I found this book sitting on my to-read shelf on Goodreads a couple weeks ago. It had been sitting there for so long that I don't even remember why I initially wanted to read it, but I'm glad I did. In fact, I loved it so much I ended up buying myself a copy.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is basically about a 9-year-old boy who has to deal with the death of his father on 9/11. He's a very curious child who has a very active imagination—which can be a blessing and a curse. A blessing because his mind has no limits on where it could take him. He's an intelligent boy and quite well informed about the world around him. It could easily be seen with how he takes situations and people in for what it is and what they are—without judgement. Just mere observation.
However, it's also a curse because... his mind has no limits on where it could take him. And sometimes it takes him to very morbid places. Like what his father was doing during the last few minutes of his life. Did he jump to his death? Did he burn alive? Was he thinking about me? Did he need me? He's got a lot of thoughts and he's got a lot of feelings. Every time they become overwhelmingly unbearable, his mind finds ways to distract itself. One of which leads him to start fixating on a key that he found in a random vase in his dad's closet. He begins a search to find out where it's from and what it unlocks, and as we go along on his journey we learn some things that we never would have expected. And some things that remain unanswered.
It was an extremely moving experience reading this poetic book. If you need a bit more of an incentive to check out the book, here is a review that pretty much sums up all my feelings.
- IM
