September group read discussion thread

[Caryl]

Here is our discussion thread for The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. If you haven't finished reading, beware of spoilers.

[jennifershepard]

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[jennifershepard]

The History of Love was an incredible and intricate novel, so beautifully and carefully written. Nearly every section had a passage, a sentence that made me cry. I'm utterly amazed at the ability of Nicole Krauss to so seamlessly layer words and sentences and three storylines.

The characters are nicely complex. I love the little details Krauss used to flesh them out, like the efforts Leo made in an attempt not to be invisible (dropping business cards here and there, the elaborate knocking system he devised w/his neighbor). I loved Alma and all her quirky interests.

Some passages of the book were heartbreaking to me, and I'm not sure how the author was able to achieve this, except she did it quite confidently.

I can recommend The History of Love easily, and I look forward to hearing other opinions.

[SusanH]

I'm very torn about this novel. Parts of it I really liked, and parts of it didn't work at all for me. First what I liked:
~the language
~the sections about 14 year old Alma
~the gradual resolution of the mystery

And now for what I didn't like:
~most of the Leo parts felt very derivitive to me of Babel, Singer and Hrabal. Now, if you're going to steal, those are great artists to steal from. But I ultimately felt like it was more of an attempt to write in a tradition that wasn't really the tradition of the writer (who grew up wealthy and privileged in America in the 80's) and that as such, it failed to have the emotional depth of the great E. European writers that she was aping. I also didn't feel like her magical realism was there for any reason other than lots of great writers were magical realists. It wasn't effective for me the way it is when reading Hrabal.
~Some of her stylizations began to annoy me as the novel progressed. Particularly the over use of But. and And yet. If she'd cut a few of them out, I wouldn't have been bothered by them. I also would have preferred skipping the paragraph headings for Alma's passages. I felt it interrupted the narrative flow and made the novel too self-consciously a literary exercise.

I think ultimately I was too distracted by what felt like the author trying to create great literature by copying other great literature rather than write in her own natural style.

I would still recommend the book, however, if only because I know I am very much in the minority. I've been reading reviews online and found that pretty much other than James Wood and me, the entire world loves this novel.

[Scout]

Originally Posted by SusanH

I've been reading reviews online and found that pretty much other than James Wood and me, the entire world loves this novel.

No, you're not the only one. I read two chapters, was bored silly and returned it to the library without finishing it.