Book Review 2012 #3: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This is a long overdue review—I finished the book January 31—and I was planning on skipping it but that defeats the purpose of wanting to blog more often, right?

I started off this book in its ebook format, but I don’t think that that gives it justice, so I even went to Fullybooked Bonifacio High Street to get a copy. I got the last copy (woohoo, but the back cover is a bit damaged, but who the hell cares), and I bought it along with Erin Morgensten’s Night Circus (I started this one, but realized my mood doesn’t fit the book so I shelved it first).

SYNOPSIS (from Goodreads): 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.

Anyway, I’d give the rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars—yes, I did add some points for the fact it made me cry more than once.

THE GOOD

• The grandfather and the grandmother’s story. That one seriously broke my heart.
• The voices that told the story—the child, the grandmother, the grandfather. I got to say though—I liked it least when the kid was telling the story, and I liked it better when it was the grandmother.

THE BAD

• I wasn’t sure if it was just me, but I felt that the book was too long. Or that it may have required more concentration when you read it? There were moments when I go… okay, who was this again?

FAVORITES

• She wants to know if I love her, that’s all anyone wants from anyone else, not love itself but the knowledge that love is there. (p. 130)
• I’m sorry for my inability to let the unimportant things go, for my inability to hold on to the important things. (p. 132)
• I wondered, for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live. What exactly made it worth it? What’s so horrible about being dead forever, and not feeling anything, and not even dreaming? What’s so great about feeling and dreaming? (p. 145)
• So many people enter and leave your life! Hundreds of thousands of people! You have to keep the door open so they can come in! But it also means you have to let them go! (p. 153)
• I missed you even when I was with you. That’s been my problem. I miss what I already have, and I surround myself with the things that are missing. (p. 174)
• Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want. (p. 179)
• You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness. (p. 180)
• Sometimes one simply wants to disappear. (p. 184)
• It’s the tragedy of loving, you can’t love anything more than something you miss. (p. 208)
• Generally any part of the book that had Mr. Black in it. :)

Despite the early (bad) reviews of the movie adaptation, I am very much looking forward to watching the movie next week.