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Loading... The History of Love: A Novel (original 2005; edition 2006)by Nicole Krauss
Work detailsThe History of Love by Nicole Krauss (Author) (2005)
Compelling, interweaving narratives... While History of Love is reminiscent of Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, the prose is far more beautiful and the characters more complexly painted. Krauss' story is a testament to the power of a single book, regardless of how few people have read it. (  ) ElizabethAndrew | May 13, 2013 |  It took me a while to get through this book. The overall plot was interesting but the writing style made it hard to pick up. I liked it but the storytelling felt very bogged down and overly detailed. Perhaps I wasn't in the right mood to get into more than I did. (  ) kristi17 | May 13, 2013 | I didn't finish it because I got bored after 50 pages. heike6 | May 2, 2013 | Yes, this is about love, but for me, it’s mostly about writing. It begins with a brave and endearing portrait of the old man, Leo Gursky, the writer who has lost his book. He spends his time working on being visible to the people around him, making sure that people will know he is walking the earth with them. Leo wrote a book when he was still a young man in Poland, but he lost it when he had to hide from the Nazis. This novel is about that book, and the independent life it leads. It is published under a different name; it travels and is translated; it brings lovers together; it gives a young girl her name. This novel is also the story of that young girl and her brother. They themselves seem like refugees in this world, looking for their places. All the characters in this book, including the book, struggle with the question of identity. All of them feel blessedly special and yet unutterably lonely and apart. At times, the writing is crystalline and perfect, and at other times, it is a little jerky, like the labored breathing of a runner. It switches voices frequently, and not always smoothly, but generally the slightly off-key structure works well. It reminds us that writing doesn’t have to fit any particular structure; it just has to be honest. ( ) astrologerjenny | Apr 25, 2013 | Yes, this is about love, but for me, it’s mostly about writing. It begins with a brave and endearing portrait of the old man, Leo Gursky, the writer who has lost his book. He spends his time working on being visible to the people around him, making sure that people will know he is walking the earth with them. Leo wrote a book when he was still a young man in Poland, but he lost it when he had to hide from the Nazis. This novel is about that book, and the independent life it leads. It is published under a different name; it travels and is translated; it brings lovers together; it gives a young girl her name. This novel is also the story of that young girl and her brother. They themselves seem like refugees in this world, looking for their places. All the characters in this book, including the book, struggle with the question of identity. All of them feel blessedly special and yet unutterably lonely and apart. At times, the writing is crystalline and perfect, and at other times, it is a little jerky, like the labored breathing of a runner. It switches voices frequently, and not always smoothly, but generally the slightly off-key structure works well. It reminds us that writing doesn’t have to fit any particular structure; it just has to be honest. ( ) astrologerjenny | Apr 24, 2013 | no reviews | add a review
 Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0393328627, Paperback)Nicole Krauss's The History of Love is a hauntingly beautiful novel about two characters whose lives are woven together in such complex ways that even after the last page is turned, the reader is left to wonder what really happened. In the hands of a less gifted writer, unraveling this tangled web could easily give way to complete chaos. However, under Krauss's watchful eye, these twists and turns only strengthen the impact of this enchanting book.The History of Love spans of period of over 60 years and takes readers from Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe to present day Brighton Beach. At the center of each main character's psyche is the issue of loneliness, and the need to fill a void left empty by lost love. Leo Gursky is a retired locksmith who immigrates to New York after escaping SS officers in his native Poland, only to spend the last stage of his life terrified that no one will notice when he dies. ("I try to make a point of being seen. Sometimes when I'm out, I'll buy a juice even though I'm not thirsty.") Fourteen-year-old Alma Singer vacillates between wanting to memorialize her dead father and finding a way to lift her mother's veil of depression. At the same time, she's trying to save her brother Bird, who is convinced he may be the Messiah, from becoming a 10-year-old social pariah. As the connection between Leo and Alma is slowly unmasked, the desperation, along with the potential for salvation, of this unique pair is also revealed. The poetry of her prose, along with an uncanny ability to embody two completely original characters, is what makes Krauss an expert at her craft. But in the end, it's the absolute belief in the uninteruption of love that makes this novel a pleasure, and a wonder to behold. --Gisele Toueg (retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Feb 2013 14:01:03 -0500) Sixty years after a book's publication, its author remembers his lost love and missing son, while a teenage girl named for one of the book's characters seeks her namesake, as well as a cure for her widowed mother's loneliness. (summary from another edition) |
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 Audible.comThree editions of this book were published by Audible.com.
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