Extremely loud & incredibly close (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 2005; vuoden 2005 painos)

I feel horrible for giving this book only two stars, but hear me out. Coming from an English teacher who thinks in straight lines - linking one idea to another to form a linear train of thought, this book at times confused the crap out of me. It took me a while to understand who was "talking" in each chapter (between the grandmother, Oskar, and Thomas Schell Sr.). Furthermore, after realizing that Thomas Schell Sr. was the one writing or "talking" I would become extremely frustrated with the writing style because there would be close to no periods or new paragraphs formed. The run-on sentences drove me crazy and thankfully after about half-way through the book I stopped caring so much about that and was able to focus more on the plot (or thoughts)of the story.

Don't get me wrong the overall theme and message of the story was deep and beautiful and I think this would actually be a great book for students to read and might be a valuable one to teach from (probably not about grammar or sentence structure though). Clearly Jonathan Safran Foer put a lot of effort and thought into the structure of this book, but the structures of it irritated me. Even Oskar's point of view (which had correct punctuation and paragraphs) irritated me because there would be points where he would be talking to someone and it would be difficult to tell when he was talking and when the other person was talking. Thankfully I'm okay with the idea that not every book needs to have a perfectly wrapped up ending, otherwise this book would have irritated me even further.

It took me a long time to read this and at times it definitely felt like something that I was forcing myself to do. As I got into the 100-150 pages left it started to move a little faster and I finally felt like I was able to crank out some reading, but it never truly felt enjoyable.

I'm the type of person who tries to give every book a chance, but this happened to be one of them that I did not feel satisfied after reading. After I read a good book, I feel the need to take a break and bask in the glory of the plot, characters, and writing style because it leaves me feeling wholly filled for a while. This book unfortunately left me feeling slightly empty and like I need to dive right into the next book in order to make up for missing parts.

If you as a reader like linear trains of thought and feel the need (like myself) to have a very structured book (grammatically and paragraph-ically *yes I know it's not a word) and know who is talking at every moment, this may not be the book for you. Give it a try - because I believe that every book deserves a try - but try not to put too many eggs in one basket as you continue to read.

Happy reading! ( )

There's a blurb on my copy of Cloud Atlas that says something to the effect of "David Mitchell's ambition is writ in fire on every page" or something equally over the top, and I don't think that that book quite earns it, but damn, this does. Despite those five stars, I don't think this is 100% perfect (I think that the non-Oskar narratives ultimately ended up being kind of a question mark to me), but ultimately this is just such a dizzying, heartbreaking Thing that I feel like I can't give it anything less. Just brilliant in so many different ways. ( )

Started well, continued not so well and finished unevenly. There was a sentimentality, particularly with the grandparent voices that alienated me in the end. ( )

For years I've put off reading Jonathan Safran Foer, though I'm not sure why -- maybe I thought he was a hipster darling, and I didn't want any part of that. Last week I read a brief review of the book by a person whose reading I follow and admire, and I decided to go ahead and give JSF a chance. I'm glad I did. It's a lovely book, perhaps a little cute at times, but full of really lovely and at times devastating things. ( )

I read this for book group a couple of years ago and I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I never saw the movie and I was afraid I would find this book sad and depressing. I didn't. In fact, it was intriguing at times and overall a good story, albeit an odd one. I saw quite a few reviews that mentioned - what on earth is a kid running around New York like that? Is this believable? I have no idea and I just took it in stride. ( )