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)

worth reading

Wonderful story and well-written. I am glad I didn't read it sooner, because the sadness would've been too much.

Interesting

This book was slow starting but once the characters are clear the levels of mental illness are strongly defined. A clear example of post traumatic stress disorder in not only the main character but many of the other characters as well. This book gives a better understanding of how mental illness affects everyone who is in contact with the disease. A very interesting read that leaves the reader thinking long after te book is done. The narrator gave personality and depth to the characters and it was easy to listen to his voice the storyline was a bit slow but thought provoking.

Rants and Raves

I can understand why this book ended up on Audible's list of "rants and raves." There are parts of the narrative and some of the characters that are truly enchanting. At other times, I truly wondered why the author was off on a particular tangent as some of the detractors in reviews had described.

Still, the book is worth the credit and the balance comes down on the rave side. The boy is too delightful to pass up just because grandma and grandpa are sometimes tedious.

Beautiful

I'm not sure how to describe this book. It was strange and yet hauntingly beautiful. My heart ached for each of the characters at times. And the performance was amazing. The perfect amount of emotion for each scene, especially the woman that voiced the grandmother. She was incredible. I'm glad I finally listened to this after being in my wish list for quite some time.

Amazing

To anyone who is struggling with loss, I highly recommend this story. Beautiful writing, beautiful performances.

Wonderful book!

I read this book ten years ago and loved it. I wanted to revisit it on Audible during Covid because I remembered how sweet, innocent, and vulnerable it was. It was lovely entering into Oscar’s world. The performance by the speakers was a delight. The book is just as wonderful as I remembered. I’d absolutely recommend this book.

A good story

I thought that this was a really good story and I really enjoyed the performances of all of the readers. I really loved the boy and thought he was a great character. I didn't really like the extra, side stories about the grandparents' lives before he was born, I didn't really see what that contributed to the rest of the book. I heard an interview with the author on NPR that I really enjoyed and in the interview they said that the book has all kinds of pictures and stuff so maybe reading it would be a more rewarding experience, I don't know.

A few slow moments early on

But it quickly picked up momentum until I couldn’t stop listening until I finished it.

An interesting listen…

There’s some good things about this story. I like the narrators. They really bring this story to life. The kids character is interesting. He thinks differently. (Don’t like how crass and sexual he speaks, personally.)

The bad: not sure what’s up with the sex details between the grandparents. That gets a little weird after a while. This book falls flat emotionally. Most of what could make this more engaging is replaced with stream of consciousness-like prose. Gets old after a few hours. Also some of the dialogue is drawn out too much.

Far, far better than the print version

The people at the post office, grocery store, and library probably think I'm crazy because as I approached the last hour of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I simply couldn't stop listening, but I also couldn't stop crying. Not sobbing hysterically, just tears running down my face continually because of the bare truths made evident in this novel:
~Love
~Truth
~It's always necessary.

Oskar Schell is a nine-year old whose father has been lost in the World Trade Center on 9/11. Oskar is curious, inquisitive, and truthful, characteristics which make his life interesting, difficult, humorous, and painful. ELIC is the story of Oskar's quest to find the lock to match the key he believes his father has left for him. Both his grandfather and grandmother tell their stories in chapters entitled "Why I'm Not Where You Are" and "My Feelings" respectively. As soon as Oskar asked, "Why didn’t he say goodbye?" and "Why didn’t he say I love you?" I knew I had to finish the book. I have had those same questions, and felt like a nine-year old when trying to answer them. I don't know if answers are forthcoming, but the search for answers is worthwhile and necessary.

I approached this book with a bit of trepidation because I tried to read the print version several years ago and couldn't get past the formatting. This time I listened to it; I don't think I lost anything by not having access to the blank pages, pictures, and words on top of each other in the print version, and gained quite a bit of understanding by simply hearing the book read. This is not a book that I thought would translate well to audio, but for me it was a huge improvement.