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    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
    Audiobook (abridged)5 hours

    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

    Written by Jonathan Safran Foer

    Narrated by Kerry Shale

    4/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father’s closet.

    Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, computer consultant, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, amateur astronomer, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, origamist, detective, vegan and collector of butterflies.

    When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center, Oskar sets out to solve the mystery of a key he discovers in his father’s closet. It is a search which leads him into the lives of strangers, through the five boroughs of New York, into history, to the bombings of Dresden and Hiroshima, and on an inward journey which brings him ever closer to some kind of peace…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateJun 15, 2005
    ISBN9780007219803
    Unavailable
    Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
    Author

    Jonathan Safran Foer

    JONATHAN SAFRAN FOER is the author of the novels Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and a work of nonfiction, Eating Animals. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into 36 languages. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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    Reviews for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

    4/5

    5,082 ratings261 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The book was strange, but I like that. I'm not sure that taking place after 9/11 was key to the story. I think it's what the reader brings to the book. My impression is that Oskar, the nine year old that tells the story, has Asperger's Syndrome. He doesn't know how to handle his father's death, so he tries to make order out of something that can't ever make sense. The interactions with his neighbors, mom, grandma, and grandpa are what make the book extraordinary. I loved it. I found myself laughing with him, feeling hopeless, anxious, scared - I understood this character. I wanted to hug him. Typically, I don't get emotional over a story, but this one tugged at my heart. I don't think it's a book everyone would love, but if you like complex and challenging story lines, it may be for you, too.
    • 3/5
      Dit boek verdient alleszins de prijs van de originaliteit: het verwerkt het grote trauma van Nine-eleven op een heel eigen manier, met originele verhalen vanuit diverse invalshoeken, met zwart-wit-illustraties en met typografische truukjes (zoals blanco pagina?s, almaar dichter op elkaar gedrukte letters enz.). Dit geeft op zich al aan dat Safran Foer eer betuigt aan hoe mensen omgaan met een bijzonder ingrijpende, we zouden nu zeggen, disruptieve gebeurtenis.Over de belangrijkste vertelstem, de 9-jarige Oskar Schell, is al heel wat geschreven, - zowel positief als negatief -, en ook voor mij heeft dit eigenwijze, overslimme, en sociaal gehandicapte jongetje zowel een afstotelijk als een aantrekkelijk kantje. Maar hij draagt deze roman wel. De bijkomende vertelstemmen van de oma en de grootvader zijn misschien even problematisch (en getuigend van soms erg surre?el menselijk gedrag) maar zij trekken Oskar?s verhaal van gemis, woede en onmacht ineens naar een veel diepere laag. Persoonlijk vond ik die delen van het boek veel interessanter, ze maakten veel tastbaarder hoe grote, ?historische? gebeurtenissen ( Nine-eleven, Dresden, Hiroshima) een diepe, traumatische uitwerking hebben op concrete, ?kleine? mensen, die heel dikwijls al in een heel complexe existenti?le situatie zitten. Safran Foer wijst daarbij nergens op grote, definitieve oplossingen voor dit traumatische leed, tenzij het leven zelf en vooral de nabijheid, nabijheid van geliefden, het samen delen van vreugde en verdriet, gemis en verlangen. Schrijftechnisch put de auteur uit een rijk arsenaal aan literaire verwijzingen (die naar Gunter Grass en W.G. Sebald liggen voor de hand), en illustreert hij met kleine verhalen (zoals in het begin de zoektocht ?zonder aanwijzingen? van Oskar in Central Park, of de raamvertelling van alle mensen met de naam Black waar hij langsgaat, met elk hun eigen verhaal) hoe mensen met het mysterie van lijden omgaan. Als vorm van therapeutisch schrijven (voor al wie geraakt is door Nine-Eleven) vind ik dit boek best geslaagd. Maar het doet me iets te geconstrueerd aan om van echt hele grote literatuur te spreken.
    • 5/5
      I rarely give a book 5 stars but this one spoke to my heart and particularly the voice of the boy who lost his father in 911 and how he deals with what is said, unsaid, shame, brilliance, insanity. This is my favorite Buddhist tale retold that is the story of the mustard seed. What if you are grieving and can't seek out the help of others? It is like chewing on bones in the dark for years and running around in circles forever your momentum interrupted by fragments. Yes, I can see that some people might hate this book. It is a story well told.
    • 4/5
      A remarkable book, but in the end I'm not convinced Foer carries it off. The idea, seemingly Tristram Shandy meet Huckleberry Finn, combined with the cross generational juxtaposition of 9/11 and the bombing of Dresden, is vast. Yet - and perhaps I am an obtuse reader - the links were often unclear, the leaps befuddled. The writing is tender, yes, but I'm not convinced. Nice try but no coconut?
    • 5/5
      How do you or how would you deal with grief?Everyone has their own way some cry, some remember and some live life like there is no tomorrow.For Oskar Schell who lost his dad in 9/11 he went on a search. To find what his father had hidden for him - where did the key he found in the blue vase fit to? What would it show him when he opened it? What was his father doing at the local art store before he died?Oskar tracks down everyone with the last name of Black hoping they knew the answer to his questions. But in the end he knows when he finds it that he will lose his dad - the last great thing they shared and all that would be left are fading memories.This book has no dramatic storyline it follows the Schells as they come to terms with their grief in their own way. You lose yourself in the book and live it with them to the point there is a sense of closure at the end. Everyone survives, the wounds are healing nicely and life will go on.
    • 2/5
      Will try again in a few months. Only got a quarter of the way through and couldn't get into it at all.
    • 5/5
      Wow, such an emotional and funny story all in one. I can imagine this would be an especially poignant story for those who lived in New York or knew people affected by 9/11.

