Heavy Boots

{image via}

I started a book club, and our first book, chosen by yours truly, was a doozy.  I knew from reading the blurb that the subject matter--a nine-year-old boy's quest to find out exactly how his father died in the September 11th attacks--would be intense.  And it was.  It was also very difficult to follow in parts.  And I never had that feeling of wanting to just really devour this book, which was a letdown.

I have mixed feelings about this book.  I kind of think that the author, Jonathan Safran Foer, who wrote Everything Is Illuminated (which I did not read, but saw in movie form), relies too much on gimmicks to get by with this story.  He switches from narrator to narrator, throws in photos, creates sections with just a word on each page, etc. 

But then there are things I really like about his writing.  One is "heavy boots," the expression that Oskar uses when he feels sad.  It's so descriptive.  I want to incorporate it into my personal lexicon.

I'm excited to hear what everyone else thought about this book when we meet tonight.