Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Friday Book Club...

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

I just finished this book. I was looking forward to reading it because the movie looked so good. I have to read any and all books before watching their movies. Books always tell a better story than the movie. Here is the summery taken from here. 

"Jonathan Safran Foer confronts the traumas of our recent history. What he discovers is solace in that most human quality, imagination." "Meet Oskar Schell, an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, and pacifist. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on 9/11." An inspired innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his search. Along the way he is always dreaming up inventions to keep those he loves safe from harm. What about a birdseed shirt to let you fly away? What if you could actually hear everyone's heartbeat? His goal is hopeful, but the past speaks a loud warning in stories of those who've lost loved ones before. As Oskar roams New York, he encounters a motley assortment of humanity who are all survivors in their own way. He befriends a 103-year-old war reporter, a tour guide who never leaves the Empire State Building, and lovers enraptured or scorned. Ultimately, Oskar ends his journey where it began, at his father's grave. But now he is accompanied by the silent stranger who has been renting the spare room of his grandmother's apartment. They are there to dig up his father's empty coffin.

So, this book was not at all what I expected. It was kind of hard to get in to and kind of hard to follow, but I am really glad I read it. It started to make more sense the further I read but I still have a lot of unanswered questions. I have not watched the movie yet so maybe that will help me make more sense of it. I do recommend the book, however it is not one of my top favorites. 

Check back next Friday as the Jodi Picoult book I am in the middle of reading is PHENOMENAL!