      This was yet one more read set in New York that I ended up loving. I'm not sure why, since I've never even been there. Maybe because it feels akin to Chicago in some ways but is almost mysterious and otherworldly to me at the same time.

      Oskar was great and a huge part of why I liked this book so much; how fun that he was a vegan francophile just like me :D From the way Jonathan Safran Foer writes his characters, he seems to be a very sensitive, deep thinker. I will be reading his other work for sure.
    • 5/5
      This book was a surprise. I did not expect to like this book. I admit it; I am prejudiced when it comes to "critic" darlings. I know I shouldn't be, but something in me rebels against authors who get all this praise like they are the next big thing. Not to mention friends of mine didn't like Everything Is Illuminated, the first work by this author, and a book I have not read. Yet.But I liked this book. I was worried that the 9/11 subtext would bother me, especially this close to the 4th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center. However, it worked for me. It wasn't the main story, it was more what spurred the story on.Our hero, Oskar Schell, is not your typical 9-year-old boy. He is an inventor, a jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tamborine player and pacifist. He lost his father in the attacks on September 11 and has been lost ever since. One day while snooping around in his father's things he finds a mysterious key with the name Black on it. Being a very curious boy (the kind who has to KNOW everything) and hoping to become closer to his father again, he begins an 8-month-long quest to find the lock that goes with the key. Intertwined is the story of Oskar's grandparents, victims of the firebombing of Dresden during World War II.Oskar is one of those characters?who just amaze you. He's such an innocent, he's what you wish everyone could be like, he's what you wish you could be like. His story moved me in ways I can't begin to describe. He even made me cry, which is not easy to do.I say no matter your prejudice, this is a good book to try. Hopefully you won't be sorry.
    • 2/5
      I'm quite glad I got this book from the library first, instead of buying it. The story was difficult to follow and the writing style got very annoying. I quite liked some of the aspects of the novel, but in the end it really made no sense. The book became repetitive and confusing in many parts, and yet were enlightening and sincere in others. It's hard to really review this book because of how conflicted I am about it.
    • 3/5
      It was a bit hard to follow with flashbacks and different narrators. Realistic presentation of effects of trauma on a child.
    • 5/5
      Listened to this audio today & I wondered why I didn’t do this sooner. It is an uplifting myth which was born of the sorrows of 9/11. Parts were hilarious yet very heartbreaking. I found it difficult to once again hear about people jumping from the World Trade Center unable to escape the roaring fire. It was great to hear how many families are moving forward. I found Foer to be wise & compassionate and look forward to reading another book by him.
    • 3/5
      Oskar's story: 5 stars. Touching and sentimental and charming. What a kid.
      Oskar's grandfather's story: 2 stars. When there are no paragraphs and little context, I find it tedious to read.
    • 4/5
      Loved the voice of Oskar, and the use of graphics throughout the book. I was less crazy about the voices of the grandparents - at times those sections just seemed too gimmicky. Still, a fascinating story and so much more complex than the movie.
    • 5/5
      This was a beautiful and sad novel that I would recommend to everyone...even though it's sad. This is one of the first 9/11 novels I've read and I've been sort of dreading reading a 9/11 novel because of how tragic and sad the whole thing is. I was 15 when 9/11 happened and wasn't really sure how to react or how to relate to what was happening..It was just one of those moments where you get it but you don't get it. I really loved this novel and I really love how Foer and his wife share images and ideas. Maybe I shouldn't but I do. I love how when I'm reading Foer I can see Krauss in his work. They definitely influence each other and I like that.

