E is for Excorticate

Did you know this word? Me, neither. I was looking for a word that meant “to peel layers” beginning with the letter E, and excorticate is what I found. Apparently, its origin is Latin although excorticate is not to be found in my standard Random House Webster’s.

Anyhow, It’s day 5 of

the A to Z Challenge!

Otherwise known as the letter E Day for my theme

Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

“Lydia is dead. But they don’t know this yet.” Thus begins this novel of a Chinese-Caucasian family living in the middle of Ohio in the 1970’s. Everything I Never Told You is not a Young Adult novel, but three of the main narrators are young adults, so this Alex Award novel would be appropriate for high school students. At the heart of this novel is a mystery. Why is sixteen-year-old Lydia dead? What factors contributed to her death? To learn the answers, Lydia’s parents and siblings must excorticate their lives, peeling back layer by layer those small and large events, words said and unsaid.

and

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

When Oskar Schell’s father is killed in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center, Oskar discovers a key his father left behind. Oskar, consumed by guilt and grief, embarks on a quest to discover the secrets behind the key. On his quest, he will peel away layers of secrets of the people he meets as well as those of his own family. He touches lives with his ebullient—at times, manic—spirit, and eventually his efforts to excorticate the past and present will bring a kind of peace.

I really loved the writing and stories of both these books though I found several characters in Everything I Never Told You maddening. I also loved the movie Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close—perhaps even more than I enjoyed the book.

Have you read either of these? Seen the movie? What did you think? 

In case you’re dropping in for the first time, you’ve just entered the A to Z Challenge. Bloggers from all over the world write 26 posts in the month of April, one blog for each letter of the alphabet, six days a week with Sundays off. Anyone who blogs or likes to read blogs can join in. Click here to get started! And be sure to visit other participating blogs and leave comments.