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Product Description: Jonathan Safran Foer emerged as one of the most original writers of his generation with his best-selling debut novel, Everything Is Illuminated. Now, with humor, tenderness, and awe, he confronts the traumas of our recent history.
Nine-year-old Oskar Schell has embarked on an urgent, secret mission that will take him through the five boroughs of New York. His goal is to find the lock that matches a mysterious key that belonged to his father, who died in the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11. This seemingly impossible task will bring Oskar into contact with survivors of all sorts on an exhilarating, affecting, often hilarious, and ultimately healing journey. Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-07-06
Great title + great cover = AMAZING book
One of the best books I've read in a very, very long time. I picked it up because the cover looked interesting, and I'm so glad I did. It's heartbreaking, uplifting, encouraging and devestating all in one, sometimes in the same sentence even.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who has recently lost a loved one, and/or is searching for a way to grieve. It's unspeakably amazing and wonderful, with enough heart to put a broken one back together. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-26
LOVED this book
It takes a lot for a book to make me laugh - and I was laughing already during the first paragraph. This book also made me sob.
The story is so well told and the characters are so human that you can't help but become invested in them - you feel their emotions.
As a 20-something female, I loved the use of the narrators voice in this story. You hear the story through the point of view of a child and a grandparent - which seemed very unique to this book. Rating:
Date: 2008-06-26
Excellent Book
This book made me cry and call my family to tell them I love them. It's very touching, and it feels very real. Foer writes magnificently: he avoids letting the tragedy of 9/11 speak for itself in terms of emotional affectivity. I highly recommend it. Rating:
Date: 2008-05-17
The first book I have cried to.
This book was one of the most (or the most) beautiful book I have ever read.
It completely puts into perspective the real relationship between father and child, mother and child, grandfather and grandchild and grandmother and grandchild. It shows you the power of being the same blood, and also it teaches you something. This book taught me to always, always say what your heart or gut wants to say. Never hold back. Or else you will spend your life writing what you wanted to say in letters, letters that will never be sent. Rating:
Date: 2008-04-29
Tugs at the heart and still keeps you laughing.
Like his other wildly popular "Everything is Illuminated," this book is about a young man's journey to find his roots. In this tale, we follow the life and exploits of Oskar Schell, whose family lives in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Oskar is one of those kids whose body belies the age of his soul. He's extremely intelligent, speaks French, makes jewellery for those he cares for, is a vegan, and is forever paying attention. Unfortunately, he carries with him a secret. The guilt of it eats him from inside out. Unfortunately, his shrink, who's as inept with children of Oskar's sensitivity and (inner) maturity as most adults would be, isn't being very skilled at pulling out the story of the guilt. It all goes as it does, with Oskar struggling to cope with a world that's not ready for him, after losing the one person who truly "got" him (his dad), until the fortuitous day that Oskar finds a small envelope with a key. The envelope has but one word on it.
Black.
Off runs Oskar, searching the Internet, the phone book, and every other scrap of information gathering tool he can get his hands on. We follow Oskar's journey through the five boroughs of Manhattan, with a plucky olderly gentleman as his sidekick. We meet people from all walks of life, and make friends along the way (as Oskar is apt to do with everyone).
As important as the very engaging story is Foer's use of more than just straight prose to suck you into the world of Oskar. You don't just get page after page of straight text. You get to see little glimpses of Oskar, via photographs, drawings, letters, and various other elements. It's like you get a story, a collage, and a different world all rolled into one. It's highly engaging, and definitely worth picking up. |
