Brief:
The wonderful book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close immediately starts with the thoughts of Oscar Shell, a 9 year old boy. Oscar lost his dad, Thomas, with the horrible attack at the World Trade Center. Now he lives with his mom and her new friend Ron, he doesn’t like him at all. His grandmother lives across the street. His grandfather left her when she was pregnant of his dad. Before Thomas died he called several times to his house, no one took the phone so he left some messages behind on the answering machine. Oscar has hidden the tape with these records, so his mother doesn’t get angry because he didn’t answer the phone. He loves to listen to his dad’s voice and search through his belongings. One day a blue vase fell of the cupboard into shards when he was searching. When Oscar cleans up the broken vase he finds an envelope with on the front the word Black and inside a strange key. The key doesn’t look familiar to Oscar, it’s larger and longer than a normal key. He starts to ask some people whether they know something about the key or the word Black. When he shows the envelope to a woman in the hobby shop, She tells him that it is a common surname. Oscars aim is to find the lock which belongs to the key, because there are 162 million locks in New York, he is going to visit and ask everyone with the surname black in alphabetical order.

Setting:
The story takes place in two different places and times. One is New York after the attack at the World Trade Center in this part is mostly written about Oscar and sometimes about his grandparents. The other place is in Dresden before and after the 2nd world war, in this place there is only written about Oscars grandparents. The past in Dresden is incredibly important in this story because the relation between Oscar’s grandparents is really complicated, and Thomas, Oscar’s grandfather, lost his ability to speak after Dresden was bombed. He also lost his girlfriend called Anna which was the sister of Oscar’s grandmother. The place New York and the year 2001 are of course logical, firstly when the story would take place in for example 2005 I think Oscar would already have accepted the fact that his father is dead and he wouldn’t search through his stuff any more. Secondly the World Trade Center stood in New York. However the attack at the World Trade Center could be replaced by an other disaster and WW II you can’t replace for an other disaster or horrible thing happened in the past.

Suspense:
The thing that kept me reading this book was of course the search for the lock. Every time there war a possibility that the next person would have the clue. The story wasn’t only aserious adventure it also contains funny jokes for example when Oscar asks Abby Black : “Could we kiss for a bit?” Besides Oscar’s funny questions, he also thinks about strange inventions mostly about hospitals, ambulances and protection in skyscrapers. This clearly shows that he can’t stop thinking about what happened to his dad. What I especially liked in this book that there were also some pictures or other special things like three texts being written on one page that it becomes unreadable.

Main characters:
Oscar Schell:
Oscar Schell is a nine year old boy who only wears white clothes and is for sure the most important character in the book. He has lots of hobbies for example inventor, jewelry designer, origamist, pacifist and collector of objects. Also he is very intelligent for a nine year old boy. He can be extremely active but sometimes very serious because of that he has “heavy boots” this is how he calls it when he feels depressed. While reading the book you get to know Oscar really well and in the begging you immediately get a first impression because he gives his card with all his hobbies written on it to Abby Black.

Oscar’s grandfather:
Is a man who makes sometimes stupid decisions with out seeing the consequences. In the past he lost a lot of things, his girlfriend Anna, his wife (he left her when she was pregnant of Thomas) and his voice. After the bombardment of Dresden he lost his ability to speak word by word, until his last word “I” was also gone. As a solution he got a tattoo on his hands on one side yes and the other no. Or he writes an answer in a small book he always carries with him. Because of this he sometimes is misunderstood. When he is described by Oscar’s grandmother, she describes him as a heartless person. However I feel a bit sorry for him because I think he didn’t want to hurt his wife on purpose with his stupid decisions.

Oscar’s grandmother:
Oscar’s grandmother is someone who lost lots of people her sister, of course her husband and recently her son. I think that is the reason why she always is extremely careful with Oscar, which is the person she loves the most and almost the only thing she still lives for. She seems very unhappy and a bit silly. (probably because she is already really old)

Mr Black:
He is a character which Oscar meets when he is searching for the lock, he lives the apartment above Oscar and before the search for the lock Oscar didn’t knew about his existents. He also collects lots of things. He has a cupboard full with small cards, on each card there is a name and one word which belongs to that person. Their friendship grows really fast after Mr Black told Oscar that he would love to join him with the search for the lock.

Oscar’s father:
This character was after the first few pages already dead. However this doesn’t mean that he isn’t important in the story. Almost every main character had a connection with this man. According to Oscar’s description it seems that he is an amazing dad with a nice well paid job and the same as Oscar very smart. Oscar has real difficulties with the lose of his dad and no person can replace him. The strange thing is that the relation between Thomas and Oscar’s grandmother or mother isn’t spoken about.

