Rating: ****
Tags: Literary, Bildungsromans, September 11 Terrorist Attacks; 2001, Father and Son, New York (N.Y.), Fathers and sons, 21st Century, General, United States, Fiction, History, Lang:en
Summary
Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original
writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel,
Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor,
tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent
history.
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret
mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New
York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious
key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade
Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly
impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of
all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and
ultimately healing journey. In this excellent recording of Foer's second novel, Woodman
artfully captures the voice of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, the
precocious amateur physicist who is trying to uncover clues
about his father's death on September 11. Oskar—a
self-proclaimed pacifist, tambourine player and Steven Hawking
fanatic—is the perfect blend of smart-aleck maturity and
youthful innocence. Articulating the large words slowly and
carefully with only a hint of childishness, Woodman endearingly
conveys the voice of a young child who is trying desperately to
sound like an adult. The parallel story lines, beautifully
narrated by Ferrone and Caruso, add variety to the imaginative
and captivating plot, but they do not translate quite as
seamlessly into audio format. Ferrone's wistful growl is
perfect for the voice of a man who can no longer speak, but
since the listener actually gets to hear the words that the
character can only convey by writing on a notepad, his
frustrating silence is not as profound. Caruso's brilliant
performance as an adoring grandmother is also noteworthy, but
the meandering stream-of-consciousness style of her and
Ferrone's sections are sometimes hard to follow on audio.
Although it is Oskar's poignant, laugh-out-loud narration that
make this audio production indispensable.
Adult/High School-Oskar Schell is not your average
nine-year-old. A budding inventor, he spends his time imagining
wonderful creations. He also collects random photographs for
his scrapbook and sends letters to scientists. When his father
dies in the World Trade Center collapse, Oskar shifts his
boundless energy to a quest for answers. He finds a key hidden
in his father's things that doesn't fit any lock in their New
York City apartment; its container is labeled "Black." Using
flawless kid logic, Oskar sets out to speak to everyone in New
York City with the last name of Black. A retired journalist who
keeps a card catalog with entries for everyone he's ever met is
just one of the colorful characters the boy meets. As in
Everything Is Illuminated (Houghton, 2002), Foer takes
a dark subject and works in offbeat humor with puns and
wordplay. But
Extremely Loud pushes further with the inclusion of
photographs, illustrations, and mild experiments in typography
reminiscent of Kurt Vonnegut's
Breakfast of Champions (Dell, 1973). The humor works
as a deceptive, glitzy cover for a fairly serious tale about
loss and recovery. For balance, Foer includes the subplot of
Oskar's grandfather, who survived the World War II bombing of
Dresden. Although this story is not quite as evocative as
Oskar's, it does carry forward and connect firmly to the rest
of the novel. The two stories finally intersect in a powerful
conclusion that will make even the most jaded hearts fall.
-Matthew L. Moffett, Northern Virginia Community College,
Annandale
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.From School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed
Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.