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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Hardcover – April 4, 2005

by Jonathan Safran Foer (Author)

1,424 customer reviews

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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.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Oskar Schell, hero of this brilliant follow-up to Foer's bestselling Everything Is Illuminated, is a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. Like the second-language narrator of Illuminated, Oskar turns his naïvely precocious vocabulary to the understanding of historical tragedy, as he searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks, a quest that intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden. Foer embellishes the narrative with evocative graphics, including photographs, colored highlights and passages of illegibly overwritten text, and takes his unique flair for the poetry of miscommunication to occasionally gimmicky lengths, like a two-page soliloquy written entirely in numerical code. Although not quite the comic tour de force that Illuminated was, the novel is replete with hilarious and appalling passages, as when, during show-and-tell, Oskar plays a harrowing recording by a Hiroshima survivor and then launches into a Poindexterish disquisition on the bomb's "charring effect." It's more of a challenge to play in the same way with the very recent collapse of the towers, but Foer gambles on the power of his protagonist's voice to transform the cataclysm from raw current event to a tragedy at once visceral and mythical. 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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-Oskar Schell is not your average nine-year-old. A budding inventor, he spends his time imagining wonderful creations. He also collects random photographs for his scrapbook and sends letters to scientists. When his father dies in the World Trade Center collapse, Oskar shifts his boundless energy to a quest for answers. He finds a key hidden in his father's things that doesn't fit any lock in their New York City apartment; its container is labeled "Black." Using flawless kid logic, Oskar sets out to speak to everyone in New York City with the last name of Black. A retired journalist who keeps a card catalog with entries for everyone he's ever met is just one of the colorful characters the boy meets. As in Everything Is Illuminated (Houghton, 2002), Foer takes a dark subject and works in offbeat humor with puns and wordplay. But Extremely Loud pushes further with the inclusion of photographs, illustrations, and mild experiments in typography reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions (Dell, 1973). The humor works as a deceptive, glitzy cover for a fairly serious tale about loss and recovery. For balance, Foer includes the subplot of Oskar's grandfather, who survived the World War II bombing of Dresden. Although this story is not quite as evocative as Oskar's, it does carry forward and connect firmly to the rest of the novel. The two stories finally intersect in a powerful conclusion that will make even the most jaded hearts fall.-Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College, Annandale
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (April 4, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0618329706
ISBN-13: 978-0618329700
Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1,424 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #65,977 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2046 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Contemporary
- #5116 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Literary
- #6268 in Books > Teens

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Customer Reviews

1,424

3.7 out of 5 stars

5 star		49%
4 star		17%
3 star		13%
2 star		10%
1 star		11%

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Top Customer Reviews

Trying to Force the 9/11 Novel Genre?

By Virginia Houk on December 17, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Recently I finished reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. I found this novel through an Amazon recommendation, and as I did some research I began to wonder why I'd never heard of it before. The book was published in 2005 and then adapted into a movie—with Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, and John Goodman no less—in 2011. Despite the fact that I was living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, during both of these release dates, surely this piece of American culture would have bled over the border. However, after I finished reading I began to realize why this work may not have translated itself into Canada, or even around the entirety of the United States.

[SPOILER ALERT—IF YOU WANT TO READ THIS NOVEL, DO IT BEFORE YOU CONTINUE THIS REVIEW]

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a story of a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell whose father dies in the World Trade Center during the 9/11 terrorist attack. The story begins in the aftermath of this trauma and follows young Oskar as he finds very creative and symbolic ways to deal with his confusion and grief. The premise has quite a bit of merit to it—often when writing, the ability to find a nontraditional or unexpected voice for the story's narration can add an element of complexity and thus literary distinction to a work. I must admit I did find it intriguing to view this event and this story through the mind of a little boy. Aside from creating a connection between the boy and my own thirteen-year-old self at the time of the attack, this unique perspective allowed for a certain level of the surreal and absurd to float within the events of the narrative—which is not entirely out of place when one is experiencing a catastrophe.Read more ›

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directly following reading The History of Love, so it is difficult not to compare the ...

