J.S. Foer의 'Extremely loud and Incredibly close' 중

"Well, what I don't get is why do we exist? I don't mean how, but why."
"We exist because we exist."
Just because you're an atheist, that doesn't mean you wouldn't love for things to have reasons for why they are.

Does it break my heart, of course, every moment of every day, into more pieces than my heart was made of, I never thought of myself as quiet, much less silent, I never thought about things at all, everything changed, the distance that wedged itself between me and my happiness wasn't the world, it wasn't the bombs and burning buildings, it was me, my thinking, the cancer of never letting go, is ignorance bliss, I don't know, but it's so painful to think, and tell me, what did thinking ever do for me, to what great place did thinking ever bring me? I think and think and think, I've thought myself out of happiness on million times, but never once into it.

In be that night I invented a special drain that would be underneath every pillow in New York, and would connect to the reservoir. Whatever people cried themselves to sleep, the tears would all go to the same place, and in the morning the weatherman could report if the water level of the Reservoir of Tears had gone up or down, and you could know if New York was in heavy boots.

We're useful now, but soon we'll be interesting.

I petted Buckminster to show him I loved him.

he filled the room, like how a light fills a room even when it's dim.

In the end, everyone loses everyone.

I hope that one day you will have the experience of doing something you do not understand for someone you love.

I was going to walk to the Hudson River and keep walking. I would carry the biggest stone I could bear and let my lungs fill with water.

I needed to do something, like sharks, who die if they don't swim, which I know about.

"Because what's really fascinating is that she'd play the call of a dead elephant to its family members." "And?" "They remembered." "What did they do?" " They approached the speaker."

so that your skin changed color according to your mood? If you were extremely excited your skin would turn green, and if you were angry you'd turn red, obviously, and if you felt like shiitake you'd turn brown, and if you were blue you'd turn blue.
Everyone could know what everyone else felt, and we could be more careful with each other, because you'd never want to tell a person whose skin was purple that you're angry at her for being later, just like you would want to pat a pink person on the back and tell him, "Congratulations!"
you become a confused, gray person.

He said, "OK," and the sound his own voice made him cry the most.

"His body was destroyed"
Mom said, "His spirit is there," and that made me really angry. I told her, "Dad didn't have a spirit! He had cells!" "His memory is there." "His memory is here," I said, pointing at my head. "Dad had a spirit," she said, like she was rewinding a bit in our conversation. I told her, "He had cells, and now they're on rooftops, and in the river, and in the lungs of millions of people around New York, how breathe him every time they speak!" "You shouldn't say things like that." "But it's the truth! Why can't I say the truth!

My life story is spaces.

You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.

There were things I wanted to tell him. But I knew they would hurt him. So I buried them, and let them hurt me.

Years were passing through the spaces between moments.

Everything that's born has to die, which means our livers are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped.

when animal thinks it's going to die, it gets panicky and starts to act crazy. But when it knows it's gong to die, it gets very, very calm.


- 죽음은 누구에게나 찾아오는 것이지만, 살아있는 사람에게 그 상실은 모두 다른 무게를 갖는 것 같다. 911에서 갑자기 아버지를 잃은 9살짜리 상상력 풍부한 소년 오스카는 그 상실을 받아들이지 못하고 아버지의 옷장안에서 찾아낸 열쇠의 자물쇠를 찾아 떠난다. 봉투에 써 있는 'Black'이라는 단어만 보고 뉴욕 주변의 성이 'Black'이라는 사람을 만나기 시작한다. 이 여행은 뜻밖에 상처를 안고 사는 많은 다른 사람들의 이야기로 전개된다. 결국 열쇠는 아버지의 것이 아닌 다른 사람의 죽은 아버지가 남긴 열쇠이고, 그 사람은 이 열쇠를 찾아 이름도 모르는 오스카의 아버지를 찾아왔던 것으로 밝혀진다. 오스카는 그 사람이 기억하고 있는 단편적인 자신의 아버지에 대한 모습에 조금의 위안을 느끼게 된다.
   사람은 사람을 잃지만, 오직 죽음으로만 잃는 것은 아니다. 오스카의 할아버지와 할머니의 이야기를 통해, 사람이 어떻게 사람을 잃고, 정말로 죽음으로 다시는 보지 못하개 되기 전에 우리가 다른 이에게 마지막 순간처럼 충실해야 함을 알려준다. 아들을 한 번도 보지 못하고 그리워하다가 그동안 썼던 편지를 오스카와 함께 (오스카에게 할아버지라는 것도 밝히지 못한채) 묘지를 파서 빈 관에 넣고 오는 오스카의 할아버지.

   읽는 중간 중간 마음이 너무 아파, 창 밖을 한참 바라보곤 했어야 했던 책.  (이 책은 줄거리보다는 한 줄 한 줄의 생각들에서 더 많은 무게를 갖는다. 작가의 위트넘치는 문장이 내용의 슬픔과 만나 묘한 조화와 감동을 이끌어내는 책.)

   여러명 화자의 나레이션이 윌리엄 포크너 (William Faulkner) 의 '내가 죽어 누워있을 때 (As I lay dying)'와도 닮아 있기도 하다. 사뭇 다른 어조의 조금은 같은 슬픔.