Book - The History of Love
Synopsis
Written by Dr. Laurie Porter, Professor of English, UT Arlington
UT Arlington’s OneBook selection for 2008-2009 is The History of Love, the second novel of an emerging young author, Nicole Krauss. A Chinese-puzzle of a book, it tells the stories of several different and seemingly unrelated people, using four different narrators. At its center is Leo Gursky, an eccentric, eighty-year-old Jew from Poland. Now living in New York, he spends his days dreaming of Alma Mereminski, the love of his youth who sixty years ago inspired him to write a book.
Across town in Brooklyn, a fourteen-year-old girl named Alma Singer is trying to find a cure for her mother’s loneliness. Thinking she might understand her by reading The History of Love, a cherished book her dead father gave her mother, she decides to track down its author. As Alma’s search widens, she sets in motion a series of events which has far-reaching effects on the loves of people she has never met.
The novel also tells the story of several other characters: Alma’s eleven-year-old brother Bird; Leo’s childhood friend Bruno; his son Isaac, a famous writer; and Zvi Litvinoff, a Jew who (like Leo) escaped the Nazis in Poland. In untangling the various strands of this complicated tapestry, with multiple narrators and story lines, it becomes clear that while this novel is about many things – writing, identity, survival, language, loneliness, love – it is at base about connections: those things which connect us to our past, to community, to ethnicity and religion, to family, and mysteriously, to one another – even those we may not know. As the lives of these characters gradually converge in surprising and unpredictable ways, The History of Love argues for an inter-connected world.
An award-winning book which has been translated into over twenty-five languages, it was voted Amazon.com’s #1 Novel of the Year and shortlisted for the prestigious Orange Prize. Critics have called it “unique,” “breathtaking,” “astounding.” It promises to take its place with The Kite Runner and Maus, our previous OneBook selections, as a book with much to teach us about a world which, though often bewildering, offers connections – and love – when we least expect it.
Audio on ODEO – KCRW’s Bookworm
Wikipedia – The History of Love
Variety – Home Entertainment – WB buys book of ‘Love’
Book Reviews
The New York Times – Books of the Times; The Story Of a Book Within A Book by Janet Maslin
National Yiddish Book Center – The Jewish Reader includes a synopsis, excerpt of the book, and questions for discussion.
The last words of this haunting novel resonate like a pealing bell. ‘He fell in love. It was his life.’ This is the unofficial obituary of octogenarian Leo Gursky, a character whose mordant wit, gallows humor and searching heart create an unforgettable portrait. Born in Poland and a WWII refugee in New York, Leo has become invisible to the world. When he leaves his tiny apartment, he deliberately draws attention to himself to be sure he exists. What’s really missing in his life is the woman he has always loved, the son who doesn’t know that Leo is his father, and his lost novel, called The History of Love, which, unbeknownst to Leo, was published years ago in Chile under a different man’s name. Another family in New York has also been truncated by loss. Teenager Alma Singer, who was named after the heroine of The History of Love, is trying to ease the loneliness of her widowed mother, Charlotte. When a stranger asks Charlotte to translate The History of Love from Spanish for an exorbitant sum, the mysteries deepen. Krauss (Man Walks into a Room) ties these and other plot strands together with surprising twists and turns, chronicling the survival of the human spirit against all odds. Writing with tenderness about eccentric characters, she uses earthy humor to mask pain and to question the universe. Her distinctive voice is both plangent and wry, and her imagination encompasses many worlds. – Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
[I]ngenious and coherent….Krauss has created a crazy spiderweb of associations and missed connections. Miraculously, she actually manages to make all the delicate filaments not only hold together but support the weight of the enormously ambitious narrative. (Grade: A-) – Entertainment Weekly
Even in moments of startling peculiarity, [Krauss] touches the most common elements of the heart….In the final pages, the fractured stories of The History of Love fall together like a desperate embrace. – The Washington Post
Krauss’ novel abounds with myriad literary documents — journal entries, letters, lists, translations, excerpts from an autobiography — penned by her characters, and done so in cleverly distinctive styles that spark each personality to life. – San Francisco Chronicle
A stirring, soulful novel that speaks to our own losses and loves…will break your heart and at once mend it. – Ken Kalfus, author of The Commissariat of Enlightment
UTA Testimonials About the Book
If I had to sum up The History of Love in four words, I would choose voice, connection, humor, and suspense. The History of Love is one of the best works of fiction I have read in a long time. After completing this book, I found my re-reading it to catch the full scope of the narrative and to recreate the connections so subtly interwoven throughout. With her complex, emotionally moving, and often laugh-out-loud funny story, Nicole Krauss proves that great literature doesn’t have to depress you to arouse feelings within you. I think students will really connect with this book, mainly because of its interconnected story lines and points of view. It is easy to find a character or experience that is relatable within the book. —Tasia Milton, UT Arlington student