The History of Love

Summary (from the publisher): Leo Gursky is trying to survive a little bit longer, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he's still alive, drawing attention to himself at the milk counter at Starbucks. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago, in the Polish village where he was born, Leo fell in love and wrote a book. And although he doesn't know it, that book also survived: it crossed oceans and generations, and changed lives.

Fourteen-year-old Alma was named after a character in that book. She has her hands full keeping track of her little brother Bird (who thinks he might be the Messiah) and taking copious notes in her book, How to Survive in the Wild Volume Three. But when a mysterious letter arrives in the mail she undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. 

Review: The History of Love is composed of multiple strands of plot lines  which only reveal their connections in the final chapters. These include Leo Gursky, an elderly Polish writer, who lives a lonely life in America after fleeing during World War II. As a young man, Leo fell in love with a young woman named Alma, and wrote a book for her. Leo thinks his book was lost in the war, but it is far from gone. This book is also the story of Alma, a teenage girl named by her parents for the Alma of Gursky's book. Alma's family is flailing after the death of her father. 

I had a hard time reading this novel objectively because I was continually struck by how much it reminded me of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. Both feature a young narrator who has lost a father who is trying to solve a mystery and help their grieving mothers, both novels feature the impact of horrible crimes against humanity including the Holocaust and 9/11, and both play with form.

Krauss plays with form in this novel, for example, having one point of view on the left hand page, and another on the right during one chapter. I enjoyed her innovative use of form, but not all of it was effective. For example, Alma's chapters use a numbered list of paragraphs and I was unsure the purpose of this, but rather found it sort of grating. 

I found myself frustrated by this book because the story lines took too long to reveal how they were related, and I ultimately didn't find the connection too inspiring. I found Leo as a character very compelling, but felt less empathetic towards Alma. I think I would have greatly preferred the book if it had focused on Leo, and I was able to learn more about his life, including his life before moving to America. Leo's story was incredibly heartbreaking, and I think for me, his story of missed opportunities and destroyed possibilities was the true heart of the story, and the saving grace of a novel whose numerous plot lines became a bit too disparate at times. 

Stars: 3