sammi says

Jonathan Safran Foer has easily become my favorite contemporary author after reading his second novel, "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." I'm a little late in the game considering it was written in 2005, but I finally got around to reading it and have no idea why I waited so long. I fell in love with his first book, "Everything is Illuminated," after reading it on a whim, mostly because I wanted to read the book before watching the movie. "Everything is Illuminated" is one of those books that isn't easy to read, I often had to reread entire chapters and found myself flipping back pages to see if I missed anything. It's told in the form of letters from a Ukranian translator (whom I can only describe as Borat-like) who is guiding the "hero" on a journey to find a woman who may have saved his grandfather from the Nazi's. Interlaced in the narrative are fairy-tale like chapters describing the mythical, confusing, and comical history of a small Ukrainian village in the 1940's. As promised in the title, everything is eventually illuminated and it makes for a rewarding story.

Foer's writing style is extremely similar in "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." It is also the story of a young boy's journey and partly told through letters. It reads almost like a scrapbook, journal or diary, with letters and photos placed throughout the narrative. Nine-year-old Oskar Schell's father died in the 9/11 attacks and so he embarks on a mission to find the lock that matches a key he finds in his father's possessions. Oskar is incredibly intelligent and always coming up with ideas or inventions that would make the world a better place. Oskar is tortured by his father's death and is having a terrible time coping. His journey to find the lock gives him a sense of purpose and he meets some extremely interesting people along the way.

There is the same sense of mystery in this novel as in "Everything is Illuminated," but I found it much easier to understand and extremely exciting. As a reader, it's an incredibly silly task that Oskar hopes to accomplish but you play along because he's a child, as do the characters in the book. As the search goes on, as expected, we learn there's a lot more to the journey than just the end result. If you're thinking this is story about 9/11 you're wrong. It's simply the event that caused his father's death and not a gimmick to gain readers. This novel is about family and serves as a reminder of the imagination, resilience, bravery and optimism of kids and our inner-child. The book is hilarious, smart, heartbreaking and uplifting. There are people that will read this book and be cynical of its motivations but I think that is the exact feeling this novel is trying to protest.