      Everything about this novel is amazing. I'm glad that I finally worked up the courage to read it.
    • 5/5
      Telling this story from the perspective of a 9-year-old boy really gives Foer a lot of freedom to explore the types of "off-the-wall" thoughts a lot of us (I think) have when trying to make sense of tragedy. As grown-ups, I think we censor our thoughts or tend to try to reason our way out of grief. Oskar doesn't try to reason his way out of his grief. He just tries to arrange his world so it makes some sort of sense after something far beyond understanding happens. It's not surprising that this way of organizing his world looks strange to those not inside his grief.

      Layered in with Oskar's story is the story of his grandparents and their response to the fire-bombing of Dresden when they were teenagers. There's a comment here about the long-term ramifications of not finding a way to deal with one's grief or perhaps simply about the length of time it can take to find a way to live with grief and with a reality that is incongruous with what we think we know about the world.

      I stayed up late and finished this book in one day (and night), something I haven't done since I became a mother because in most circumstances, sleep has been more important than finishing a story. I'm going to try to read books that are less engaging for the next couple of months so I can catch up on my shut-eye.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful, febrile, magical and haunting. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is an exquisitely written account of trauma as experienced through three generations of a family separated by love, war and language.
    • 5/5
      An amazing heartfelt story of life , love and loss , most definitely a favourite.
    • 5/5
      The surprise of the year. After the limited response to the movie I did not expect such an excellent work of fiction. The rythm of the book is diiferent as the voice of the young boy who narrates his search for an answer to his dad's puzzle. Do not let the 9-11 theme stop you from reading this book as the story goes well beyond this topic.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, just as a former student told me I would.The narrative style was interesting, having been told, for at least some of the story, from a young (but very intelligent) perspective. I liked this narrator more than the one in What I Did, since the stream-of-consciousness was easier to follow in this book.At first, I thought the story was going to center around the metal objects found in Central Park, and what their locations meant or spelled out, but I was quite wrong in that. It was a pleasant surprise to find the parallel plots and to bounce back and forth between the two lives that were being storied.I loved the relationships that the narrator was able to form throughout the novel. I thought that the subject matter was going to be overly depressing, but really the story itself wasn't excessively morbid. There was hope in it, and I think the hope came from the fact that I felt like the narrator would be okay in the end, or at least eventually, after some tough work.Overall, the story was compelling and kept me very interested. I finished more quickly than I would have thought because I was quite engaged. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a powerful novel indeed.
    • 3/5
      Narrated by precocious nine-year-old Oskar Schell, this book relates his journey to express grief for his father, who died in the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center. After finding a key in his father’s closet, Oskar embarks upon a quest to locate what it opens, symbolically paying tribute to his father's life while also helping him heal. An intertwined story tells of Oskar's grandparents' difficult lives after surviving the bombing of Dresden during World War II. Their stories involve letters written from Oskar’s grandfather to his father and from Oskar’s grandmother to Oskar. Themes include the silence of suffering, the impact of trauma, and how difficult it can be to overcome.

      This is another book where I can appreciate its artistry but is not a particularly enjoyable reading experience. I thought Oskar’s story, though it stretches the limits of belief, was touching. I felt compassion for the child who has suddenly lost his father and describes what is obviously depression as “heavy boots.” It hits very close to home for me. However, I found the grandparents’ storylines disjointed and difficult to follow. The chapters narrated by Oskar are the strongest and most direct, though his voice is much more analytical and mature than a typical child. There were many interesting parallels between the experiences of Oskar and his grandfather. The tone is very sad and there are many loose ends.

      I think the overall impression of this book is more effective than the individual parts. It would be a good book to read with another person or as part of a book club.
    • 3/5
      A bit too precious (narrator's voice) for my taste given the subject matter (9/11).
    • 4/5
      Oskar Schell was seven years old when his father Thomas was killed in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Two years later, Oskar is still struggling with that loss as well as some secrets he has kept buried deeply inside himself. He is also an extremely bright boy—overly precocious, really—but suffers from a variety of social maladies, including the inability to fit in well with his colleagues at school. When he discovers a strange key marked only with the name ‘Black’ that his father had hidden in his closet before he died, Oskar embarks on a months-long journey across the five boroughs of New York City to solve the mystery and bring closure to the grief that he, his widowed mother, and paternal grandparents are feeling at their collective tragedy. That quest and what he finds at the end provide the emotional impact of the story.Published in 2005, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close stands as one of the first literary attempts to reconcile and explain the consequences of the events that took place during that horrific time in our history. In that effort, the novel succeeds remarkably well. The author made the wise choice of focusing the story not on the fateful day itself, but on the aftermath that the surviving loved ones of those killed had to live through. The emotions generated by Oskar and his relatives were raw, real, and deeply affecting. On the other hand, the book is less successful in relating the specifics of the Schell family’s story, which is told in terms that are too sentimental (if that is actually possible, given the topic). Further, Oskar often comes across as unbelievably glib and contrived, while his grandmother’s entire backstory is convoluted and largely unnecessary to the novel’s main goal. On balance, then, I found this to be a book with an important message to convey but one in which the storytelling was unfortunately flawed.
    • 3/5
      Started well, continued not so well and finished unevenly. There was a sentimentality, particularly with the grandparent voices that alienated me in the end.
    • 5/5
      Beautiful and weird in a very good way.

