So I believe this is the
13th Pick and while it was a very difficult decision as to which category to start with given the incredible picks already made, I am going with
American Fiction. While it's rather recent and somewhat personal, I am going with...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
Safran Foer is a young critically acclaimed Brooklyn based author whose novel
Everything is Illuminated was adapted for a motion picture. While that novel is interesting in it's narrative time shifts, I felt (perhaps as someone relatively unfamiliar with the history and writings of Judaism) much less attached to it than this one.
This is the type of novel that, whether you're a believer in the 9-11 truth movement or firmly in the hawkish US foreign policy camp is affecting, evocative and genuinely moving. While some might say some of the techniques are a bit over-the-top, to me they are remarkable - manipulation of type setting, use of colour in even the paperback version, and the remarkable final "picture flip book" pages (it sounds cheesy but it isn't) is something that affects the reader's senses in more ways than the traditional book without being a cop-out.
There's a lot of reasons why this book means so much to me, but one is the main character - an inquisitive child whose imagination and sheer determination is inspirational, but also because this book doesn't fall into the chasm of maudlin, melodramatic, jingoistic or straight up reckless proclamations that taint so much that's been written, stated or created as a response to 9-11. It's just a brilliant book.
More than a paragraph. Sorry.
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/pro...283155&s=books
Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme...credibly_Close
