Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the second novel, written by Jonathan Safron Foer is as unconventional as his first novel.  

Written in multiple voices, this novel examines love, loss and how to process these emotions. In alternating chapters we read the story of nine year old Oskar, who has lost his father in the World Trade Tours on 9/11.  As he tries to come to grips with the loss and the emotions he is feeling, he sets off on a journey.  He finds a key in a vase in his father's closet.  The envelope has the word Black written on it. He uses this small clue to find a person named Black who would have met his father. 

He goes through the New York phone book and lists all the people there under the name Black.  He travels around the five boroughs ringing doorbells and asking about the key and his father.  Along the way he makes friends and learns life lessons. In alternating chapters there are stories of other people who have suffered loss in other major tragedies.  Oskar's Grandmother, who writes about her husband, Oskar's Grandfather who looses his first family in Dresden, Germany.

Oskar has Asperger's syndrome and finds comfort in truth.  He is looking to keep his father close even in death.  He would say he is not emotional but he is  trying to keep a connection to his father.  He is also rational and scientific.