Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
About loss, about coping with loss, about missing, about regrets, about saying things you wished you could have said sooner, about innocence, about..
..nine year-old Oskar who is an intelligent and active boy with a largely creative mind. He is always inventing whimsical things and creating scenarios in his head. He had lost his hero, his beloved dad, a few years back in the 9/11 incident, and is still trying to cope with his loss.
One day, Oskar found a note in a blue vase in his dad’s closet. He was curious as to how it got there. It contained a peculiar-looking key. And the only clue that was of any help was the word “Black” written at the back of the little envelope.
He then took on a mission to find out what the key unlocks, and went on a hunt to find answers that could bring him closer to his dad. He journeyed across New York and found himself in a tangle of lives made up of his relatives, friends and even strangers. As his quest becomes more apparent that it is leading nowhere, Oskar is increasingly worried if his efforts will be wasted. This only makes him miss his dad even more, and eventually finds out if his mission was actually worth anything at all…
I’ve never heard of Safran Foer before, not until I chanced upon his quotes online. They moved me, and I’ve heard several people saying this book is worth the read. So I was pleasantly surprised to see this book happily nestling on the library shelf and grabbed it as soon as I saw it.
As you flip, you can see some pictures, writings, mostly in black and white, which makes it an interestingly unique book. Half of the narrations in the book is conveyed through letter-writings by his grandparents.
Safran Foer has an incredibly imaginative mind to be able to create a young fictional character who has, well, an incredibly imaginative mind. He writes from a point of view of a nine year-old with honest opinions and where every single thing in the world needs to be questioned. I personally loved the parts when he thinks about an alternate scenario; what he actually felt like doing, but in the next line, he said and did what was more appropriate and acceptable instead. I feel that coming from an innocent child, he speaks for that suppressed person in us human beings who is not afraid of saying what he wants. And in that sense, it is relatable to each one of us.
If I have to pick a favourite quote from the book, one which I could relate, then this would be it:
“Does it break my heart, of course, every moment of every day, into more pieces than my heart was made of, I never thought of myself as changed, the distance that wedged itself between me and my happiness wasn’t the world, it wasn’t the bombs and burning buildings, it was me, my thinking, the cancer of never letting go, is ignorance bliss, I don’t know, but it’s so painful to think, and tell me, what did thinking ever do for me, to what great place did thinking ever bring me? I think and think and think, I’ve thought myself out of happiness one million times, but never once into it.”
All in all, a brilliantly imaginative read.
Fun fact: This book will be adapted into a movie, starring Sandra Bullock & Tom Hanks! It is said to be released next year. Hope it’ll do this book justice though. Cannot wait! Meanwhile, go on a quest to grab this book and read it. Recommended.
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