Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Un meraviglioso pugno nello stomaco. E’ così che ho pensato di definire questo bellissimo libro. L’avevo comprato anni fa ma prendeva polvere nella libreria e grazie ai consigli di lettura ho potuto finalmente leggerlo.
L’ho amato davvero e mi è spiaciuto finirlo, avrei voluto rimanere nella New York di Oskar ancora un po.
La storia, di per sé, è già struggente: un bambino, Oskar, ha perso il suo papà nell’attacco delle torri gemelle e cerca di superare la tristezza con degli espedienti che lo rendono un po’ strano agli occhi degli altri. La sua mente lavora molto e lui ha un sacco di idee e sa tantissime cose perché è sempre stato abituato dal suo papà a ragionare e a conoscere. Un giorno Oskar, per caso, trova show more nell’armadio del padre una chiave con scritto “black” e decide di scoprire cosa apre quella chiave pensando sia un messaggio lasciatogli in eredità. Intorno a lui diversi personaggi si inseriscono nei capitoli raccontandoci la loro vita e il loro punto di vista, rendendo tutto più complesso e malinconico.
Questo è un libro che non può non lasciare qualcosa, è un libro che può far male perché parla di perdite, di assenze, di cose non dette, di dolore, ma può far bene perché parla anche di amore, di speranze, di ricordi…
Ho pianto mentre lo leggevo, ho pensato tanto, ho anche riso perché in alcuni passaggi Oskar è divertente! Lo rileggerò perché ci sono dei passaggi bellissimi come questo:
“C'erano cose che volevo dirgli. Ma sapevo che gli avrebbero fatto male. Così le seppellii e lasciai che facessero male a me.” show less

When the twin towers fell, a father struggled to leave some kind of message for his family. His young son Oskar didn’t pick up, and so begins a story of hidden memories, lost details, mysterious strangers, and tragedy’s wounds.

Other tragedies wounded the world long before 9/11 of course. And other wounded characters wander through this novel, each telling their broken tales, in unsent letters, unread words, unheard tapes and undelivered—even unspoken—love. Coincidences aren’t the only links between these characters, and the story moves forward, driven by a small, intelligent and inventive boy’s desire to discover the truth (and so stop imagining). Meanwhile other truths play out behind him, gradually drawing the threads of a show more silent man, an unseeing woman, Dresden’s fire and New York’s horror all together. Each character becomes real, despite their difference from the norm. Each voice (even the silent) is perfectly rendered. And the story reads like a voyage of discovery, perfectly timed for the reader to follow along.

Told with humor, pathos, angst and delight, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a cleverly constructed novel of our times, with protagonists who cross city and continents, get stuck in airports, dread tall buildings, know horror and find something approximating love.

Disclosure: I borrowed an ecopy. Now I want a real one! show less

Man, did this book make me wear heavy boots. I'm probably going to be wearing them for a few days after finishing this.

Oskar lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. Much like [b:The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|1618|The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time|Mark Haddon|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327882682s/1618.jpg|4259809], he is a young boy trying to solve a mystery that really holds deeper meaning to understanding his entire life. But, this isn’t just Oskar’s journey through grief; this is also about Oskar’s grandmother, grandfather, and his mother, too.

Is it uniquely written and a little gimmicky? Yes, but it worked for the narrative. Unique like Oskar, like his grandfather, like his grandmother, the show more different parts of the book fit together to tell the story of a family who have experienced and endured grief, joy, and all of the other parts of life that make it special.

I hesitate to say more, and urge you to experience this story for yourself. show less

wow this book. i mean wow. i don't know how to articulate how good this book is because i feel like i was just totally flattened by reading it and i'm not sure how to pick myself up and put words together.

this is astonishing. the story, the characters, the unique inclusion of photographs. it is wrenching and full of love and beauty and sadness and grief. it is absolutely incredible. what a feat to write this just a few years after 9/11 and infuse it with so much beauty and pain and understanding. the loss and the relationships and connections and the ways we meet and help each other, fail each other, seek each other, need each other.

i am blown away.

"You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness."

To all those who say this wasn’t any good, I say Bah, and You Don’t Know What You’re Talking About. It’s a 9/11 story, in a way—-a 9-year-old boy (Oskar) on a quest for answers after his father dies in the World Trade Center. After finding a key labeled “Black” in his father’s belongings, Oskar tries to track down the owner (by visiting every person named Black in the New York City phone directory), in the hopes of understanding something more about his father. There’s a second story being told, about an old man who can’t speak, and the life he’s had since leaving Dresden after the World War II bombings. The stories come together beautifully, I have no idea why people are saying that this book just isn’t good. show more It’s sad, it’s touching, it’s intriguing, it’s funny. show less

This an extremely inventive and incredibly clever book but I also felt very uncomfortable reading it. Young Oskar lost his father in the Twin Towers and a while later finds a strange key amongst his father's possessions. This leads him on a search through New York to find the lock that the key fits. Woven with this story is the tale of Oskar's grandparents.

There is a very clever use of images but I must say that one that is used is one that I find extremely distressing and I don't even know anybody involved with the horror of that day. I can understand Oskar's motivations and thoughts but find the way his mother and grandmother leave him so much freedom to wander around a city on his own inexplicable. But this is a novel and I can show more understand Foer's need to use his characters in a way that makes the story move.

Overall I found this moving, distressing and clever but, for me, there is too much that leaves me uncomfortable to recommend it. Even so I am pleased to have read it and would read more from this author. show less

I enjoyed Safran Foer's first book, and when I heard him read from this one, I wasn't sure I would like it. It may also be a result of an interview with him published in the New York Times magazine that portrayed him as pretentious, pompous, and relatively unfeeling. Yet once I got inside this charming, heartfelt, sorrowful book, and inside this little boy's head, I had to rethink my judgment. Loss as experienced by a child is innocent and raw, even as we realize that what children internalize and believe can be so complex as to bely their seeming naivete. Oscar won me over heart and soul, and not just because this novel is about 9/11. But because he makes us think about what it means to be safe, protected, and loved. And he does that show more without shmaltz and certainly without pretention. show less