The History of Love Written by Nicole Krauss

I hesitated with this book. The title didn’t appeal to me. The History of Love
Certainly not my kind of book. A book of love, a book about love, the reading of others bound within the glories of love? No, I’ve been in love and love, that kind of love, the romantic love, swept away love, the one which makes you sigh leaving all cares of the real world behind, that kind of love doesn’t seem to fit within my life anymore. So I don’t care to read about others and their joys.

But a friend encouraged me to read this and since I trust her, I decided to have an open mind. And within the first few pages the story of Leo, the immigrant Russian Jew, now living in Brooklyn, hoping to survive his life, oh, just a little bit longer, took me to a place I thought I never visited, but found out as I went along, this love certainly was a love I knew very well. It’s the love of the meaningful few who make your life unique. I was reminded there are surprises still around every corner.

Nicole Krauss is the author and from her tiny photo on the back, she looks to be a somewhat young woman. Almost immediately I wondered, and still do, how she found this voice of Leo. How did she put down into words his dialect, his inflections, for I can hear Leo speak as if I’d sat next to him, day after day, on the Number 4 line into Manhattan. Krauss’s imagination must be a joy for her and those who know her, for she’s immersed herself within the life of Leo and hidden behind her lovely looking face, I think there hides an old Russian Jew.

The book takes off in a somewhat curving line, but then makes a sharp right angle and fourteen year old Alma Singer suddenly enters. She too is from Brooklyn; bright, sassy, and seeking some sort of hope for her mother’s loneliness. It’s her love for her mother and her quirky brother...who thinks he can fly...which leads her to seek out the author of a book her mother is translating...a book on the history of love...and its elderly Russian author. And so another side of Krauss is revealed, for she too occupies Alma.

This novel is heartbreaking as well as delightful. It’s devastating within the character’s losses, yet, funny and charming. It’s poignant and even suspenseful. Like all the elements of life itself. A life of love. And not just a passing love, but the deep love one has for those closest to them. A love born out of hope, for hope, after all, is all anyone really has.

The writing is gorgeous, the story touching and Krauss handles it all gracefully.

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss