Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

This book is told from the POV of nine-year-old Oskar Schell whose father died in one of the towers from the World Trade Center. Most of the book takes place about two years after his father, Thomas, dies. One day, Oskar is in his parents' bedroom and somehow (I don't remember how...not really a memorable book) a blue vase crashes to the floor and gets broken. Inside, there was an envelope with "Black" written on the outside and a key inside. The entire book is devoted to Oskar finding out what this key opens, and he begins by tracking down every person with the last name of Black in NYC. No. Joke. The book also has random flashbacks that take until the last chapter to figure out who wrote what. Quite daunting, in other words. I am not sure how they made a movie out of this, or why, since nothing seems to really matter at the end. It harkens me back to Maine by J. Courtney Sullivan. As in the world of reading, you win some, you lose some. Take note: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anis-shivani/the-15-most-overrated-con_b_672974.html#s123751&title=Jonathan_Safran_Foer. According to this article, supposedly this book is Foer's best book yet. That does not encourage me to read Everything is Illuminated at all! The best part of this book is Oskar's random "inventions." That's pretty much the only saving grace.