Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Jonathan Safran Foer
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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is Jonathan Safran Foer's novel about Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy dealing with the death of his father in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. After finding a mysterious key in his father's closet, Oskar embarks on a quest through New York City to find the lock it opens, a journey that becomes both literal and metaphorical as he seeks connection, meaning and a way to process grief.
- 1Oskar Schell is a highly intelligent, anxious nine-year-old boy whose father died in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.
- 2Oskar discovers a key hidden in his father's closet in an envelope marked only with a question mark.
- 3Convinced that the key opens something that belonged to his father, Oskar embarks on an obsessive quest through New York City to find the corresponding lock.
- 4Oskar rings doorbells across the city, asking strangers if they recognise the key, leading to chance encounters with many people.
- 5The novel is interspersed with letters from Oskar's grandfather and with photographs and images that Foer includes as part of the narrative.
- 6Oskar's quest is ultimately about processing grief and finding a way to feel connected to his deceased father.
Key ideas
Grief and obsession
Oskar's obsessive search for the lock's meaning is a way of processing his overwhelming grief. The quest becomes a way of staying connected to his father.
The trauma of 9/11
Foer treats the loss caused by 9/11 not as abstract tragedy but as personal, intimate loss for a child who cannot fully process it.
Connection in isolation
Oskar is deeply anxious and isolated, yet his quest forces him into connection with strangers and with his community, showing how connection can emerge from grief.
The search as journey
Oskar's literal search for the lock becomes a journey of internal exploration and emotional growth.
Family and legacy
The novel explores how we carry our family members with us after they die, and how their influence continues to shape us.
Communication and miscommunication
The novel is filled with attempts at communication between people, many of which fail. Yet connection is still possible.
Who is it for?
Readers interested in literary explorations of grief or in narratives about how we process trauma will find this moving and innovative. It suits anyone interested in 9/11's human impact or in coming-of-age stories set against historical tragedy. The novel's experimental form appeals to readers of unconventional narrative structures.
Full summary
Oskar Schell is a nine-year-old boy living in New York City with his mother and dealing with the death of his father in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre.
A year after his father's death, Oskar discovers a key hidden in a vase in his father's closet. The key is in an envelope with only a question mark written on it.
Oskar becomes convinced that the key is important and that finding the lock it opens will help him understand his father and process his grief.
He begins an obsessive search, ringing doorbells across New York City and asking people if they recognise the key or know what it opens.
Oskar's quest takes him across the city and into the lives of many strangers, each encounter a small moment of connection or rejection.
Oskar is accompanied at times by his reclusive grandfather, an old man who communicates through writing rather than speech, and who shares his own grief and losses.
The novel is interspersed with letters from Oskar's grandfather, photographs, and images that Foer includes as part of the narrative structure.
Oskar's search is ultimately less about finding an actual lock and more about finding a way to express and process his overwhelming grief and to feel close to his father after death.
