Lecture: Jonathan Safran Foer
Jonathan Safran Foer, author of the best-selling novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, will be speaking at the Fine Arts Center Concert Hall. The event, which is free and open to the public, is being sponsored by Commonwealth College, the honors college at UMass, where a committee of senior honors students has selected Foer’s novel as required reading for the fall semester. Foer’s previous novel, Everything is Illuminated, was named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and was adapted to the screen by director Liev Schreiber.
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tells the story of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, a precocious and inventive 9-year old boy whose father was killed in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. After finding a mysterious key in his father’s closet, Oskar begins a quest through New York City to find the lock that it opens.
Foer’s visit to UMass comes at a time when over 1,400 honors students enrolled in Commonwealth College will be reading and discussing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in a research and communication seminar called the Dean’s Book Course, which is devoted to the study of a single contemporary book and exploration of issues it raises. According to Alex Phillips, Director of the Dean’s Book Course, Foer’s appearance “will give students a unique opportunity to hear in person an author whose book provides a window into examining the most influential historical event that has happened during their generation.”
