"Extrememly Loud & Incredibly Close" {by Jonathan Safran Foer} Book Club Ideas

SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB:

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

By: Jonathan Safran Foer

"I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live."

We chose to read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close in honor of 9/11 and it turned out to be an unforgettable evening.

We started out the discussion with each of us answering the question, "Where were you when 9/11 happened?"As each of us answered that question, we were transported back 11 years to a different time in each of our lives remembering with perfect reflection how we felt on that fateful day. It was a wonderful way to start off our discussion for this beautiful book.

If you haven't read this book for yourself yet, just look at some of the hidden gems within its pages.

"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" {by Jonathan Safran Foer} Book Review

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

by: Jonathan Safran Foer

Number of Pages: 368 pp

Genre: Fiction
First Published: 2005
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company

SUMMARY:

Nine year old, Oskar Schell is an inventor, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, and pacifist.  He is on an urgent, secret search.  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.  Grief-stricken, innocent, Oskar is alternately endearing, exasperating, and hilarious as he careens from Central Park to Coney Island to Harlem on his journey. 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 colorful assortment of characters 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.

OUR RATING: