I just finished this book and feel incredibly uncomfortable. Oskar and his perspective were wonderful and a unique take on trauma and loss in the aftermath of 9/11. The rest…not so much.
I loathed the grandparents' side plot. I guess I was supposed to be empathetic to them but they just made me so uncomfortable? The grandpa seemed like an insensitive asshole through and through, and the phrases he wrote things in his daybook were so odd and unhelpful it drove me mad. All the last-name-Black characters Oskar interacts with on his journey also were strange and felt like they were caricatures or living in some warped version of reality.
This book felt like a literary uncanny valley, none of the characters felt particularly human or relatable besides Oskar. Maybe that was the point. Did anyone else feel the same way about the characters besides Oskar in this book? What was your take on how "real" or "uncanny" they felt?
by marks31