Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

After finishing the His Dark Materials books I asked Clay to recommend a book for me to read. It took a lot of work to get him to suggest something, but he finally gave me a book that his friend Drew had recommended to him and that he hasn’t gotten around to reading. I’m amazed at his ability to dodge the request. The book was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer and I absolutely loved it.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is about a nine year old boy named Oskar whose father died on 9/11. When looking through his father’s closet he finds an envelope with the word Black written on the outside and a key in it that does not fit any of the locks in his apartment. So he decides to visit every person with the last name Black in New York City and see if any of them know anything about it. Woven through Oskar’s story is the story of his grandparents who both survived the bombing of Dresden during WWII.

Oskar is an amazing character; an eccentric nine year old boy who only dresses in white and is a vegan, Stephen Hawking enthusiast, photographer, and inventor among many other things. All of that is balanced with a little boy who is carrying around a lot of pain and guilt about his father’s death. I loved his chapters and the variety of people he met on his quest to find the lock that goes with his key. Foer did a wonderful job of creating the sort of child who has trouble relating to people his own age, but can easily interact with adults.

Spoilers

The chapters in which Oskar’s grandparents describe their lives and relationship are fascinating. His grandfather is mute and communicates by writing and using the Yes and No that he has tattooed on his palms. His chapters are the letters he wrote to the son he never met because he left his wife soon after learning that she was pregnant. The grandmother’s chapters are addressed to Oskar, attempting to explain why she has left. Each section was a portrait of an emotionally damaged person and shows how the baggage from their pasts has dominated and destroyed their relationship.

The peripheral characters were all well drawn and fleshed out. I enjoyed Oskar’s interaction with each and how he seemed to be able to draw each one out and connect with them. I was thrilled when some of them showed up to see him in Hamlet, which made his relationship with the Blacks that he met very real. If he can affect people on that level it doesn’t seem wrong that Mr. Black was willing to join in the search and that the other people he met confided in him as much as they did.

The story is interspersed with photographs and good use is made of color and the placement of words on the page. It has a very livre d’ariste feel that I thought was really cool. The pictures used are beautiful and work well within the story. The close up of an elephant’s eye is truly haunting. The chapter in which the grandfather reveals what happened to him during the bombing is corrected in red ink which is an interesting way to create a detached atmosphere for the story. Still it doesn’t remove the power of learning just how much he has lost in his life.

This is the first book that I have read that deals with September 11 and I was impressed with how well it was used. The book never becomes overly sentimental. Oskar’s attempts to make sense of his father’s death work well as a representation of the country’s collective attempt to come to terms with our loss. I loved that when Oskar finally found out what the key was for it was not the answer and could not explain his father’s death. There is no easy answer, but by the end of the book I felt that he and his mother had at least started a dialog and he will be okay eventually.

I’m not so sure about the end of the grandparent’s story. They certainly turned a similar corner with each admitting that they each knew about Anna’s pregnancy, but I don’t know what I think about leaving them at the airport. Will they stay there? Won’t they eventually need to go home? I suppose if Ruth Black can live on top of the Empire State Building they can live in the airport. It is certainly good for Oskar to have his grandmother’s dependence on him at least lessened.

As I said at the beginning, I loved this book. I had a strong emotional connection with the story. This is now the second book in a row that I have had to put down to keep from bursting into tears on the subway. I think it’s time to try a happy book.