Leo Gursky taps his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he’s still alive. But it wasn’t always like this: in the Polish village of his youth, he fell in love and wrote a book. . . . Sixty years later and half a world away, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in that book, undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With virtuosic skill and soaring imaginative power, Nicole Krauss gradually draws these stories together toward a climax of “extraordinary depth and beauty” (Newsday)I'm trying out a new feature on the blog, so let me know what you think! I read a lot more books than I review so if I have any strong feelings about a book or think it will be of interest to my readers I'm now going to give you a little mini review, a miniview! Yay, more of my opinions.
The History of Love is a big novel, not in the sense of volume, but scope. While ultimately enjoyable it did take me a few attempts to get caught up in the text.
Krauss' text benefits from a simplicity of language and description that lends the book a poetic air. For this reason it's hard to rush and instead is bettter savoured at a slower pace. The novel covers grief, loss and pain, each from a different perspective ensuring that Krauss is likely to speak to each reader.
The novel flits between three perspectives and voices which can be a bit ardious and confusing at times, however, it is well worth the effort. One of the final narrators, Bird, is perhaps the most rewarding.
Holding on to a sense of ambiguity to the bitter(sweet) end, The History of Love is a book that will stay with you long after you've finished reading it.
No comments:
Post a Comment