Year of the Book begins with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
As we enter into September, SIUE’s English Language and Literature Department is kicking off its Year of the Book. The program has been initiated to encourage campus-wide reading, discussion, and enlightenment through careful selection of contemporary fiction, non-fiction, and poetry by SIUE English Language and Literature faculty.
For every month during the next nine months, the program will feature a different novel or poem to stimulate dialogue regarding the literature among SIUE faculty, staff, and students. September’s novel is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.
The novel is centered around a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell, who loses his father in the September 11 tragedy. Through his grief, the boy takes a journey through New York City, looking for his father’s final message to him and connecting with his grandfather whom he never met. In the last 15 pages of the novel, readers will find photographs of a man falling from the World Trade Center.
SIUE students, faculty, and staff may purchase the book in the University Bookstore and receive a 20 percent discount during the month of September. The book will additionally be available at Lovejoy Library and The Edwardsville Public Library.
On Wednesday, September 12, from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m., an informal discussion on Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close will be held in the Friends Corner of the Lovejoy Library. SIUE Professors Charles Berger, Jeffrey Skoblow, Catherine Seltzer, and Helena Gurfinkel and English minor Caleb Butler will be leading the discussion.
The Edwardsville Public Library will additionally be hosting a free showing of the film adaptation of the novel at 12 p.m. on Monday, September 17, in the large reading room.
Filed Under: English Language & Lit
