The required summer reading text for seniors this year, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer, left the opinion of the class completely divided. Readers either loved Foer’s main character, Oskar, with his chain reaction of thoughts and feelings and insightful images throughout the novel, or could not quite get a grip on the choppy plot and “childish” pictures.
Jonathan Safran Foer, an author best known for his novels “Everything is Illuminated” and “Extremely Loud”, published the book in April of 2005. It wasn’t until after the 2011 movie version took off, that interest in the book showed a growth.
The story of 9 year-old Oskar Schell’s quest grasps the attention of the readers, who are drawn in to learn more about this precocious, troubled character. In the aftermath of his father’s death in the fall of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, Oskar goes on a journey to discover his father’s secret key.
While in the midst of explaining Oskar’s family life, Foer links Oskar’s grandparents, survivors of the bombing of Dresden in the final months of World War II, through letters sent from Oskar’s grandfather to his son, Oskar’s father, Thomas. This comparison shows the strengths and weaknesses in both Oskar and his grandfather after living through traumatic events that took the lives of those they loved most.
Foer creates his main character, Oskar, through both visual and mental understanding for the reader. To describe Oskar’s complex, zany, advanced personality, Safran Foer expresses his character with pictures- images of people, items, places- anything that could further help the reader to understand what is going on in Oskar’s chaotic mind.
This also includes, in the very back of the novel, a mini flip-book of a man, whom Oskar believes to be his father, reversely falling out of one of the towers. The images represent Oskar’s desperate grasp onto hope, that he can somehow give himself peace and finally be at ease assured of his father’s death. The photographs zoom in extremely close to a man who appears to be Oskar’s father, choosing to end his suffering by jumping from the blazing building.
“Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is unlike any other novel on the attacks of 9/11. Instead of a history lesson loaded with facts and accounts, Foer presents the information as experienced from a person indirectly affected. His style, from dialogue to images and visualization, aids in the complete understanding of the sub-plot with the main plot.
Overall, “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” was a novel worth the read. Through a unique style of writing, it opened up the reader to a whole new level of awareness and further knowledge of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.
