2005 book 33

jonathan safran foer's extremely loud and incredibly close
first things first: i loooved everything is illuminated. but when i heard jsf was doing a book centering in 9/11 and a precocious little boy, i had absolutely no intention of reading it. then salon gave it a good review so i succumbed to curiosity--which i regretted almost immediately, having read several other reviews that all boiled down to "this is just like his wife's book, only hers is way better." and i have to say, i spent the first 3/4 of the book muttering, "this is so fucking annoying!" the precocious boy, oskar, is the world's most unbelievable character. his bizarre mannerisms and habits and fears are reminiscent of the kid in curious incident of the dog in the nighttime, only oskar isn't autistic, and he's just as precocious and annoying before his dad dies on 9/11. the only parts that made this worth reading at all are the parts that focus on his grandparents, both survivors of the dresden bombings. i actually liked the end, too, mainly b/c there are fewer moments where oskar is being a prat about something, and b/c the grandparents find some closure.