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The History of Love

By Krauss Nicole

(147)

| Hardcover | 9780670915545

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Book Description

A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't alContinue

A long-lost book reappears, mysteriously connecting an old man searching for his son and a girl seeking a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness.

Leo Gursky is just about surviving, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And though Leo doesn't know it, that book survived, inspiring fabulous circumstances, even love. Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that very book. And although she has her hands full—keeping track of her brother, Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah), and taking copious notes on How to Survive in the Wild—she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With consummate, spellbinding skill, Nicole Krauss gradually draws together their stories.

This extraordinary book was inspired by the author's four grandparents and by a pantheon of authors whose work is haunted by loss—Bruno Schulz, Franz Kafka, Isaac Babel, and more. It is truly a history of love: a tale brimming with laughter, irony, passion, and soaring imaginative power.

Critics

  • Krauss, Nicole–THE HISTORY OF LOVE

    (Reviewed JUN 12, 2005) “I often wonder who will be the last person to see me alive. If I had to bet, I’d bet on the delivery boy from the Chinese take-out. I order in four nights out of seven. Whenever he comes I make a big production of finding my ... (read full critics)

    marywhipplereviews published on Sat, 4 Sep 2010

13 Reviews

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  • 5 people find this helpful

    Reading The History of Love

    I wasn't completely sure how I would feel about Nicole Krauss's The History of Love at first. When we started with a chapter where an elderly man talks about his flatulence, I had concerns. However, there's a symmetry between Krauss's book and her husband Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and In ... (continue)

    I wasn't completely sure how I would feel about Nicole Krauss's The History of Love at first. When we started with a chapter where an elderly man talks about his flatulence, I had concerns. However, there's a symmetry between Krauss's book and her husband Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I was similarly worried when the first page of that book featured speculation about a talking anus. The good news is that in both cases, that kind of metaphor and description goes away quickly and leads into something much more inspired.

    The History of Love swaps narratives between three (and then at the end, four) characters. We meet Leo Gursky, the elderly man who lives alone and has a penchant for writing and making people pay attention to him. Next, we are acquainted with teenager Alma, who is obsessed with learning more about a book her mother is translating - titled The History of Love. Finally, we see the actual evolution of the book itself as we learn about the author on the title page. In the end, all come together in a most rewarding way.

    This is a book about writing, to be sure. It's also a story about the endurance of love. By the time I got to the end, I was in love, too.

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    moogle said on Mar 28, 2007 | Add your feedback

  • 2 people find this helpful

    This is one of those books that you want to savour, yet can't wait to continue reading. I'm a bit sad that it's over now. I loved it. Can't wait to re-read.

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    annemarie said on Dec 27, 2006 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    Unusual

    I really loved this book. There are two story tellers: one is an old man named Leopold, a survivor of the Holocaust who immigrates to NY, who writes a book about his beloved, a woman named Alma. The other story teller is a young girl, whose life is inextricably linked to Leo and Alma. What a charmin ... (continue)

    I really loved this book. There are two story tellers: one is an old man named Leopold, a survivor of the Holocaust who immigrates to NY, who writes a book about his beloved, a woman named Alma. The other story teller is a young girl, whose life is inextricably linked to Leo and Alma. What a charming mix of sadness, humor, quirky characters, and quirky fate. I loved it. I'm sure I will re-read.

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    Marion the librarian said on Apr 27, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Krauss calls this book the history of love but it struck me as being more a history of loss. It is the story of a displaced person, an elderly man drowning in urban isolation, cut of from his only son and deprived even of authorship of his own words. He is a man who fears that he is invisible and wh ... (continue)

    Krauss calls this book the history of love but it struck me as being more a history of loss. It is the story of a displaced person, an elderly man drowning in urban isolation, cut of from his only son and deprived even of authorship of his own words. He is a man who fears that he is invisible and whose only friend is in fact imaginary. Krauss has created an unforgettable character in Leo Gursky. I could have done without some of the smoke and mirrors she felt she needed to create around Leo's story but I am very glad to have read it.

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    Top of the pile said on Feb 7, 2012 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • I liked the fact that it was a different, well written book and that it conveyed the idea of love lasting a lifetime. But at times the characters were confusing, not much actually happens throughout the novel. Rather disappointing.

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    Lunarossa said on Feb 25, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Complex and adorable

    A young girl and an old man - both quite oblivious to the existence of the other - form the base for this fantastic book where life and love are intertwined throughout several decades. The author has used quite a few tricks and twists to make this book work, and it does; for instance, skipping betwe ... (continue)

    A young girl and an old man - both quite oblivious to the existence of the other - form the base for this fantastic book where life and love are intertwined throughout several decades. The author has used quite a few tricks and twists to make this book work, and it does; for instance, skipping between different story-tellers' perspectives, jumping in time, telling different stories starting in the middle: this may make the book sound complex, and it sometimes is, but pays off dearly at the end. It is well-written, quirky and adorable.

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    Niklas Pivic said on Aug 9, 2010 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

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