The West of England School Reading Group's Review of

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

This is a beautifully descriptive book of contrasts with sadness/humour, love/war, lost/found and black/white weaving its way through the story. The theme of the book is about loss, grief, guilt, secrets and complex relationships between families. Intertwined are gems of humour, which make you smile or chuckle out loud.

The way of writing is intriguing and fascinating and the language beautifully descriptive, but at times it was slightly confusing as to who was narrating the story. The pages with one or two words or where the words ran into each other was a good device for showing various emotions.

Quite a difficult book to get into but worth persevering as once you become familiar with the unique style and visual clues, the layers peel away to explain some of the situations and it was hard to put down.

Nine-year-old Oskar is a sad child harbouring terrible feelings of guilt and loss after the tragic death of his father in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York. He feels lack of love and affection from his mother whereas unbeknown to him she is so obviously coping with her own grief. He is an endearing character for whom you have over-whelming sympathy at the end of the book.

The connection between Oskar and his grandmother is incredibly close and tender and totally believable. A very poignant part is where the grandmother is typing her life story but the typewriter ribbon has been removed years previously and the grandfather is pretending to read the blank pages.

The "day book" becomes a visual part of the story and the last letter from the grandfather to his son was especially moving.

When Jonathan Safran Foer lists the different professions of the people killed at the World Trade Centre, it is almost more devastating than listing their names.

The photographs of the man falling upwards were sad, yet full of hope and reflected Oskar's wish of turning back time.  This made you realise about how much we take people and times for granted and how we make assumptions about what somebody is thinking or how they are coping with something as big as bereavement.

The inclusion of the Dresden bombings and the bombing of Hiroshima was a reminder that disasters and tragedies happen all the time and the rippling effect they can have on individual lives.

A thoroughly enjoyable book, especially if you enjoyed "The curious incident of the dog in the night time".