THE HISTORY OF LOVE: Nicole Krauss: W.W. Norton: Fiction: 252 pgs.This is one of those books that as you finish it, you tilt your head to the side and say "huh"...in a good way. I started out loving it. The story is told through the lives of 4 different individuals. One is Leo Gursky a Jewish immigrant who survived the holocaust and is now living out the last years of his life in New York City. Then there is Alma, a young teenager searching for someone that can help her mother recover from the death of Alma's father. Alma's younger brother adds a little of his own story. And finally, a narrator tells the story behind the published author of a book titled "The History of Love".
Each character has a special connection to the manuscript of "The History of Love" and it was fun to try and figure out how each character fit into the puzzle of where the book came from and how it had touched lives. I adored Leo and his outlook on life. The book is beautifully written and it lives up to it's title in portraying all the types of love we experience in our lives. I didn't finish loving it quite as much as I started out loving it. But I would recommend it to anyone who likes a book that makes you think a little. It's a pretty gentle read and would be perfect for a book group.
CZ
2 comments:
I read this book when it first came out and really enjoyed it. I think the quote below from the author, Nicole Krauss, pretty much summarizes what I loved about the book.
"The book is about the necessity of imagining in the space of loss and of filling silence with made-up things—thoughts, feelings, images. Everyone in the book invents things to survive. . . And The History of Love becomes not simply a story of love and loss but also a moving history of survival, visibility and the joy of living."
This was one of the MOST amazing books I have read. I agreed with CZ statement, "This is one of those books that as you finish it, you tilt your head to the side and say "huh"...in a good way." And I also liked the quote AJ pulled out.
Of course, it's about Love(capital L), but also about love(lowercase l)...in a way I never knew love existed or could have imagined it to be. But I'm so grateful the author did. The characters became dear to me: People you love and weep for and want the best for because they are flawed, and honest, and yearning and endearing.
It's a thinking, and feeling, and remembering, and hoping sort of book. The novel explores how much 'loss' plays part in loving. It is a back and forth look at 4 separate individuals whose lives end up melding together because of their shared histories of love. And the finale, worthy of the term denouement, .
The last 4 lines of the poem that end the novel are so exquisitely beautiful that I want to tell the world and wish I had written them and remember them always. So read them and then try to imagine a book as beautifully intriguing as these 4 lines deliver.
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Really, there isn't much to say.
He was a great writer.
He fell in love.
It was his life.
-Nicole Krauss
DLA
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