“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: A Novel”
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Published: April 2005
ISBN: 0618329706

(Updated: January 29, 2006.)

From the Publisher…

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.

I first opened this book yesterday afternoon. I am now finished. The friend who loaned me this book simply said “It is brilliant.” I certainly didn’t doubt him and I absolutely concur. (And… I love that my friend, a son and the father of a son, was so touched by this book… even though or exactly because he only used the single word “brilliant” to describe it.)

This is a smart, insightful, beautiful love story. It is at times tenderly funny — as only innocence can be. It is at times oh so deeply heartbreaking — as the need and want of innocence can be. It is completely compelling. It is inspiringly hopeful. It is very strong. It is very wise.

The writing is brilliant. The story is brilliant. The compassion that it evokes is heart grabbing, soul rattling, and mind opening. And, as the best stories are… it is complete and satisfying. Yes, that.

If you are curious at all how a story such as this can be “satisfying”, do read this book. Definitely a five out of five hearts on my scale.