Book Review: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Title: Extremely Loud and Incredible Close
Author: Jonathan Safer Foer
Pages: 326
Release Date: January 1, 2005
Source: School Library
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Summary: Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is an inventor, amateur entomologist, Francophile, letter writer, pacifist, natural historian, percussionist, romantic, Great Explorer, jeweller, detective, vegan, and collector of butterflies. When his father is killed in the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Centre, 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.

Rating: 5

Review: All I can say abut this book is good things but the issue is trying to put a book this incredible into words is hard.

This book follows the story of Oskar after his father died on September 11th. He finds a key in a vase in his father's closest. Oskar hopes this means something so that he can have a way to connect with and be close to his father again after his death. He spends months going around the city trying to find who the key belongs to.

This was a very special read for me and it holes such a special place in my heart. How do I describe this book? I loved this book immensely and I can relate to Oskar in weird ways but there are many people that would not appreciate it. Two of my best friends like to read some but I would never recommend this to them. I know they would say it is boring and slow. You have to take time to read each word so that you can cherish all that this book says.

In The Fault in Our Stars by John Green there is a quote that says "Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book. And then there are books like An Imperial Affliction, which you can't tell people about, books so special and rare and yours that advertising your affection feels like betrayal." Hazel say this book about her favorite quote An Imperial Affliction. Often I have books that I want to share with people so i can put the shattered world back together, but never before have I truly understood what Hazel meant about a book so special that you what to keep it to yourself. I feel as if this is the book I need to keep to myself because I do not want to betray the story. I can't stand the thought of recommending this book to most people, only a handful of people would appreciate it the way it should be appreciated. This book truly is my An Imperial Affliction.

I loved Oskar he's emotions were so real, life is complicated and confusing. Oskar just wanted to figure life out and find a way to be close to his father even after he was gone. Emotions are complicated and it's hard to being happy when living life. Throughout the book it says 'living is harder than dying' I think it's so true, it is so easy to just give up and die. You have to work to live and you have to keep trying even when everything bad has happened to you.

This book is beautiful and tragic and wonderful. I cannot say whether I recommend it to you because you need to choose if you want to read it. I only recommend it to someone who will love it for everything that it is.

Favorite Quotes:

“Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living.”

“Why didn't I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I believed in the future.”

“I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live.”

“I like to see people reunited, I like to see people run to each other, I like the kissing and the crying, I like the impatience, the stories that the mouth can't tell fast enough, the ears that aren't big enough, the eyes that can't take in all of the change, I like the hugging, the bringing together, the end of missing someone.”

“I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love.”

“Why do beautiful songs make you sad?' 'Because they aren't true.' 'Never?' 'Nothing is beautiful and true.”

“Songs are as sad as the listener.”

“Humans are the only animal that blushes, laughs, has religion, wages war, and kisses with lips. So in a way, the more you kiss with lips, the more human you are. And the more you wage war.”

I am super busy right now with school and I barely even have time to read on weekends. Spring break is in a week and a half so I hope to get lots of good reading and reviews in, in lieu of posting book reviews I will probably start posting random thought posts again :)
DFTBA
-Janussa