Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, wowed critics on its way to winning several literary prizes, including Book of the Year honors from the Los Angeles Times. It has been published in 24 countries and will soon be a major motion picture. Foer's talent continues to shine in this sometimes hilarious and always heartfelt follow-up.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key his father left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a masterfully imagined novel from an author Time hails as "a certified wunderkind".

My Review:

I had an issue with the fact that such a young child could wander the streets of New York by themselves (although it is somewhat explained and justified in the end). I also thought the child was extremely selfish and somewhat spoiled. I also got annoyed very quickly with his constant use of the word "obviously", and to my dismay caught myself using it more often than usual.

I loved the back story of the grandparents, which was heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. In the end, everything wrapped up quite nicely, not perfect, but just as a story should, with closure. I enjoyed the book, but feel that I would have been a little more hard-pressed to enjoy it if I had read it myself, however, I listened through an audiobook. I have since watched the movie as well, and it was decent. It didn't capture the depth that the book portrayed, which isn't rare, but disappointing none the less.

Read from January 14 to 24, 2013

Top 5 Genres*: Fiction, Book Club, Contemporary, Historical Fiction, Novels
*According to Goodreads
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My ratings system:
5 stars - I absolutely loved it
4 stars - Good book and would recommend
3 stars - Decent book, but wasn't spectacular
2 stars - Not good, but was able to finish it
1 stars - Did not finish (DNF) and I don't usually rate a book I haven't finished (just to be fair to the author)

View all my reviews