Saturday 4 February 2012

The History Of Love by Nicole Krauss


The History of Love is about loneliness.  An old man called Leo Gursky lives alone and spends his days deliberately creating chaos in shops and cafes so someone, anyone will remember him if he dies.  Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer is desperately trying to cure the loneliness of her mother, who has lived in a fantasy world ever since her father died.  Alongside these two main characters resides a cast of secondary characters; Alma's brother Bird, who thinks he is the Jewish Messiah, Leo's childhood sweetheart, Alma's friend Misha.  All are tied together in very clever ways by a manuscript Leo wrote before the Holocaust called The History Of Love.

I so wanted to love this book.  When I mentioned that I had owned it for ages but not yet read it, lots of bloggers told me to read it as they had loved it themselves.  And I did like it, I just didn't love it.

There was lots to like.  Krauss experiments a lot with writing structure and different narrative devices (especially the use of short sentences to convey emotion) and in general, it works.  Her writing feels fresh and exciting and she manages to make each of her characters distinct, despite writing from multiple perspectives.  The characters themselves are original and a bit quirky, different from anything I have read before.  Some of the writing is just beautiful;

"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.  When they were ten he asked her to marry him.  Their love was a secret they told no one.  He promised he would never love another girl as long as he lived.  What if I die? she asked.  Even then, he said."

But despite all of this, I just didn't love The History of Love.  I thought it was interesting and clever and well written but I didn't connect to any of the characters apart from Leo.  Leo was the only one I felt for and rooted for and because of this, some of the other sections dragged.  I know that I was supposed to be guessing and working out the connections between the characters as I progressed through the book, but I didn't want to as I didn't connect enough with the book.  Some of the characters and styles were so quirky that it felt as though Krauss were being deliberately 'different' and 'literary' and that's always a turn off for me.

But don't take just my opinion on this.  Plenty of other people have read and loved this book a lot more than I did.

Source: Personal copy
First Published: 2005
Score: 3 out of 5


18 comments:

  1. I'm keep seeing this one on the library shelf and feeling drawn to it. Sometimes a really literary style of writing puts me off enjoying the plot. Thanks for the review.

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    1. Still try it, really I am in the minority in not loving it.

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  2. I don't feel like I can leave a comment that isn't completely biased. I loved The History of Love, so much so that I'll go ahead and admit that it's my favorite contemporary novel. I'm hoping I receive it when World Book Night informs givers of what they'll be handing out. Bummed that you didn't enjoy it more, but I know not everyone is going to love the same titles. I love the quotation that you provided above! I think my favorite passage was Leo describing how he kept each of his emotions in a part of his body. It was so moving, I cried.

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    1. I wanted to love it, I really did. I was disappointed that I didn't...
      The part at the beginning of the book describing Leo's loneliness and loss was the most moving for me.

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  3. I have this book on my shelf, and it's been there for quite some time. I picked it up after reading a rave review when I first started book blogging. I hate that you didn't enjoy it more :(

    New follower :)

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    1. I wanted to enjoy it, I really did. Maybe I was just missing something...

      Thanks for following, I'm off to visit your blog :)

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  4. Your review described exactly how I felt about Great House, which makes me think that I'd feel the same about History. It can be such an odd feeling to be reading a book that has all the qualities you typically love, but just isn't working for you.

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    1. Hmm, maybe I won't rush out to read Great House, then. It was an odd feeling, especially as I knew that plenty of people whose opinions I respect enjoyed it a lot more than I did.

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  5. I felt the same - I couldn't love the book - I liked it, and was kind of struggling to say more about it after

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  6. I've had my eye on both books already and now I'm curious to see just what she's all about. Whenever I'm in a book store I pick them up and read a page or two and love the writing . . . I wonder what the whole book would be like, though. Hmm

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    1. Plenty of people like them a lot more than I did, Trish. I think you should give it a go.

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  7. I've been wanting to read this one for a long while now...I'd like to have a go at it...all the same, it's a relief to know not everyone is s fan.

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  8. It sounds like it should be interesting, I love your honest review. I sometimes worry that I will recomend a book to friends and they will hate it, it can be such a very personal thing which books you love and which are just okay. A great review!

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  9. I had this same type of experience with her second novel, Great House. In fact, I actually didn't finish it. But yes, there was that disconnect between me and the characters and it failed to fuel my interest in the book. I have this one on my stacks, too, but haven't gotten around to it just yet.

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  10. Ah theres always one isnt there (and normally its me!)

    I havent actually read this yet, Im going to read it next month but its a very short book which surprised me.

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  11. I agree with you whole-heartedly. I *wanted* to love the book. So many of my friends said how they loved the book. But all I could think was, "eh."

    A lot of the writing was wonderful. WONDERFUL. But the story was too hard to follow. I had trouble figuring out what was going on in many places. I figure that if you have to look up information in Wikipedia just to understand it, there's something wrong with the narrative.

    Leo was completely compelling. Bruno -- I wanted to understand him, but didn't have nearly enough information. Bird -- confused kid with no one to help him, just made me sad. Alma -- seemed sweet but never really captured my attention all that much.

    This one will NOT be getting a recommendation from me.

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  12. I found The History of Love to be unmemorable, and I thought maybe I missed something. You made me feel better! I like Great House more, although I would have called it Great Desk (a joke to come back to if you ever read it).

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