8/4/14 - Book review of Extremely loud and Incredibly close by Jonathan Safran Foer

I think after reading this book I’ll stick to non-fiction.  I have heavy boots.  There were times I couldn’t figure out who was writing to whom as there are a lot of letters in this.  I’m not sure after finishing this book I’ll read any more of Foer’s works.

I wanted to finish the book as it was between other books I wanted to either start or finish.  I feel guilty for starting a book and not completing it.  The young lad in the book lost his father in the 9/11 tragedy.  The kid is a genius and even Stephen Hawking agrees.  At nine years old I could hardly finish good sentences let alone invent the things, in his mind, that this guy does.  I’ll give Foer that; he does have a good imagination.  Oskar, the young boy in the story goes on a journey throughout NYC to find all the “Black’s” that could help him with the last link of his father’s existence.  I found that the story was more in depth about his grandparents than his father.  We hardly know this father that was killed except that he read to Oskar and let him join him in the quest to find all the imperfections of the New York Times.  There are a lot of photos in the book…doorknobs, really?  I did finish the book even though the “birdseed shirt” was never really explained; maybe that was the cliffhanger.

I’m sure other more artsy, fartsy critics will have enjoyed the book.  Read all the reviews before buying.  This one is a dud for me.

Reviews:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1015092666
http://www.shelfari.com/books/48169/Extremely-Loud-and-Incredibly-Close/reviews/4572144
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3040HPKOWPDAX/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm