BookBrowse Reviews Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

From the author of Everything Is Illuminated. Novel

As I've mentioned before, I find that if I splash around too many adjectives in these commentaries they lose their impact, so I'm always a little circumspect when it comes to describing books in too glowing terms, but from time to time it's necessary to throw caution to the wind! With that in mind I have to say that I think Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is quite brilliant, and very compelling. One way or another, I churn through a lot of books, and after a time they start blurring into each other, so I love it when a book can stop me in my tracks, like this one did. Take your time over this one, because it's shorter than it looks and each page offers something to think about.

"Unafraid to show his traumatized characters' constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love and beauty." - Publishers Weekly

This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in April 2005, and has been updated for the April 2006 edition. Click here to go to this issue.