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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Apr 2005, 368 pages
Paperback:
Apr 2006, 368 pages
Book Reviewed by:
BookBrowse Review Team
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This article relates to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer is the author of the
bestseller Everything is Illuminated (2002), which was published when he was 25 years old and won multiple awards, and
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
(2005). He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
A movie of
Everything Is Illuminated was planned for release in 2005 but appears to be still 'in production' with an estimated release date of 2007.
When Foer was 8 years old a failed science
experiment caused an explosion that ripped
through the classroom searing his hands and
face; but his best friend's injuries were
worse - Foer found him slumped against a
wall with the skin peeling from his bloodied
face. He recollects telling his
friend exactly what his new face looked like
and begging to know whether his own skin had
been shredded. Until recently Foer
says that he had never written about the
event, 'literally, not a single word', yet
he says that that day marked the end of his
childhood and the start of his path to
becoming a writer. Although he doesn't
explicitly connect 'the Explosion' (as he
calls it) to his writing, both novels do
have central characters who repair their
lives by returning to the scene where lives
have previously been destroyed (the
Holocaust and the World Trade Center).
He says, 'I write because I want to end
my loneliness'..
Interesting Link
The
author's somewhat cryptic website.
An 8 minute
video clip of Foer discussing
Extremely Loud. It takes a bit of
time to load but is interesting to watch, if
only because it shows that extraordinary
brains can be housed in the most seemingly
ordinary of humans!
This "beyond the book article" relates to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. It originally ran in April 2005 and has been updated for the
April 2006 paperback edition.
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