I started reading this book because I had a habit as an undergraduate of writing down any movie title or book title that a professor would mention during class. When your an English major, professors have a habit of saying things like, "Have any of you read _____? This is very similar to that novel because of these things..." Joey Horstman recommended this book.
However, as soon as I finished reading The History of Love by Nicole Krauss, I was reminded of the strange lack of emotion I often feel after visiting a modern art museum. It goes something like this: I know I should be experiencing something through this art, I know other people have experienced something through this art, I know that the "rule breaking" was intentional, but I don't feel anything near what I should be feeling. It made me sad because I was obviously not on the same page as Joey Horstman... a very sad place to be.
I recognize that I'm very traditional in my views of what art is and what art should be--whether I am listening to an orchestra, viewing a painting, or reading a novel, I desire some sort of structure and direction within the piece. To me, if you're going to lean a urinal against a brick wall and call it art, there better be a damn good explanation behind it, other than you "expressing yourself through free-form art." Such were some of the things that bothered me about The History of Love.
The novel is about two different characters--Leo and Alma, who don't know each other, but are connected through a book. The book, called "The History of Love," impacted both of their lives in different ways, and both of them have known the joys and pains of love. In a sense, the novel, The History of Love is about how the novel "The History of Love" affected Leo and Alma's personal love histories. Alma, a young teenage nature-loving girl, longs for her mother to get over the passing of her father. Leo, an old fart in every sense of the expression, is expecting himself to die any day now. He knew love when he was young, but that time is long gone.
Leo's sections of the novel are descriptive and very personable. Leo is a great character. I ended up underlining many of his phrases simply because they made me smile. For example:
A few months ago I saw an ad in the paper. It said, NEEDED: NUDE MODEL FOR DRAWING CLASS. $15/HOUR. It seemed too good to be true. To have so much looked at By so many. I called the number. A woman told me to come the following Tuesday. I tried to describe myself, but she wasn't interested. Anything will do, she said. -4.
Or, one of my favorite lines:
If I get thirsty, it wouldn't be a crime if I got down on my knees and licked the grass.-222
Alma's sections were more artistic. Krauss used a list-format which I found to be choppy and unnecessary. To me, it didn't match the narrator's voice at all. Her chapters would be organized by having one statement capitalized, and then a section to follow. Chapters full of sections and section headings. For example:
1. MY NAME IS ALMA SINGER
(paragraph)
2. WHAT I AM NOT
(paragraph)
3. MY BROTHER BELIEVES IN GOD
(3 paragraphs)
Alma enjoys guidebooks and the outdoors, and makes lists of things needed to survive in the wild, but to me taking that element of her personality and basing her whole voice off of it seems a bit literal.
Without giving too much away, the ending was a bit of a let-down, too. As Alma and Leo get closer and closer to meeting, their sections become shorter and shorter, until they are just single sentences on a page. Krauss enjoys playing with structural elements. However, the ending, which should have been powerful, left a lot to be desired.
I enjoyed reading something more modern--something that stretched me as a reader. It took me a lot longer to read this book than others have. I am glad to have read it, but I am teetering on the edge of whether I would actually recommend it to people. Nicole Krauss obviously has talent; to me, it just needed a bit more refining.
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