Oscar’s mother:
Oscar’s mother is described only through Oscar’s eyes, who is angry at her for some reasons. Firstly he thinks she doesn’t cry enough. Secondly very soon after her husbands dad she already has a new friend, Oscar thinks they are in love but they aren’t. At last she seems not to care about Oscar at all, she isn’t worried when he leaves the house late in the evening when he is on his own. I thought that she was a bad mother but later on this turns out to be completely different.

Point of view (narrator):
The story is written in first-person perspective, there are three different first-persons. Oscar is one of them, he is most of the time the first-person and tells about his dad and the search for the lock. An other first-person is Oscar’s grandmother, she tells about Oscar in letters written after he did his search for the lock. And last Oscar’s grandfather, he tells about the past in Dresden, but also about the letters he sent to his “Unborn child” the way he calls his son. Oscar’s dad only read one of these letters because the remainder Oscar’s grandmother hid in her cupboard. I think the point of view in this story is really important because I could better understand the decisions and emotions of the three first-persons.

Different ending of the story
After eight month Oscar is puzzled were al his action and the effort he put in the search in vain. He feels really depressed and sits down in the kitchen staring at the wall when his mother enters the room. ‘What’s the matter Oscar, why are you sad?’ ‘mother I don’t know what to do next, I followed all the clues but didn’t find anything.’ ‘Did you also listen to the answering machine? You phoned a lot of people and maybe somebody answered.’

Oscar ran to the answering machine an indeed there was one message!

Message one. Saturday, 11:52 A.M. Hi, Oscar this is Abby Black. Last time you visited me I wasn’t completely honest about what I know about the key. If you come to my apartment I will tell everything. Hope to hear from you soon. Bye Abby.

‘I have to find out, Mom! I’m going to visit Abby Black again.’

‘Ok we eat at 7 O’clock but it doesn’t matter if you come late.’ So I went to the subway as fast as I could, because it would take me half an hour to walk to her apartment. In 10 minutes I reached my destiny. When I walked along the street watching all the huge buildings, I thought, why aren’t there parachutes for all the people inside these buildings. After a short walk I reached Abby’s apartment and rang the doorbell. Immediately the door opened. ‘Hi Oscar come in.’

She took me to the living room and we sat down and after she poured me a cup off tea. ‘I’m really sorry, I didn’t tell you all I know the first time we met. 4 years ago I read an old book about the family history of the Black’s. In this book they mentioned the name Black originated from Black Beard the famous pirate. Later on my grand grand father stored a treasure map in the Morgan Library. It said that you would need a special key to open the secret room.’

‘So you think this is the key they are talking about?’

‘Yes, I hope you are not disappointed because this hasn’t to do anything with your father ’

‘No, but I think a treasure map is interesting enough and maybe my father already went there and left a message, so will you join me?’

‘That’s fine with me.’

Abby took me in her car and after a half an hour we parked near the Morgan Library. I was amazed about the amount of books they have. In the local library the book collection is way smaller. However I wasn’t hereto find a good book , I wanted to find a hidden lock. ‘Abby I think we can better search in the older part of the building were they store the collection of antique books.’

‘That is a good idea Oscar, I know where they are follow me’

We asked the librarian and he told us the antiques could be found in the cellar.

In the cellar there was a special room for family history and chivalry ‘When we took a closer look we saw there was a narrow gap in between the A and B bookcase. Close to the ground there was a little hole which turned out to be a keyhole. I rushed to take out the key and tried it, The bookcase next to us suddenly shovelled to the left and than we saw a door. Luckily there was nobody beside us in the room, so we could enter the room unseen. There was almost no furniture, only a black table with a book lying on top of it and a red velvet couch. We walked to the black table and I read out loud what was written on the first page, ‘When you push the button underneath the couch, the treasure map will appear but it will be the last thing you do in your live when you don’t take attention!’

‘Oscar it might be better to stop.’

I didn’t listen to her and shovelled the couch, which was lighter than I suspected. I didn’t make the mistake to push the button at once and took a closer look. There was a little edge along the base of the button, i took he button between my fingers and turned it counter clockwise it was a screwing cap. When I removed the cap an other keyhole appeared. I went out of the room and took the old key from the lock outside, and of course it was also a good fit on this lock. When I turned the key a small compartment in the floor opened. Abby looked inside. ‘Oscar the treasure map is not inside only a little note.’ She handed it over to me, and it said: You are to late but you are blessed with a good brain, so even with out the treasure you will find your way in live.

We both were silent for a few minutes until Abby said, ‘I’m really sorry for you that there isn’t anything, are you very disappointed?.’

‘Of course I am a bit disappointed but because of the key and the search for its purpose I met lots of new friends and I will never forget this wonderful adventure. ’