"Extrememly Loud & Incredibly Close" {by Jonathan Safran Foer} Book Club Ideas

SEPTEMBER BOOK CLUB:

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

By: Jonathan Safran Foer

"I regret that it takes a life to learn how to live."

We chose to read Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close in honor of 9/11 and it turned out to be an unforgettable evening.

We started out the discussion with each of us answering the question, "Where were you when 9/11 happened?"As each of us answered that question, we were transported back 11 years to a different time in each of our lives remembering with perfect reflection how we felt on that fateful day. It was a wonderful way to start off our discussion for this beautiful book.

If you haven't read this book for yourself yet, just look at some of the hidden gems within its pages.

 Mindy and I right before she started her moderation.

Mindy had two quizzes:

Shalease won the book quiz and took home Foer's other amazing book "Everything is Illuminated" along with a familiar skeleton key that in central to "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

Jen (WELCOME TO BOOK CLUB), won the music!

Some of my most favorite gals...

Brooke, Caitlin, Chanel and Kitch

Below we have our newest member, Jen along with the always fabulous Megan and beautiful Betsy!

Hello my lovelies, Robin, Shalease and Kellie!

Let's Move Onto the Discussion! 

Meet Oskar

 Oskar is an inventor, Francophile, tambourine player, Shakespearean actor, jeweler, pacifist. He is nine years old. And he is on an urgent, secret search through the five boroughs of New York. His mission is to find the lock that fits a mysterious key belonging to his father, who died in the attack on the World Trade Center.

Some of our discussion questions were:

1. Oskar is an unusually precious child. Do you find him sympathetic or annoying? Or both?

2. Some critics have wondered where Oskar’s mother is and how the child is left alone to wander the streets of New York alone at night. Is that a relevant comment?

3. How do both main plot and subplot (Oskar’s grandfather and the bombing of Dresden) interweave with one another?

4. How do you interpret the significance of Oskar’s search for the key? How important is what he actually finds; in other words, is the search itself more or less significant than the result of the search?

5. Why does the author include the story about the grandparents in Dresden?

"Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I'm not living." — Jonathan Safran Foer

Watch the movie trailer below to learn more about this beautiful book but know that the book is a very different experience than the movie.

Read our full review HERE