What I'm reading

Onto the next audio book in my car. I'm reading a book recommended by a co-worker a few years back....it has been niggling in the back of my brain and finally made it to the top. Extremely loud and incredibly close takes place in the mind of a 9 year old boy who has lost his father in the 9/11 attack on the twin towers, along with his grandfather's voice, a survivor of the Dresden bombing during WWII. My initial reactions are that I like the boy a lot, although there is a part of me that wonders if such a precocious child exists. One who is a Francophile and writes Steve Hawking. The grandfather's voice confused me, and it took me a bit of Googling to get a handle on who on earth was this person and how did he fit into the narrative. What strikes me most is the way the author presents the grief of a child...how it sneaks in unexpectedly, which I find rings very true. In my research I read that the author uses images of 9/11 in the text, which makes me wonder how that might work for the audio-book experience. Do we miss out on a key image? Stay tuned.