Oskar Schell thinks about inventing a number of useless objects. As a pacifist, he fails his only jujitsu class. Mom's friend Ron trys to buy Oskar's love, but will never be his dad. There are more people now alive than have ever died. He asks himself several what ifs...all that would have saved his dad. Oskar has been in a limo twice—once to buy an empty casket. At that time, he sat up front and tried to entertain the drive, but had limited success, so he gives up and crawls back to sit with his mom, who he thinks is beautiful and is his raisons d'être. (read more)