Rereads

             I've been rereading one of my favorite books Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I don't think I've ever really understood why it was called this, but hopefully rereading will help me figure that out.
Basically this book is about an autistic boy named Oscar (8 years old) whose father (who he was very, very close with) dies in 9/11. In this book, Oscar becomes a true friend and you laugh and cry at the awkward, interesting situations that he gets into. As the reader, you feel painfully uncomfortable in situations where Oscar seems unfazed, maybe a little curious but completely oblivious to how uncomfortable he makes people around him feel. Reading this the first time i didn't notice most of these situations because I became really comfortable with Oscars' voice and his personality. Reading this the first time, lots of little sentences went straight over my head. Reading this the second time i realize how important the little sentences were. they were like little tinny moments that only Oscar knows about because he wrights this in past enc where he knows everything that has already happened. for example Oscar says "I thought about that the second time when the renter and I were digging up his grave." I found this really interesting because this was said at the beginning of the book where the renter hasn't even been mentioned. I feel almost as if this book was meant to be reread. that now rereading it i feel so overwhelmed by how much the end is for shadowed. knowing the end gives a certain suspense to it. Kind of like dramatic irony, -which I know about- from Romeo and Juliet. Also, reading it the first time, i never knew what the last picture in the book was. I flipped to it a thousand times, but the last time i flipped to it, when i had finally finished the book, I'm not ashamed to say, I cried.


                  the first time I read this book, I really loved how close I felt with Oscar, but at the same time I saw how distant he was from everybody and how he doesn't exactly understand basic, normal things society latently just does. I felt that I could never feel close to Oscar because he didn't want to be close to anyone. (Except his father.) However; at the same time I wanted to melt in front of him and just cry with him. It felt so frustrating, and i think that this is exactly how his grandmother feels, and his mother but i don't think she as vigilant with him as his grandmother was.