When I read Foer’s first book, Everything is Illuminated, a couple of years ago, I was completely blown away. One of the five best books I’ve read in the past few years, and probably one of the five best debut novels that I’ve ever read. (That’s a fun list to think about. Maybe I’ll post on that in a while.)
Anyway, this book is told from the perspective of a very smart 10 year old in NYC who lost his dad on 9/11. Like in his first book, Foer is tremendously talented at putting you into another person’s shoes, and is great at creating the voice of Oskar (the 10 year old). The book really explores Oskar’s relationship with his mother & grandparents, and is a sort of coming-of-age story for Oskar.
Extremely emotional book; I really enjoyed it. About 3 days after I finished it we were able to hear JSF give a talk at Kepler’s — and I was extremely impressed in all respects. One of my favorite authors; an emerging talent for sure.
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