I'M SERVING: GENERAL TSO'S CHICKEN
Confession 1: It was takeout. Research paper season--what can I say?
Confession 2: When it comes to books like these, the chip on my shoulder's larger than one of the New York Public Library's lions. If I pick up a book with glowing reviews from the New York literary establishment (read: Michiko Kakutani), it had better be damned impressive, because for me, that dog won't hunt. I've been burned too many times by New York intellectual preciousness to dive into that pool voluntarily.
Parts of the book were very interesting. I liked the images scattered throughout--doorknobs, keys, flocks of pigeons in flight, empty pages, type compressed down into illegible dark masses. Then there's the flipbook at the end, a hopeful reversal of one of the hardest days in American history.
Extremely Loud uses multiple lenses (Hiroshima, the bombing of Dresden) to view 9/11, but the primary voice is Oskar Schell's, precocious nine-year-old jewelry designer and vegan. Some laugh out loud bits, some Huh?, some heart-tugging emotion. Mostly, though, meh. The group was divided about this one. No one actively disliked it, but the gulf between "loved it" and meh was sharply carved. Most of us were meh. My take: Foer's original, but I can't see myself teaching him in twenty years.
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