25/100

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I have tried reading JSF before and I couldn't even get passed the first couple of pages. But I was drawn to this book because of its September 11th storyline. Since I wasn't a fan of JSF's previous work I decided to try an audiobook. This is my first audiobook that was not Phillipa Gregory.



Oscar Schell was living a contented life as an 8-year old with a father he loved unconditionally. Sadly, his father was at a meeting in the World Trade Center the day of September 11th and he perished in the building. Oscar is desperate to have a lasting link to his father and his wish is granted when he finds a key in his father's closet. The key is in an envelope marked "Black." Oscar tracks down every "Black" in the NYC phone book and meets with all of them in order to find the lock that fits the key.



While we learn about Oscar's story, we concurrently learn the history of his grandparents' relationship.



I was going to give this book a four, but the grandmother's voice and story really annoyed me at times. Such are the drawbacks of an audiobook. I was also really annoyed with the whole description of how the grandfather refused to speak. He gets words tattooed on him and writes everything else. I felt like it got really old after a while.



This was a really heartwrenching book at times. The sadness you feel for Oscar is really palpable. And since Oscar rarely gets along with his mother or grandmother, you don't really feel the happier times very often.


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