Now there's a key where my wonderful mouth used to be...

Today, in order to make this blog a little bit more varied, I want to tell you about a book I read recently, "Extremely loud and incredibly close", by Jonathan Safran Foer.

I chose this book because it was lying on the table in the living room back home, and everybody had read it before me, and kept saying "ah, that's a good book", or "that was just great, have you read it?" so, I decided I would give it a try. (Although feather-brained Claire is usually more into Brontë and Austen, and does not care much for books with less than two wedding proposals...)

And I did right. I had never read somthing like that before, it is extremely interestingly written and unusual, both in the style and in the layout. Indeed, the author uses imaginary parts of many different things in order to make his story whole (a kid's diary, interview exerpts, letters, pictures, etc.)

The story is about a nine year old, whose father died during the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. His relationship to the said father was very important to him, and since he is a very clever kid, his father used to set up riddles for him to solve, very sophisticated ones. That's why after his father's death, when he finds a mysterious key in his father's dressing room, he is persuaded that it is the first clue to his father's very last riddle. And he sets out to discover which lock this key opens. And he is determined to find out, even if that implies trying it in each and every lock in New York City.

I don't usually like stories about children, because I usually find that the authors are making too much of an effort to make their characters sound like children. They then end up writing dialogues and describing scenes you can only imagine played by very bad actors. I really liked this kid's story though, maybe because he is cleverer than most adults, and has a way of thinking of his own. He's himself, he couldn't be just any kid in the world. As "regular" novel characters, he has a personality of his own, and he is not only defined by his age.

The characters that the boy meets during his "quest" are very interesting too, but I must admit that I was not quite as interested by the stories of the other members of his family, who, in my opinion, have a tendency to make simple things way too complicated, and thus make their own, as well as each other's lives, a real hell.

I must warn you that the book is extremely sad. I actually found it really awful. But it is very beautiful, and the character of Oscar, the little boy, is so deep and interesting that it's well worth a little depression... I also just found out that the author is actually only 28, and I find that very impressive really, because it is a very elaborate book, and the style is really original without being overly crazy and screaming "see?? I'm the next generation! I'm something brand new! You don't understand me because you're silly, but in five generations, when brains will have expanded enough to match mine, I'll become real popular".

So, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" is the name of the book, and it's really worth your time! (I'd recommend it to those of you who have read and liked "The Strange Incident of the Dog in the Night Time". I personally did not like this one, but it has got a similar construction)

I think I'll leave it at that for tonight, reader, I just came back from the most boring choir practice ever... I don't know what's wrong with singing Austrians, but they seem to have a socializing problem!! Nobody talks to me!! And when I try to talk, they answer by "yes" or "no" and then run away, with a scared (and scary) expression on their faces... Is something the matter with me?? Do I smell?? You'd tell me reader, wouldn't you?