      She lived for nothing more than living, with nothing to get inspired by, to care for, to call her own.
      Thinking would keep me alive. But now I am alive, and thinking is killing me. I think and think and think.
      No, Oskar, that's her museum. Mine's in the other room.
    • 1/5
      Considering how much I loved Everything is Illuminated, I was really, really disappointed with this one. It's incredibly pretentious. Not a lot really happens. The characters didn't feel like characters, but like plot devices. I found the main character, nine-year-old Oskar Schell, kind of cringeworthy. I thought that the subplot about his grandparents' story was much better, but it was similar to the backstory in Everything is Illuminated which was much, much better. I just think having a character who refuses to speak and writes everything everywhere is really gimmicky. One of my grandmothers died when I was seven, and because she had motor neuron disease, I can't remember her saying a word – she, too, wrote everything in notebooks. But those notebooks never overflowed in the house. I'm not sure where I'm going with this tangent, except that this grandfather character seemed like an insult to my intelligence.

      I didn't hate the book, but I thought it was very mediocre. Mostly, it thought it was way deeper and more insightful than it really was. I don't even know what it was trying to say – "when people die, you need to move on," I guess. But considering that's all it's trying to say, the dozens and dozens of pages devoted to Oskar searching for the lock that can be opened by this key he found is really annoying.

      Hmm, I was going to rate this two stars, but typing this up has made me reconsider. I didn't hate it, but I certainly did not like it, and apparently "one star" encompasses that! So yeah. My advice – read Everything is Illuminated for sure. But skip this. The other book will just get your hopes up, when this is a big let-down.

      PS: the exception to the above is Oskar's letter to his French teacher, pretending to be his mother and cancelling his lessons. That cracked me up. His mother apparently never even cares that she's paying for French lessons he doesn't go to though, which is kind of indicative of this book in general.
    • 1/5
      Took me over 2 months to read and retread 80 pages. Could not get into it. Passed it on to a friend...hope she has better luck!
    • 5/5
      I've falling in love with a boy that has the biggest ideas ever! Oskar jumped off the pages and into my life faster than I could say, "whoa".
      I don't own this book, but I now have to purchase it so I can keep it close.

      As I have been reading, I have realized that I feel as Oskar does, I have "heavy boots".

      I didn't want the book to end. This book has had me scribbling in my writing journal, my gratitude journal and in a letter I wrote to my friend who past away. Its myriad of emotions had me in tears when Oskar found his father's penmanship at the art shop. Laughing when he read his grandma's memories of meeting his grandfather and more tears when I realized that his mother and he didn't have the same relationship that he and his father did and now he only had her to talk to.

      “…sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all of the lives I’m not living.” Thomas Schell sr. This quote really touched my heart. How many lives am I not living?

      "Heavy Boots" indeed.
    • 1/5
      My book club selected this book for September because of its connection with 9/11 so I thought it would be interested. However, the writing was so choppy and disjointed that I was unable to finish reading it. The characters, IMO, were too strange it seemed as if the author was trying to make this book and its characters unlikable.I abandoned it halfway through because I really didn't like the writing style, someone else might.
    • 4/5
      Written somewhere close to stream of consciousness, the book is about grief and the near impossibility of dealing with loss. While it manages to create humorous scenes, every person involved in the story is dealing with loss.
    • 4/5
      The book was strange, but I like that. I'm not sure that taking place after 9/11 was key to the story. I think it's what the reader brings to the book. My impression is that Oskar, the nine year old that tells the story, has Asperger's Syndrome. He doesn't know how to handle his father's death, so he tries to make order out of something that can't ever make sense. The interactions with his neighbors, mom, grandma, and grandpa are what make the book extraordinary. I loved it. I found myself laughing with him, feeling hopeless, anxious, scared - I understood this character. I wanted to hug him. Typically, I don't get emotional over a story, but this one tugged at my heart. I don't think it's a book everyone would love, but if you like complex and challenging story lines, it may be for you, too.