Point of View

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer is told through three perspectives, all in the first person singular. The primary narrator is precocious, emotionally troubled nine-year-old Oskar Schell, half-orphaned in the 11 Sep. 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Oskar's existing phobias are intensified, leaving him obsessed with security. He tells his tale of finding a key hidden in a vase in his late Dad's closet with complete candor, admitting ignorance when he knows he does not know things (like the pronunciation of Greenwich) and sometimes bragging of things he thinks he understands but has slightly off (like sex). He seems to know he is an odd little fellow, but not care.

The second narrator is Oskar's Grandma, who writes him a letter explaining her life, which has remained a mystery to him his whole life, even though she is the person closest to him after...