August Book Of The Month: The History Of Love
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Written with surpassing beauty and subtlety, The History of Love was published in 2005 by Nicole Krauss. Two very different histories and lives unfold at different times and paces in New York City, and the ensuing story of how these two people come together to find a common healing creates a sensational work of art.
““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.””
The History Of Love
Originally Published: 2005
Pages: 272
Available on: Kindle, Paperback, Hardcover, Audiobook
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An old man drifts into his remaining days in the tomb-like quiet of an old New York apartment. His was a life of loss. Leo Gursky has fled the Holocaust and his country, lost the only woman he loved long ago, is haunted by a misplaced book he poured his heart into, and watches from afar a son who never knew his existence live and die. The elderly man’s spunky curiosity and still-burning love for the woman and their son sustains him, even in silence and loneliness. He and his equally-isolated neighbor check upon one another daily to ensure that the other is still alive.
Miles away in the same city, a teenage girl comes across a book that inspires her to help her grieving mother find love once again. Reeling from the recent death of her father, the girl takes up the mission of moving herself, her mother, and her little brother through their separate islands of grief and loss. She has hope that this book (and its mysterious history) will provide relief for her small family’s pain.
““The fact that you got a little happier today doesn’t change the fact that you also became a little sadder. Every day you become a little more of both, which means that right now, at this exact moment, you’re the happiest and the saddest you’ve ever been in your whole life.””
And the tie between these two individuals, who have absolutely no connection nor acquaintance? Both the teenage girl, and the woman who Leo loved and lost, are named Alma, and the balance of coincidence and fate is left to the reader to surmise.
Once upon a time, Leo loved a girl, Alma. It was the deepest kind of love one can hold. With the onset of the Holocaust in Poland, the young couple was wrenched apart when Alma fled to New York for safety. Even though Leo followed her to the States—after years of wandering, writing, and suffering—he came too late. From that point on, Leo floats in a life half-lived, sustained by a love he once knew, a son he never met, and a disappeared book he bled his heart into. Leo does little more than exist on memories of the past, until a turn of events offers a late awakening and fulfillment.
““At times I believed that the last page of my book and the last page of my life were one and the same, that when my book ended I’d end, a great wind would sweep through my rooms carrying the pages away, and when the air cleared of all those fluttering white sheets the room would be silent, the chair where I sat empty.””
Alma—the fifteen year old Alma (not Leo’s lost love)—was born and raised in New York City and has a curious book in her hands. She was named after its main character because it was her beloved father’s favorite, and a mysterious sponsor has recently reached out to Alma’s mother for a translation of this very book. Observing her heartbroken mother absently drift through life, Alma and her little brother both search for ways to fight the crippling loneliness and loss. Alma begins to lean on this book as a symbol of hope. She dives into its mysteries, trailing all over the City to find her namesake and the novel’s “Alma,” in an effort to make her mother find solace and romance with the man who is sponsoring her translation work.
““Part of me is made of glass, and also, I love you.” ”
Alma does not find what she sets out to; she finds something else. As does Leo. They are both too painfully familiar with the heartbreak of death and loss. Their separate journeys of grappling with the concept of love and its value in life culminate as their struggles come to a crossroad.
The History of Love is one of the most beautiful and refreshingly unique works of literature you will read. Artfully and simply written, it is an elegant narrative about the powerful link between words and love, and the deeply human need for both. Language, especially the written word, becomes the bridge between two lonely souls, fastening people together. Just as the characters Leo and Alma revolve around the mesmerizing force of a book, Krauss equally demonstrates this to her readers with her own intensely creative and exquisite writing.
““Even now, all possible feelings do not yet exist, there are still those that lie beyond our capacity and our imagination. From time to time, when a piece of music no one has ever written or a painting no one has ever painted, or something else impossible to predict, fathom or yet describe takes place, a new feeling enters the world. And then, for the millionth time in the history of feeling, the heart surges and absorbs the impact.” ”
Don’t be fooled by its title on love and description as a tear-jerker; this is no beach-read or sappy book about romance. Intellectually stimulating, The History of Love is a mental and emotional exercise and battle. Love, in this work, is the life force that keeps a person living and breathing, the elusive mystery that each person grapples with, and the treasured home each heart aches for. Something painfully raw and heart-breaking haunts this story and cuts deep suddenly. Krauss’ poetic and truthful prose cuts through surface layers to depths of emotion; she has an striking way of capturing both the fullness of emotion and the aching void between two human hearts.
The History of Love received several awards, including being a finalist for the Orange Prize for Fiction. Nicole Krauss is distinguished by the New York Times as “one of America’s most important novelists and an international literary sensation” and by the Financial Times as “one of the great novelists working today.” Her other novels include Forest Dark, Man Walks Into A Room, and To Be A Man.
“Are you the happiest and saddest right now that you've ever been?"
"Of course I am."
"Why?"
"Because nothing makes me happier and nothing makes me sadder than you.”
Read More By Nicole Krauss:
Image: Amazon
Image: Amazon
Image: Amazon