Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey.
My Review:
I first heard of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close because a friend saw the preview for the movie version and he said that the title reminded him of my dog (Daphne likes to get her face as close as humanly possible to yours and can be quite vocal). That was back in February or whenever the movie was first hitting theatres. I downloaded the book to my Kobo a couple months ago after I got a % off coupon and it was one of the more interesting titles available with the discount.
To be honest, I had a hard time getting into this book and by the time I thought it started to get interesting, it ended! I found the switches between characters a bit hard to follow, especially Oskar’s grandparents’ sections, although Oskar’s chapters were interesting and intriguing to read. If the book were strictly about him and not so much his grandparents, I would’ve enjoyed it more. In fact, I think if you were to take out the grandparents entirely, I think you’d still be able to understand the book.
I did enjoy Oskar’s maturity and his little quirks and sayings, and his interactions with some of the people he comes across during his quest are amusing.
I don’t know if I’ll watch the movie or not. I like Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, so maybe if I see it for free somewhere I’ll watch it, but I didn’t enjoy the book enough to cough out the dough to pay to watch it On Demand.
Overall, I give Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 3 Stars out of Five.
Have you read this novel? What did you think?
