I still find it very interesting how difficult it is to articulate some (well, most) aspects of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I love this book and I do think it’s cute. As someone who experienced loss similar to Oskar’s as a child, I find the accuracy and profundity of his thoughts and experiences to be spot on. As a child I was much less creative, eccentric and adventurous than Oskar, but this is fiction after all.
In the course of reading this novel there are so many moments when I say to myself, “I love that.” There are so many little heartbreaking moments as well. Maybe it is because I feel a strong personal connection to the story that it is difficult to think about it critically. Sometimes when you enjoy something so much it can seem to suck some of the pleasure out if it to analyze and dissect it. This seems to lead to a larger question which I have considered in the past as to whether analysis and criticism of art takes away from or adds to ones enjoyment of it. I think it can do both depending on the circumstance and the work of art itself.
I don’t think it will lessen the enjoyment of ELIC by analyzing it. I don’t think it’s necessarily important which genre the novel may or may not fit into, I’m more interested in the characters themselves and what they are going through.