I loved this book! If you can read it and not want to find the narrator, nine-year-old Oskar Schell, and give him a big hug you don't have a heart. His quirky personality makes this book unique. It is both heartbreaking and funny. The supporting cast of characters are nearly as intriguing as Oskar himself. It reminded me of What is the What with its endearing narrator. This is a character driven novel, a fast read, yet thought-provoking.
From Publisher's Weekly:
"Oskar Schell, hero of this brilliant follow-up to Foer's bestselling Everything Is Illuminated, is a nine-year-old amateur inventor, jewelry designer, astrophysicist, tambourine player and pacifist. Like the second-language narrator of Illuminated, Oskar turns his naïvely precocious vocabulary to the understanding of historical tragedy, as he searches New York for the lock that matches a mysterious key left by his father when he was killed in the September 11 attacks, a quest that intertwines with the story of his grandparents, whose lives were blighted by the firebombing of Dresden. Foer embellishes the narrative with evocative graphics, including photographs, colored highlights and passages of illegibly overwritten text, and takes his unique flair for the poetry of miscommunication to occasionally gimmicky lengths, like a two-page soliloquy written entirely in numerical code. Unafraid to show his traumatized characters' constant groping for emotional catharsis, Foer demonstrates once again that he is one of the few contemporary writers willing to risk sentimentalism in order to address great questions of truth, love and beauty. "
1 comment:
How can a book make you feel like a hundred dollars and give you heavy boots at the same time?
I also loved this book and would recommend it to people who like postmodern literature, or anyone who likes character driven books.
--Sarah
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