I find it hard to write about this book. I'm not sure if it was romantic or just strange. The characters were vague and yet detailed. I was interested in the mystery around the book, but less interested in the chapters of the book itself. I was interested in Alma's story but the other characters, especially the detailed descriptions of aging, reminded me of Philip Roth's Everyman.
I kind of felt as if this book was trying to characterize "life" or something equally vague. Enjoyable, but I'm not quite sure what to make of it.

I wasn't completely sure how I would feel about Nicole Krauss's The History of Love at first. When we started with a chapter where an elderly man talks about his flatulence, I had concerns. However, there's a symmetry between Krauss's book and her husband Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I was similarly worried when the first page of that book featured speculation about a talking anus. The good news is that in both cases, that kind of metaphor and description goes away quickly and leads into something much more inspired.

The History of Love swaps narratives between three (and then at the end, four) characters. We meet Leo Gursky, the elderly man who lives alone and has a penchant for writing and making people pay attention to him. Next, we are acquainted with teenager Alma, who is obsessed with learning more about a book her mother is translating - titled The History of Love. Finally, we see the actual evolution of the book itself as we learn about the author on the title page. In the end, all come together in a most rewarding way.

This is a book about writing, to be sure. It's also a story about the endurance of love. By the time I got to the end, I was in love, too.

A boy in Poland falls in love and writes a book when World War II arrives, and both the love and the book are lost. Leo Gursky, now in his eighties and living in New York City, struggles to be noticed each day so that people will know he has not yet died.

Meanwhile, 14-year-old Alma Singer wants her brother to be normal and her mother to be happy again after the death of Alma's father. In a quest for the story behind her name, Alma and Leo find each other, and Leo learns that the book he wrote so long ago has not been lost.

Krauss develops the story beautifully, incrementally revealing details to expose more and more of the mystery behind Leo's book, The History of Love. At the end, some uncertainty remains about a few of the characters, but it does not matter because the important connections between them are made.

Very, very original. This book is like a puzzle - approached from a variety of directions, angles, and perspectives; only at the end is it completely pieced together so the reader can process the picture.

The History of Love shows how lives of human beings are intricately connected. How a passerby can actually have influenced your entire being without you knowing it, how coincidences can really be subliminal messages from an unseen force.

Leo Gursky is an old man displaced by the Holocaust. He loses his entire family in a raid by the Nazis during WWII, and after a tragic turn of events, loses his chance to live with the one and only love of his life. He deals with his understandable bitterness and disillusionment by watching his son Isaac (who does not know "that (Leo) exists) grow and live. Leo also channels his frustrations into his wandering and obscure writing career. He writes brilliant, but little known books.

Alma Singer, on the other hand, is a fourteen year old girl in Manhattan who is named after a character in one of Leo's books. She is trying to find herself, while dealing with adolescence, an isolated and depressed mother, and a deluded little brother.

How these two families inadvertently help each other through a book is a fascinating, winding story. This book is about how fate can help someone appear after disappearing and how love can give lives purpose. The thick plot keeps the reader restlessly turning the pages until the half disappointing, half fulfilling - and very touching - end.

The writing style is entrancing, funny and philosophical at the same time and I marked so many well crafted passages that my library copy was a colorful array of post its. I also learned a lot about what happened to people who survived or escaped the holocaust - how they dealt with displacement, loneliness, depression. And the main characters were positively endearing.

Good book :)

A book that was very hard to get through - mainly due to an overwheming amount of interconnected characters. After reading half of the book and listening to an audiobook for 3/4 of the book, i finally decided to read through to the end. After giving the book, in its entirety, a shot, it proved to be a fascinating read. The book follows the life of Leopold Gursky, an old man saddened by the loss of his love, Alma. The book then follows 15 year old Alma (no connection to Leo except that she was named after his love). The two are connected by a book that Leo wrote called "The History of Love." He does not know this book still exists. Alma's mother is lovingly translating the book for a stranger (who turns out to be Leo's long lost son), and 15 year old Alma is in search of the characters in this book.
The book will not completely make sense until the very end, but it's definitely worth the wait.

2009

Page 72: The Age of Silence

"the moment had passed, the door between the lives we could have led and the lives we led had shut in our faces."

"lamed vovnik: Never tell anyone you are one of the 36 people the world depends on...

Sometimes when I finish a book that has touched me, I close it, place my hand on the top and just sit. It's like I want to honor those words, that story, those people for just a few minutes longer. I don't want to let it go or just be another story that I read and forget. This action solidifies for me the respect I feel for the people, the author, and the story. This was one of the books for me.

I feel as if I just got off a roller coaster. I could NOT put this book down. I finished it in a day, and I think my words cannot do justice to the touching story, its broad and universal themes, or its tragic but very real setting.

This book made the suffering in Afghanistan, which seemed so impersonal and distant in news reports, seem so very real. For the first time I got just a glimpse of how the country's innocent citizens, and especially its women, suffer. It shows just how much damage fanaticism can do.

Hosseini does a marvelous job of telling the story of the crossing of two very different women in the midst of Afghanistan's political turmoil. Mariam is a middle aged, born an illegitimate child. She has spent all her life expecting nothing and getting very little joy in return. Laila is a beautiful young girl from a wealthy and educated family who in just one day has everything taken from her. Yet she clings to the only thing she has left : the memory of her childhood friend and lover. Both women are "married" to a despicable, twisted, and cruel old man. Mariam watches Laila's spirit and conviction with anger, envy, awe, and eventually protectiveness and love. How she and Laila deal with abuse, contempt, isolation, and humiliation is astonishing and heartbreaking. The story of their hope, and their determination to find even a sliver of happiness, is truly unforgettable.

The book is no happy stroll in the park (quite far from it, actually as you have probably surmised... I had to put the book down a couple of times, and my sister kept asking why the heck I was practically squealing with terror / sadness), but once you read it, you will not regret it. A rare gem. A true eye opener. Remarkable.

It is a book set in Afghanistan. About family and friendship and the heartbreaking ordeals that the characters have to endure on a day to day basis. It makes you realize how good we have it and the things we take for granted. You actually start to really feel how the characters feel. The book is listed in my top ten.

This is an awesome conclusion to The Door Within, and is my personal favorite in the series. Not to read out of order! Good work, Mr. B!

Sweet book! Totally tops the Rise of the Wyrm lord. maybe is better than the door within. Its got insane action sequences, and is upbuilding at the same time!

This is a beautiful conclusion to a great series--not to be missed if you've read the first two books.

The multiple story lines revolving around the main characters are all interesting and intertwined together well. Also, the characters in this book face even higher stakes than before, adding to the action-packed and suspense-filled style present in all of Batson's books. My criticism is that this book is not as memorable for me as the other two and I think the reason is that this story line isn't distinct enough from that of The Rise of the Wyrm Lord so the events of the two books tend to run together more than they do with the first book.