One of the most intriguing and impressive elements of Foer’s writing style in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is the way he utilizes segmentation to more dynamically hook the audience. Though EL&IC is different from anything I’ve watched by Tarantino for obvious reasons, Foer’s segmentation strongly reminds me of the way Tarantino sets up his screenplay. They both refuse to be chained down by a chronological timeline.
Anyway, maybe it was annoying to some of you, but coming from a- I’ll freely admit it- lazy reader, this style surprisingly made me reluctant to put down the novel. I am the type who loathes authors that abuse jumps from one character/scene to another (LH was torture) to the point that I genuinely dread turning the page. My train of thought being violated and interrupted every five pages does not make a pleasant reading experience. However, this segmented style makes the switching extremely appealing, despite the sometimes large jumps in timeline and narration. Amidst the segmentation, Foer does not lose the strong sense of direction which carries the audience all through the novel.
The main reason why the way Foer segments the plotline is so appealing to me is because of how the personality and history of various characters become unraveled. The reader discovers over the course of pages that in actuality, certain characters are not the type of people that the reader had been introduced to them as. It really feels similar to better learning about and understanding a person.
One example is Grandpa Thomas. In his first letter (pg. 16 for reference), the way he introduces grandma and the way that she had asked him to marry him was abrupt and random. When I first read this letter, I thought it was so odd and far from romantic, because Thomas made her sound almost like a total stranger. He failed to mention anything about their actual history (something like “LOLZ MY DEAD LOVER’S LITTLE SISTER IS ASKING FOR MY HAND IN MARRIAGE”). However, the omitting of crucial details engages the reader to continue reading for the missing pieces. Later we find through grandma’s and Thomas’s letters the back story of Oskar’s grandma, Thomas, and Anna. It grants more depth, or at least a refreshing approach, to the novel, versus chronological narration. Because I’m only up to pg. 240 at the moment, I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find that Thomas’s and grandma’s letters are actually important and relevant to Oskar and the coping of his father’s death.
Another example is Oskar. I found it almost heartbreaking to read the grandma’s narration of her son’s funeral, and how much she loves and cares for Oskar. It is strikingly different from how the Oskar talks about the funeral at the very beginning of the novel, how he talks about his relationship with his grandma, and what he chooses to reveals about himself.
“Even though I was trying hard for it not to, it was annoying how Grandma kept touching me, so I climbed into the front seat and poked the driver’s shoulder until he gave me some attention” (4).
versus
“We all rode in the limousine together. I could not stop touching you. I could not touch you enough. I needed more hands. You made jokes with the driver, but I could see that inside you were suffering. Making him laugh was how you suffered. When we got to the grave and they lowered the empty coffin, you let out a noise like an animal. I had never heard anything like it. You were a wounded animal. The noise is still in my ears…” (232).
I recall a week ago in class, we were discussing PTSD and if Oskar showed any symptoms of trauma. Since we had only begun the novel, it was hard to tell, and I remember a couple classmates disagreed that Oskar had PTSD at all. Now as we are further in the novel, and that we’ve learned new things about him, Oskar is not exactly the optimistic, happy-go-lucky character who seems almost psychologically unaffected by his father’s death, which is basically the type of person we were first introduced to. I’m sure that now, 200+ pages later, many of us would claim that Oskar does display strong signs of trauma, beneath his ambition, sense of humor, and impressive insight for a 9-year old.
This approach to unraveling the plot is really like a breath of fresh air. It adds excitement, tension, and intrigue to the novel, as we get to know the characters through various sets of perspectives.