Just finished reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close for a work book club and am appropriately depressed now. Not going to say too much (have to turn up to the book club meeting first!) – but it was an awesome book, for the most part (even if the postmodernism / parallel narratives confused the hell out of me for a while there).

Very emotional, very sad, very poignant. It’s about a kid whose Dad died in the WTC, and he discovers a key, and then decides he has to find the lock… But it’s about a lot more as well; childhood, growing up, dealing with loss, family, marriage, true love, responsibility, friendship… well, I could get soppy about it and I’ll avoid that. Suffice it to say its about the most compelling and mystifying 9 year old you could possibly imagine.

A very courageous piece of writing. I enjoyed it hugely.