Summary and Reviews of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

by Jonathan Safran Foer
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  • Critics' Consensus (5):
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  • First Published:
  • Apr 1, 2005, 368 pages
  • Paperback:
  • Apr 2006, 368 pages
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About This Book

Book Summary

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.

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.

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Reviews

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is both brilliant and compelling. I love it when a book can stop me in my tracks by offering a style of writing quite different to the norm. Take your time over this one, because it's shorter than it looks...continued

Full Review (117 words)

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(Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).

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Beyond the Book



Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the bestseller Everything is Illuminated (2002), which was published when he was 25 years old and won multiple awards, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

A movie of Everything Is Illuminated was planned for release in 2005 but appears to be still 'in production' with an estimated release date of 2007.

When Foer was 8 years old a failed science experiment caused an explosion that ripped through the classroom searing his hands and face; but his best friend's injuries were worse - Foer found him ...

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Read-Alikes

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