2008 Woodie Awards
The Synesthesiac
Ashley Gamell and Maddie Oatman
Issue date: 5/8/08 Section: Arts
"Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Review by Maddie Oatman
In "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," Jonathan Safran Foer creates a remarkably convincing portrayal of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, a slightly annoying, lovable and insatiably curious boy dealing with life after losing his father to the collapse of the Twin Towers on Sep. 11, 2001. Treading the line between the tender and the bizarre, Foer's novel captures a wide range of characters with indelible precision and compassion. His novel contemplates grief while never being overly morose, and is told through the eyes of a child dealing with adult matters. By incorporating photographs and manipulating conventional textual aesthetics, Foer also reinvents the form of his novel, so our understanding is based not only on his persuasive renderings of people but on the dynamic and unusual style with which he portrays their thoughts and experiences.
Oskar spends his days dreaming up peculiar yet practical inventions, memorizing encyclopedic factoids wearing only white, and exhausting the adults in his life with a perpetual barrage of questions regarding the hows and whys of his Manhattanite existence. Oskar's breathless narrative voice realistically depicts the meandering mind of a hyper nine-year-old - "I could invent a teakettle that reads in Dad's voice, so I could fall asleep," Oskar excitedly thinks, "or maybe a set of kettles that sings the chorus of 'Yellow Submarine,' which is a song by the Beatles, who I love, because entomology is one of my raisons d'être, which is a French expression that I know."
After finding a set of clues he thinks may lead him to more information about his father, Oskar embarks on a journey through New York City, meeting a host of eccentric individuals along the way. Foer intersperses this journey with letters and flashbacks from Oskar's grandparents who, after fleeing Europe, are dealing with their own grief and renewal. The text may seem choppy and fragmentary to the less adventurous reader, but it is all part of Foer's postmodernist strategy of incorporating multimedia in an imaginative and very contemporary story. Written in 2005, it was also one of the first novels to deal directly with 9/11. Foer does not shy away from the emotional intensity of the subject, and yet his multi-dimensional novel is not overly sentimental, but provides a refreshing and rewarding read
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Review by Maddie Oatman
In "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," Jonathan Safran Foer creates a remarkably convincing portrayal of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, a slightly annoying, lovable and insatiably curious boy dealing with life after losing his father to the collapse of the Twin Towers on Sep. 11, 2001. Treading the line between the tender and the bizarre, Foer's novel captures a wide range of characters with indelible precision and compassion. His novel contemplates grief while never being overly morose, and is told through the eyes of a child dealing with adult matters. By incorporating photographs and manipulating conventional textual aesthetics, Foer also reinvents the form of his novel, so our understanding is based not only on his persuasive renderings of people but on the dynamic and unusual style with which he portrays their thoughts and experiences.
Oskar spends his days dreaming up peculiar yet practical inventions, memorizing encyclopedic factoids wearing only white, and exhausting the adults in his life with a perpetual barrage of questions regarding the hows and whys of his Manhattanite existence. Oskar's breathless narrative voice realistically depicts the meandering mind of a hyper nine-year-old - "I could invent a teakettle that reads in Dad's voice, so I could fall asleep," Oskar excitedly thinks, "or maybe a set of kettles that sings the chorus of 'Yellow Submarine,' which is a song by the Beatles, who I love, because entomology is one of my raisons d'être, which is a French expression that I know."
After finding a set of clues he thinks may lead him to more information about his father, Oskar embarks on a journey through New York City, meeting a host of eccentric individuals along the way. Foer intersperses this journey with letters and flashbacks from Oskar's grandparents who, after fleeing Europe, are dealing with their own grief and renewal. The text may seem choppy and fragmentary to the less adventurous reader, but it is all part of Foer's postmodernist strategy of incorporating multimedia in an imaginative and very contemporary story. Written in 2005, it was also one of the first novels to deal directly with 9/11. Foer does not shy away from the emotional intensity of the subject, and yet his multi-dimensional novel is not overly sentimental, but provides a refreshing and rewarding read
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