Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

By: Jonathan Safran Foer

Narrated by: Jeff Woodman, Barbara Caruso, Richard Ferrone

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Jonathan Safran Foer's best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated, wowed critics on its way to winning several literary prizes, including Book of the Year honors from the Los Angeles Times. It has been published in 24 countries and will soon be a major motion picture. Foer's talent continues to shine in this sometimes hilarious and always heartfelt follow-up.

Nine-year-old Oskar Schell is a precocious Francophile who idolizes Stephen Hawking and plays the tambourine extremely well. He's also a boy struggling to come to terms with his father's death in the World Trade Center attacks. As he searches New York City for the lock that fits a mysterious key his father left behind, Oskar discovers much more than he could have imagined.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a masterfully imagined novel from an author Time hails as "a certified wunderkind".

©2005 Jonathan Safran Foer (P)2005 Recorded Books, LLC

Critic reviews

• 2005 Audie Award Nominee, Multi-Voiced Performance

"Piercing and so funny." (The Bookseller)
"[Oskar's] first-person narration of his journey is arrestingly beautiful, and readers won't soon forget him." (Booklist)
"Jonathan Safran Foer's second novel is everything one hoped it would be: ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling, and above all...extremely moving. An exceptional achievement." (Salman Rushdie)
"Brilliant....Unafraid to show his traumatized characters' constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love, and beauty." (Publishers Weekly)

One of the best I've listened to in a long time

What did you like best about this story?

The simple premise was well executed with interesting perspectives from different and complex characters.

Any additional comments?

Brought back memories of 911.

One of my favorite listens!

I laughed. I cried- a lot. Great narrators. Amazing story. I wanted to listen to it before I saw the movie- which I still haven't seen. I love the relationship between the grandparents. This is a must listen for anyone who likes emotional stories.

Maintains Interest

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I rent audio books to break up my long commute. This book was entertaining and captured my interest from beginning to end. An inappropriate child and odd family dynamic keep you wanting to know what happens next. The unfiltered thoughts of an unemotional, intellegent child give a dark but true view of the world.

Short listed: FAVORITES

Endearing. Heartbreaking. Hopeful. Beautiful story. Wonderfully narrated. It’s a favorite - from about the 4th chapter in I knew it would be.

Not quite what I thought

not what I expected in this story. a little too heavy on the sexual talk and heavy language from a kid.

this 11 yr old boy is trying to cope with losing his Dad and I see that throughout this story, but I'm not sure if read it again.

Life from the eyes of a child

Jonathan Safron Foer excels at the audiobook format. The way he writes is meant to be interpreted by a reader like a dramatic script since very often he plays with how the words appear on the page-- repetition, quotations, lists, and more actually work better in the audible format.

Here is a story of a precocious young boy travelling who is on a quest to find the owner of a key he found in his deceased father's closet. His only clue is the word "Black", so he sets out to ask every person surnamed Black in NYC if they know anything about the key. Don't be fooled by the lighthearted plot-- this story is heartwrenching, and it deals with wounds that may not have healed since it is in the aftermath of 9/11. As usual, Foer creates numerous side characters that are as unique as they are loveable, and this alone makes the book worth it.

Nevertheless, I would recommend starting with Foer's other book, Everything is Illuminated, first. This one deals with another heavy subject-- Nazi terror-- but is more hopeful, sweeping, and moving overall.

Franz Kafka, Neil Gaiman, Isaac Bashevis Singer

Half an hour into the book I thought I was in for a tedious slog. Oskar, the more than precocious little boy who is the main character, wore me out fairly quickly with his wide-eyed naivete and remarkable imagination. This seemed like a writer who was trying way too hard. Gradually it became clear that it was Oskar who was trying way too hard, and the pain and confusion which were driving him were brought artfully into focus by some really brilliant writing. Still, Oskar's story by itself would not have sustained the book and, for me, the growing beauty of the narrative began to blossom with the entrance of his grandfather and grandmother, each relating his/her own journey in a continuous, Rashomon-like shift of perspectives. As things progress, these three points of view begin to construct a kind of hall of mirrors which finally can only be resolved by accepting all of them as true.

For me the book finally became poetry, not of word, though the use of language is often exquisite, but of narrative detail. Some readers have had problems with the far fetched elements of the story--a man who loses spoken language one word at a time until the only word he has left is "I" and then loses that as well. A man who, each day after the death of his wife, drives a new nail into the bed he built for her and shared with her, until the thing weighs so much that he must construct a column to support the floor beneath it--and cannot say why he does it. These are brilliant and profound poetic images which accumulate through the course of the book and resist a one for one interpretation of "meaning." They mean what they do-to-you as you encounter them and let them under your skin. They are improbable and entirely true.

Most reviewers seem most taken by Oskar but, perhaps because I am older than the average, I was most deeply affected by the grandmother and grandfather. I found their narratives deeply moving and evocative of the struggle we so often have with intimacy and being known by those closest to us. I recommend the book most enthusiastically to those who have loved or almost loved for many years and are still struggling to get it right.

Incidentally, the book actually has very little to do with 9/11 but a great deal to do with loss, healing and our amazing capacity to rediscover things we think we have lost forever. It lifted my spirits and made my heart swell.

Amazing

I think that this is one of the best books I have ever read. This book and The Book Thief are amazing stories of love and loss and heartbreak and very important historical events seen through the eyes of children. I read this book first and now have listened to it. The only thing that is lost is that in the book you get to see pages from Oskar's journals "Stuff that Has Happened to Me" It is the story of a family set at the time of about a year after Septmber 11. Oskar is 9 and having a hard time dealing with the death of his father. His mother is having a hard time dealing with him and her own grief. This is also the story of his grandmother and grandfather. It is an excellent family drama and I loved it.

beautiful and thought provoking

An affective translation of an unusually produced book to audio. The pacing of the narrative voice brings as much meaning to the words spoken as the silences between them.

One can not help but have both viseral and emotional reactions to this most human of stories. I laughed out loud. Tears ran down my face. I thought deeply about my own losses and of the expectations I have of those most close to me.

A must read.

Would you consider the audio edition of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to be better than the print version?

I think in particular this book for many perhaps would be a better read in the printed version as there are aspects of the book that could not be in the audio version. However, I would hope for those people that prefer audio that would not stop them from listening to this book. It is to good a story to miss.

Who was your favorite character and why?

All characters are well developed. The story in its entirety is beyond the norm. This is simply one of the best books I have ever read.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

A plus, plus

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

This is a book that defies being able to listen to or read without without feeling strong emotion by any thoughtful reader.