Article: Is This Eccentric Grieving--Or Just Literary Posturing?(Arts&Entertainment)

Byline: Adam Begley

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. Houghton Mifflin, 326 pages, $24.95.

Well--he's brave. Or maybe just foolhardy. Jonathan Safran Foer has attacked head-on the problem of how to follow up on the best-selling Everything Is Illuminated (2002), his quirky, endearing, Holocaust-haunted debut. He's now aimed his wit, charm and considerable pomo savvy at two horrific tragedies, the fire-bombing of Dresden and 9/11. He tries to make us see terror through fresh eyes, to make us feel, up close and personal, terror's lingering consequence. Bold and worthy ambition. But to realize his ambition, Mr. Foer trades on his ...

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