"But why does gravity exist?" asks 9-year-old Oskar Schell, the protagonist of Jonathan Safran Foer's new novel "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." This heavy question sets the tone for the rest for the novel, which deals largely with the aftermath of Sept. 11.
His last novel, "Everything is Illuminated" tackled the events of WWII, and was the winner of the Guardian First Book Prize and the National Jewish Book Award, among others.
The voice Foer first introduces in his new novel is compelling. It is that of Oskar, a young boy who is more intelligent than those around him. By placing the reader in Oskar's point of view, Foer skillfully presents Oskar's emotions and inner thoughts. Repeatedly, Oskar finds that he has no one to relate to. It seems to him that only his father, who died in the Sept. 11 attacks, would be able to answer the questions that Oskar asks. "Dad would know," he utters under his breath many times over the course of the novel.
By writing in the voice of a child, Foer is able to write with an honesty that is otherwise inhibited. It allows him to address, for instance, Oskar's slightly sexist outlook on life, one that he struggles with through the novel. This is apparent when he asks to be Stephen Hawking's prot?©g?© and merely implores Jane Goodall for a letter of recommendation. The responses he gets, however, are continually impersonal and he finds himself alone. The reader is also very aware of Oscar's emotions, which sometimes appear in the form of mock scenarios in which Oskar behaves violently.
Another gimmick that Foer is able to use to his advantage is Oskar's inquisitive nature. He asks to almost everyone he meets: "What's your story?" The reader hears every character's story in great detail, from the troubles that Oskar's estranged grandparents experienced after coming to America, to the likes and dislikes of a limo driver's daughter, which Oskar probes out of the chauffeur as they ride to Oskar's father's funeral.
Oskar is always searching. When he finds a key in an envelope in a blue vase that was hidden in his deceased father's closet, Oskar decides that he must go in search of the lock to match it. On the envelope is written "Black," in red pen, and he determines that because the first letter is capitalized, it must stand for a surname. He goes in search of every lock in New York by searching for every Black that lives in the five boroughs of New York.
This quest drives the story forward, and while it allows Oskar to feel as though he is getting closer to the memory of his father, it is not how he ultimately faces his death and the world around him.
Oskar is clearly the focus of the novel, but the voices alternate with each chapter, and the stories of Oskar's grandmother and grandfather parallel his. Each one jumps around in time, character, and place, and the effect is a sense of universality. What his grandmother went through is now a part of Oskar's life, and she has experienced the same trouble that he now faces. Foer used a similar format in his last novel, and achieved the same impressive effect.
The chapters written in the voice of Oskar's grandfather, Thomas, date back to 1963, though much of the content is the memory of the firebombing in Dresden, Germany during WWII, where he had lived in his youth. His writing is in the form of unsent letters written to his son (Oskar's father, also named Thomas.) The grandfather has lost his ability to talk, although he can't really say why. He communicates with those around him by writing on notepads and displaying the tattoos on his hands, which read yes and no.
Foer's characters are bizarre and make mistakes, but by putting the reader in the characters' stream of thought, he makes them more human.
The grandfather left Oskar's grandmother when she was pregnant, but returns 40 years later after hearing news of the attacks, and of his son's death. Although he is known to Oskar as the renter, because his grandmother will not reveal his true identity, he is instrumental in helping him face the death of his father.
By the time Oskar reaches Peter Black in his search for the lock, he is no closer to his father. With the help of the renter and the same limo driver who he met on his way to the funeral, he ends his search where it began, at his father's empty grave.
Foer is able to portray the immediate and the long lasting effects of these tragic events in both novels by examining how different characters react to them over the span of many years. In jumping from one time period to another, he shows just how universal human grief can be.
