Thursday, February 2, 2012

Book Review: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

By Jonathan Safran Foer



Not to seem all hipstery, but this book has been on my to read list for years. A combination of factors prevented me from reading it until now.


The book was a bit hard for me to get into. Main character Oskar Schell was a difficult character to like. My feelings were so conflicted with him. He started out very annoying but morphed from difficult to lovable and back throughout the book. The following conversation with a complete stranger did endear him to me:


"I'm sure people tell you this constantly, but if you looked up 'incredibly beautiful' in the dictionary, there would be a picture of you." She cracked up a bit and said, "People never tell that." "I bet they do." She cracked up a bit more. "They don't." "Then you hang out with the wrong people." --Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (page 91)
The story was both unusual and unexpected. I really enjoyed it even when I was having a hard time liking Oskar.

I would highly recommend this book. The story was engaging, creative and beautifully written, and the characters were interesting (if not 100% likeable).

What did you think?

P.S. I probably won't watch the movie until it's released on DVD.

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