By Tall Bamboo on November 17, 2016

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

I read Extremely Loud... directly following reading The History of Love, so it is difficult not to compare the two. (See my review of the Krauss book.) I was disappointed in Extremely Loud..., especially because I loved and appreciated Foer's Everything is Illuminated. I felt the author's ego and presence too strongly in this book, and some the humor forced. Although a poignant child with a sad loss, little Oskar became tiresome after a while with his quirky vocabulary, and as the plot proceeded, Oskar's endless search into every demographic of New York looking for the key to his dead father felt contrived and repetitive. The unique and intriguing aspect of the plot was its relationship to 9/11. Whereas I couldn't put down Nicole Krauss's History of Love, and re-read it as soon as I finished it, I became distracted in this book by Foer himself and had to push myself to read on. The finish was redemptive and powerful, however, and Foer's considerable intellect and talent as a writer pulled the book together by the end.

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Men who can't stop talking about how they can't communicate, and little bits of the women who put up with them

By Margery L. Goldstein on November 16, 2016

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

Capossere's beautifully written review says much of what I felt about this book, so I will not duplicate it. There is some good prose amid the gimmicks in "Extremely Loud," but the story goes on too long, with too much repetition of Oskar's not-very-charming quirkiness and his disgusting grandfather's malaise.

Mr. Foer wants to tell the story of a man who cannot communicate. He tells it over and over again, through many nasty characters who are all basically the same person, a weak and self-pitying rich man who has been indulged too long. The women in the book are barely-human punching bags for the men's tantrums of egotistical angst. After a while, I felt like quoting Tom Lehrer: "If you can't communicate, the least you can do is shut up."

Other books by this author have been recommended to me, but after slogging through this one, I will give them a miss.

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Skip the book, watch the movie...

By CandysRaves (and Rants) VINE VOICE on June 20, 2013

Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase

I cannot believe I'm going to say this about this book, but skip it. Watch the movie instead. It's VERY VERY VERY rare that I say this, but the movie was actually better than the book. I think that getting to see Oskar's character, you are made more aware of not only what is driving him but of his quirks. The book, while it definitely makes an impression, it dulls in comparison.

Having said that, the story is a good one. I think one of the sub-stories could have been left out, though. While I get what the author was going for, I really think it took away from the main plot.

This was one of my book club's selections. I did actually watch the movie before the book, so that may have influenced me, but a couple of other people said the same as I did - skip the book and watch the movie.

We were mixed on the 9-11 connection. While most of us felt that it was a good backdrop, others felt that it was an opportunist writing. I'm torn. I don't think that any time period should be off limits and that includes that day. The worst day.

For me? This is a good book... but, for once, the screen adaptation overshadowed. I actually liked the characters, for the most part. I had a few problems with the mom, being a mom myself, but ultimately it was well-done.

Recommended for drama readers.

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Very thought-provoking journey of a boy trying to make sense out of tragedy

By Carolyn Dargevics on November 22, 2015

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

I bought this book after I saw that it was banned and after reading the synopsis. I thought it would be unlike anything I had read and I was right. I really enjoyed the way it was written -- the method kept me engaged and made my brain do some work, plus I like "things" that take creative, out-of-the-box approaches, and this was definitely one of those. Up until this time, I had not given much deep thought to the Twin Towers tragedy of 9/11/01 -- not because I don't care, but because I'm an empath and it bothered me too much. However, this story gave me a different perspective, one I have been searching for in other books -- that of the survivors of tragedies: what people go through after a loved one has died. To date, I have found that in only one book by Joan Didion. Of course, I hear anecdotes but I'd like to know what people go through, especially in tragedies that happen on vacations: how does one go from a joyous excursion to going back to a hotel room alone, packing up suitcases, etc., etc. Anyway, I'm getting away from my review. I don't know why this book was banned. It was a very good read!

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I loved reading how Oskar's mind travelled

Wow. As a highly emotional person who thinks way too much into everything, I loved reading how Oskar's mind travelled. Read more

Published 3 days ago by Emlee

Memorable characters

I liked the characters and the setting. Not an easy book to forget. Unusual styling. Will read more by this author.

Published 6 days ago by Karen

A classic of the modern age.

Mind blowingly good.

Published 7 days ago by Ms. Martin

Five Stars

Wonderfully written, magical, abstract, addicting.

Published 8 days ago by james p. kushner

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Senseless

Published 12 days ago by douglas f. parsons

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Published 19 days ago by Raj Joshi

I love this book

I love this book. I read it when it was first published, had lent it to someone and never got it back. I bought this copy so I'd have it in my library.

Published 20 days ago by Nancy MW Raskin

LOVE IT!

Published 1 month ago by mary

Never received

NEVER RECEIVED.......

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Four Stars

A wonderful tale about loss, certainty, and fragility.

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