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| Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Jonathan Safran Foer
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $2.99
You Save: $10.96 (79%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $2.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  (324 reviews)
Sales Rank: 1064
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 0618711651
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780618711659
ASIN: 0618711651
Publication Date: April 4, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good book for a book club discussion November 16, 2008
The book lead to an interesting discussion as some liked the book and some didn't While at times difficult to follow overall I felt what I call the wow factor. It really showed how 9-11 or just the lost of a parent in a tramatic way can effect a young boy
Incredible November 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Having finished this book, imbued with a newfound appreciation for the mystery and fragility of life, I quit my job and moved across the country. I finished the book sitting on a toilet in a Motel Six on Easter, and thought, I need to change my life.
A note about the bells and whistles, the pictures and pages of numbers and cryptic messages:
I've read a number of negative reviews of this book that basically lambasted Foer's use of these devices. I'd be curious to see how opinion delineates according to age. My guess is that people born after 1975 love the gimmicks and people born earlier would hate them.
I loved them. I loved pouring over the pictures and the pages of cryptic notes and marveling at their different shades of meaning, and how they related to the book as a whole. It was also just fun.
Beautiful November 8, 2008
For such a sad topic, a beautiful and hopeful story. As a father, the story warmed my heart. The writing was strong and engaging. I was sometimes annoyed with some of the 'tricks' in the book..pictures inserted, but grew to like and appreciate them. Great read...don't miss it.
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius October 24, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A stunning, magical, horrifying and brutally honest book that follows the journey through mourning for a child who has lost his father to the attack on the Twin Towers.
Oscar is a highly gifted and deeply traumatised boy whose father has been killed in the World Trade center. He finds a key in his father's closet and spends the rest of the book searching for the lock which the key fits. That is the story on the surface.
Foer's writing still pulls you into the mind of young Oskar as he copes with the loss and guilt that he feels about his father's death. This is an unflinching look at the child's mind in mourning; at the magical thinking and illogical hopes we cherish when a loved one passes away.
A story unfolding in parallel to that of Oskar's search is that of his grandparents who survived the bombing of Dresden. One could object to the comparison of a bombing that was part of a war and a terrorist attack but both events had equally horrible consequences for civilians. The bombing of Dresden remains one of the worst examples of civilian suffering caused by strategic bombing.
Foer draws us into the mind of young Oskar in a way that I found reminiscent of 'The curious incident of the Dog in the Night time'. Our young protagonist is on a quest and encounters a world that is initally harsh and yet surprisingly benign. With each of Oskar's encounters we find that he is not the only one traumatised by the attack - almost everyone in the city has been touched by it and even the roughest characters feel a human sympathy for the child.
It initially seemed improbable to me that a child could wander the streets of New York unattended and survive unscathed but there are people watching over Oskar. There is an element of the magical to this book and not all events are logical or realistic but the power of the language and the feelings of the boy will capture your heart and draw you in. Not a book to be missed.
Flawed but still very good. October 12, 2008
I couldn't quite stretch my imagination to completely accept that Oskar was 9. 12 maybe, but 9 ... No way. Who lets a 9 year old run around New York City alone, especially after 9-11? And the grandfather was weird to the point where I wondered why no one had him committed. Also, how did these damaged, odd people afford to live in Manhatten, complete with doormen, limosines, pocket money and no thought whatsoever to pesky things like finances? Finally, some of the characters disapearred without benefit of knowing what had become of them. I hate when that happens.
Otherwise, I loved the story. It made me cry. It was poignant and sad and great.
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