Throughout the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, there are letters that Oskar’s grandfather wrote to his son, Oskar’s father. These connect the bombing of Dresden to his life now. It is vaguely explained that he lost his true love, Anna in the bombings. I found this interesting as Oskar loses his father in another attack. It is of another nature, of course but it is the same idea. Some terrible people made many lose their lives. These events made both Oskar’s grandfather and Oskar have to change. Oskar’s grandfather lost the ability to speak and Oskar could not let go. These similarities are interesting seeing as they only meet at the end of the book. 

Overall, this book is rich with many important themes and has a lot of merit.

This book was incredibly attaching. The main character, Oskar has an interesting personality. He is so different from all the other boys his age which leads me to believe he has some form of autism or asperger's syndrome. His ability to continue to search for the answer to whose key he found is astounding. The nature of his relationship with his father was endearing and I found it very hard to accept his father’s death. The journey Oskar goes through to find answers was touching. We can see through the letters his grandfather wrote about his father that Oskar and him are alike, in a way. They are both not able to let certain things go. Oskar, with the messages his father left on the machine and his grandfather with the woman he loved, Anna. Throughout the book we learn to accept the loss presented to us. I believe this book made me cry too much. Every emotion was raw and very real.

Overall, I would say that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close does have literary merit, especially if it stands the tests of time.

Throughout the book, Oskar talks about having “heavy boots”, which is one of the saddest metaphors I’ve ever heard. He says it whenever something makes him depressed. The imagery is huge here—I imagined a little kid with these giant boots that he struggles to walk in. The thought of this young kid feeling like he’s being dragged down with the weight of the world by his boots (or really, his depression) is just heartbreaking, and makes it one of the most powerful metaphors in the book.

Oskar was a very interesting character. He’s 9 years old, but sometimes he speaks like he is much older. He’s extremely intelligent, which you can understand from his random facts and how he explains things. But we’re also reminded often of how childlike he is. His vivid imagination, albeit dark and frightening at times, is definitely that of a 9 year old boy. His fears also make him seem younger, even though they’re justified. And then there’s the depression from his father’s death that he has to deal with, which ages him a bit. Another characteristic of Oskar that makes him more complex is his qualities that look like mild autism. So, like the book itself, Oskar is a nuanced character with multiple layers to him and his personality.

While reading Loud and Close, I noticed the different layers in the storyline. The first and main layer is the present. We follow Oskar around on his journey to find the “Black” that can answer his questions. This layer drives the story, and keeps it moving forward. Then we have the mystery of Oskar’s grandfather. We’re taken all the way back to Germany during the Dresden bombings, and through his letters and daybooks, we’re brought all the way back to the present. This layer to me was one of the most interesting ones, because of the way its story is completely different to Oskar’s but through unifying elements like death help it to weave in and out of the main storyline. Then we have Oskar’s grandmother’s story. Hers was also quite interesting, especially when you can match up her story to Oskar’s grandfather’s. These different storylines and layers add nuance to the book and make it so much better than if we were just following Oskar around.

When Ron is talking about how he lost his wife and daughter in a car crash that he wasn’t in, we learn that Ron has guilt over it. Oskar is doing what Oskar does best, which is ask questions, lots and lots of questions. We also learn that Ron and Oskar’s mom met in a group for people who lost their families, and that Oskar had no knowledge that his mom was in a group. This is probably why when the subject comes up, she looks out the window, trying to act like she isn’t interested in hearing about it (because she already knows the story anyways). Ron still doesn’t have closure over his families death and he probably asks himself why he wasn’t in that car every day. However, Ron still understands that Oskar lost someone too, which is probably why he’s so willing to answer his questions and tell him that he cries all the time; because that’s something that they share- the loss of a loved one.