NicoleKrauss's The History of
Love is a hauntingly beautiful
novel about twocharacters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even afterthe last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. He'sa terribly lonely man who missed out on the life he wanted to live and thewoman he wanted to love, and he does something every day to try to get someone,anyone, to notice him. Her father has died and her mother has been hired totranslate The History of Love from its original Spanish. Alma and herbrother, Bird, struggle to
understand their
world after their father's death,and Alma sets out to understand the story of this novel and the woman for whomshe was named. Thecharacters are compelling and true, and the reader will come through the booknot just caring about but wanting to heal themThe History of Love spans of period of over 60 yearsand takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day BrightonBeach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue ofloneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. As theconnection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along withthe potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed. But in theend, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes thisnovel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold.Born inPoland and a WWII refugee in New York, Leo has become invisible to the world. TeenagerAlma Singer, who was named after the heroine of The History of Love, istrying to ease the loneliness of her widowed mother, Charlotte. This novel istold from the point of view of several narrators. The first, and best narrator, (the parts that feature him are brilliant), isLeo Gursky. Due to the war, Leo and Alma were separated, and Leo has spent his life alone,pining for Alma. Alma tries to find the woman for whom she was named, and Leotries to become a part of the living world, and become a part of his sonIsaac's life. And all of this centers around a mysterious
book entitled TheHistory of Love. Although I enjoyed the character of young Alma, the chapters involving her wereoften odd, and sometimes slowed the pace of the story. there is a lot todiscuss.We’ve come to Grand Streetin honor of Leo Gursky, the lonely octogenarian who anchors her intricatesecond novel, The History of Love. So I ask her how she feels aboutwriters’ succeeding wildly the minute they’re out of the gate.Puttogether, the power couple is easy to resent. But what of it? Authors throughthe ages have been well-off and well connected. More to the point, TheHistory of Love is a significant novel, genuinely one of the year’s best. Theliterary couple is a familiar phenomenon, and one notoriously unfair to thefemale member. That’s a dilemma Nicole Krauss is looking to avoid, and on thestrength of her work she stands a better chance than most. Kraussdoes address the smaller elephant in the room, the writer’s biography ingeneral. And if I didn’t like the man, the book was going to be tainted forme.”Still,Krauss offers a selective biography. “One time my brother tried to be in thegame,” she says. “The partnership collapsed in a month. Wellinto her twenties, Krauss wrote poetry, which “felt like the great goal of thelanguage,” she says. Still, her first novel had the feeling of being tooperfect. “I felt driven by the need to write a book, rather than the need towrite. In writing the new book, “there was a real loosening of control. Thisamounts to one of the simpler transactions in Ms. Krauss's mesmerizinglyconvoluted scheme. The mother’s
voice, a murmur in the blood; and then when wearrive into the cold world the voice as continuation, the sound of love andcomfort. Even before we understand words we understand the voice, the tone thatcan soothe or startle us, the sound that — as we grow older — begins to buildthe stories that allow us to make sense of the world. Once upon a time, thoughnot so long ago, that ability to tell and receries — the stories of ourdays, the stories of myth or religion — was constrained by the directtransmission of mouth to ear, ear to mouth. What is “voice” in writing?The critic Al Alvarez, in his perceptive series of lectures published as TheWriter’s Voice, quotes Philip Roth: “I don’t mean style,” Roth wrote in TheGhost Writer, “I mean voice: something that begins around the back of theknees and reaches well above the head.” The gift of being able to convey voiceon the page, in a book, is rare and true; it’s one that can’t be faked. The History of Love is Nicole Krauss’s second novel,though her first to be published in Britain. And yet.” This is a book of loss andrecovery. Leo never found a love to take Alma’s place; and the other voice thatanimates this book belongs to an Alma, too. Alma Singer is 14; her loss is theloss of her father, David, to cancer when she was seven; now her familyconsists of her grieving mother, Charlotte, and her little brother, known asBird, who thinks he might be the Messiah. Truth and tale are sometimes hard todistinguish; but that’s not the point. Bird would point to the table.
More reviews about the The History of Love