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A review by book_concierge
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss
4.0
4****
“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
Leo Gursky escaped the SS in Poland, dreaming of the day he’d go across the Atlantic and find the love of his life, Alma, so they could start their life together. Now he lives alone, afraid no one will notice when he dies. 15-year-old Alma Singer was named for “all the female characters in the book” The History of Love – an obscure volume her father gave her mother. But her father died a few years ago, and her mother has been sad ever since, while her brother seems lost in his obsession that he is the Messiah. What connects these disparate characters is their loneliness, and their search for love.
The novel is also a paean to the written word, in the form of a book – a medium that survives the Holocaust, a transatlantic journey, a flood, plagiarism, fire and international translations to touch men and women, of three different generations, on three continents.
The chapters are narrated in turn by the various characters. I fell in love with Leo Gursky and his chapters are the best, in my opinion. Alma’s chapters are written in a style that is so different that it is jarring, and as a result I felt the plot slowed – too much in my opinion. Still, Krauss can craft a sentence that stays with you; she weaves a rich tapestry, revealing her character’s pain and joy, and arriving at a poignant conclusion that is simply poetic.
“Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering.”
Leo Gursky escaped the SS in Poland, dreaming of the day he’d go across the Atlantic and find the love of his life, Alma, so they could start their life together. Now he lives alone, afraid no one will notice when he dies. 15-year-old Alma Singer was named for “all the female characters in the book” The History of Love – an obscure volume her father gave her mother. But her father died a few years ago, and her mother has been sad ever since, while her brother seems lost in his obsession that he is the Messiah. What connects these disparate characters is their loneliness, and their search for love.
The novel is also a paean to the written word, in the form of a book – a medium that survives the Holocaust, a transatlantic journey, a flood, plagiarism, fire and international translations to touch men and women, of three different generations, on three continents.
The chapters are narrated in turn by the various characters. I fell in love with Leo Gursky and his chapters are the best, in my opinion. Alma’s chapters are written in a style that is so different that it is jarring, and as a result I felt the plot slowed – too much in my opinion. Still, Krauss can craft a sentence that stays with you; she weaves a rich tapestry, revealing her character’s pain and joy, and arriving at a poignant conclusion that is simply poetic.