 11th. Despite his wisdom beyond his years, Oskar is still obviously trying to come to terms with his father’s death. When he finds a mysterious key among his father’s belongings, he begins a New York City-wide quest to find the lock it fits. Along the way, his story intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden.
Foer uses many more gimmicky devices in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close such as pictures, pages full of numbers, and pages of text covered with editing marks. I normally enjoy these untraditional methods of conveying meaning, but all of these fun devices and the disparate stories and puzzle pieces don’t add up the same way that they do in Everything Is Illuminated.
Even though it wasn’t as mind-blowing as his first novel, Foer’s second effort was still a darn good read. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next. I, for one, am glad he is so young. It gives him all the more time to write more great novels.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
posted by Renee at 8:20 PM
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4 Comments:
Have you read Joyce Maynard's The Usual Rules? It deals with September 11th and I was quite moved. You may read my review here.
No, I hadn't even heard of that book before. I'll have to mark that down!
It's nice to find a review of Foer that just talks about the fiction! I've been considering reading one of his books for a while now and have been hovering, undecided. But I think I really will try to get a copy of his first novel. Thank you for the helpful review, Renee!
Au contraire! I'm actually on record in support of JSF:
http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2005/03/i_step_briefly_.html
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