This is an easy book to get into but demands quite a bit of the reader to keep the narratives straight, as it takes time to figure out what's going on, what's happened in the past, who is narrating, things like that. It's quite different from reading a Brad Thor where you don't even have to think, just laugh. The narrator is a precocious nine year old Oskar Schnell. He's more curious than most people, dabbles in everything, has written letters to all the famous people, from Stephen Hawking to Nelson Mandela and has gotten replies back from a number. The catalyst for the book is 9/11, the day he returns from school to listen to messages from his father, as he's trapped in one of the towers. He finally realizes the tragedy, switches phones and answering systems so his mother will not hear his father's last words, and the novel begins.
In no way is he ordinary, either in how he lives, or in the family he belongs to. We figure out finally that his grandparents, who narrate parts of the book, starting in 1963, are Germans(perhaps Jewish) who somehow have survived the Allies bombing of Dresden, have found each other, married and lived for awhile, but have set up so many rules to avoid their past that they end up making living with each other impossible. The grandfather has lost the ability to speak, writes to communicate, and although he knew his wife, Oskar's grandmother, briefly in Dresden, he loves her sister Anna. Because he finds it impossible to live, he leaves Oskar's grandmother, only to return later as her renter. Bizarre.
The narrative of the novel revolves around a key, found by Oskar, in an envelop with the name Black on it. He's convinced it's the key to his father's death (that he may still be alive) and he vows to speak with everyone named Black who lives in New York. Interspersed between his visits to various Blacks, are his grandfather's journal, describing his marriage to Oskar's grandmother. She is Oskar's surrogate mother, who plays much of a role in Oskar's life. The story of their seemingly idyllic life in Dresden, falling in love (with the grandma's sister), then the almost total destruction of Dresden and everything they both had, is difficult to read. It's effects on the two make it almost impossible to live on but some how they do. As the Grandmother says, "We ought to have two lives; the first one will help us to know how to live the second one." And in between Oskar befriends his upstairs neighbor, who has not left his apartment in 30 years and together, they go in search of the person named black who recognizes the key.
I will always remember the metaphor of 'heavy boots' for being depressed, the creation of a "Nothing Place" by Oskar's grandparents to blot out their devastating pasts which ends up destroying their relationships. And of course Oskar is the most memorable character, haunted by his father's death, unaware of his parents and grandparents history, determined to find the lock to his key, hoping beyond hope that it will serve the truth. And always, I think of his grandfather, going to bed, thinking he has time to tell Anna he loves her, only to have everything destroyed that night by the bombing of Dresden, his love, his hopes, literally his life: the books mantra might be 'live each day as if it will be your last.'
It's hard to follow at times, I admit, making it the kind of book you would like to read again. Often, you are not sure who is narrating, where they are, whether it's his father, grandfather, or grandmother, whether it's the near or far past. The character's he meets, Mr. Black, the lady who lives a top the Empire State building, especially his grandparents, are marvelous creations, as is Oskar. And I liked the ending, where he imagines what it would be like if he could run the script backwards: his father instead of falling from the Twin Towers, would rise to the building, take the elevator down to floor level, walk to the subway, take it home, go into his husband, say good by to Oskar, etc.
I want to read it again but not now. Let it settle for a bit. Foer is amazingly creative in his narrative, in going into the mind of a 9 year old, precocious but believable.
Yea, you liked it! That's funny you said that about reading it again, because that's exactly what I did. I listened to it first on CD, then went back and read the book. I agree, it's confusing, it's not a perfect book, but there's something about it...
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