Report: Jonathan Safran Foers Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Book Report/Review Example

Report: Jonathan Safran Foer’s “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is a novel written by Jonathan Safran Foer in 2005. The narration of the story is by boy named Oskar Schell who is 9 years old. The story revolves around Oskar’s discovery of a key, which belonged to his father, who died on 9/11. As the story unfolds, Oskar’s character unfolds as a sensitive yet a curious and intelligent child who is also skilled in playing tambourine. Being a diligent boy, he travels in New York seeking for the information about the key.

Oskar lives with his mother and her new boyfriend in Manhattan. He is an innovator and a genius in inventing all sorts of things. He considers himself a scientist, an adventurer, peace lover and atheist all at once. He does not only play the tambourine remarkably well, but is also an expert in designing jewelry and speaks French with zeal and fervor. But ever since his father, Thomas Schell died in the attack at World Trade Centre in 2001, he seemed very sad. A year after this tragedy, Oskar discovers a key in an envelope with the word “Black” inscribed on it, in his father’s closet.

He considers this a clue to a riddle. Being a nine-year-old who had recently lost his father, it was an exciting adventure, especially because he used to play a game with his father on every Sunday called “Reconnaissance Expedition” in which his father gave him some tasks and clues to find a solution to it. But Oskar could not solve the last riddle because his father had died all of a sudden. For Oskar, finding the key was a mystery and he decided to reach out to all the “Blacks” who could tell him about the key or his father.

Initially he could not find anybody who could help him and this depressed him a lot. But just as he started losing hope, a woman called to tell him that her husband, William Black knows about the key but surprisingly nothing about his father. Black turns out to be the owner of the key. The discovery of this key unfolds a parallel story and the real plot begins from this point onwards. William Blacks father had left this key to his son in a blue vase which was later bought by Oskar’s father when William Black was selling off his father’s belongings.

But Black later discovered through a letter from his father that the key was meant to open a safe-deposit box at a particular bank. From here began William’s search for Mr. Schell. Foer’s parallel story telling technique does not end here. He also reveals the story of Oskar’s grandparents. In two chapters where the grandparents narrate their story, Oskar learns that they were survivors of the Second World War’s fire-bomb at Dresden. The story wonderfully encapsulates the emotions of various people in the plot who lost something or the other in their lifetime and how they learn to cope with it.

Foer can be given credit for arousing the right kind of sentiments in both his characters and the readers. Oskar’s passion to relive is also worth celebrating. Works Cited Foer, Jonathan S. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Boston, Mass: Mariner Books, 2005. Print