Extremely Odd and Incredibly Great

Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Without a doubt, this book is weird. The cover is almost like a suitcase; crammed inside are all sorts of items from each of the book's three narrators. Together, these items reveal a family whose fabric has been torn twice by tragic events--first the firebombing of Dresden and, much later, the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. In both cases, a character in the book experiences a loss that makes carrying on with a normal life impossible; in both cases, it is left to another character to suffer much of the fallout despite the fact that she, too, is pained by the original event.

In weaving a tale with such symmetry (not to mention emotional heft), Jonathan Safran Foer resorts to all manner of tactics, from pictures to blank pages to pages crammed with type. These, combined with the fact that the principal narrator is a precocious nine-year-old, have led some critics to call the novel a gimmick. They are hard-hearted folk, dear reader. This is a moving and redemptive novel and, while there will surely be numerous other novels that ponder the impact of 9/11, rest assured that none will approach it from quite this angle or with quite this impact. Read this, and then go back and read JSF's Everything is Illuminated as well. Both are excellent and highly recommended.