Extremely Loud & Incredible Close - post I

before anyone starts thinking that I am on some sort of themed reading exercise at the moment with Falling man and now this please let me explain this came highly recommended and for once it was in stock in the local bookstore so that's how things happened.

Along with the recommendations came the comment that this is highly stylized. It doesn't take long to realise that the comment was made in regards to the production of the text as well as the narrative structure. The insertion of colour, photographs and pages with just single words is different.

There are moments you think of Tin Drum by Gunter Grass because of the name Oskar and the tambourine he plays and his oddities. Then of course there are other occasions you think of Falling Man, particularly those passages about grief and the feeling of alienation.

One thing that emerges as way of hooking you in is the idea of the mystery left by the father for the son. The back story explains they both liked to play games and set each other mysteries and perhaps in death Oskar's father has set his son the hardest one yet.

More Monday...