Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Contemporary Novels of Immersion


As the terrestrial world is warming up, the literary one is cooling down. A century ago, books engaged the heart as well as the mind, and when we read, emotion seized us, took us over, broke us down. . . . this deep engagement is now rare. Passion is largely absent from our books: an icy chill has crept across the writer’s landscape.

Roxanna Robinson, Literary Critic “The Big Chill” The New York Times Book Review

“We’re all one beat away from becoming elevator music.”
Don DeLillo, Novelist

The title of this course alludes to New York writer Jonathan Foer’s 2005 novel about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. This novel and others of our time represent one trend in fiction toward full body “immersion”—fiction meant not just to engage the mind but seize the senses, especially the soul.

This means that the novels we read in this course will not be sentimentally soothing—no elevator music for us--but neither will they be merely sensational, meant merely to shock without thought. Some will be formally innovative—using contemporary techniques of formatting to deepen your reading engagement beyond merely aesthetic to historic and political realms. All will engage the heart—no icy chill will fill this classroom, as we attempt to steer clear of
Don DeLillo’s fatalistic prediction for the contemporary novel.

We will average a novel every 1.5 to 2 weeks, and the following we will definitely read: Nicole Krauss, The History of Love; Ali Smith, Hotel World; Cormac McCarthy, No Country for Old Men. Other possibilities include: Toni Morrison, Beloved; Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis; Jonathan Foer, either Everything is Illuminated or Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close; Ann Pancake, Strange as this Weather Has Been; Monique Truong, The Book of Salt; Jeffrey Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides; Russell Banks, The Sweet Hereafter; Isabelle Allende, The House of Spirits; Zadie Smith, White Teeth or On Beauty. (There may be others, as these later choices will be based in part on what is readily available from publishers in paperback). We may view one or two film adaptations of particular novels and read popular and scholarly reviews of those films to discover more about movies and audience immersion.

Course work includes active, thoughtful, vocal, in-person participation; short writing assignments; and a final examination.