On the History of Love

I will start this off by saying that I really, really like Nicole Krauss’s writing. A few weeks ago, I read her short stories “Switzerland” and “Seeing Ershadi” and was entranced. I decided that I’d pick one of her novels, but I read that few people enjoyed Forest Dark, especially compared with The History of Love. Well, I think now I also need to read Forest Dark.

While looking at the reviews for this book, I’ve seen a bit of debate about what it was even about. Some say the main theme was romantic love, others say friendship, family, or other forms of relationship. While I think all of these themes are important to the text, the one that stood out to me the most was the importance of imagination. The book starts off by framing Leopold Gursky as a crotchety old man who lives a floor below his best friend Bruno. Gursky has lost everything. But as the story goes on, we begin to see a bit of his hyperactive imagination, starting with

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his memory of an elephant in the town center of his native Slonim

. By the end of the story, we learn that

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even his best friend, Bruno, is imaginary

and the story ends with

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Gurksy unsure of whether Alma Singer is real or not. While the two of them share a powerful moment, I’m of the view that Gurksy dies while sitting on the park bench.

. We can also see the power of imagination with Alma Singer’s brother, Bird, who believes he is a lamed vovnik and, perhaps, even the messiah.

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While going through Alma’s notes, his mind jumps rapidly to the idea that he and Alma do not share the same father. In the end, it’s this imagination, and his call with Bernard Moritz, that bring Leopold and Alma together. He is even the person who sends Leopold the English translation of The History of Love.

The other themes are critically important, but I’m of the view that imagination is the most important of the bunch.

Krauss has such a strong command over language here. I had never thought too closely about the use of different registers in the English language before. I knew that they’re important, but I tend to shrug them off, as contemporary English tends towards informality. I see them much more in a variety of other languages. Yet, here, thanks to Krauss’s shifts in register, we are able to tell exactly who is speaking in any given chapter before identifying elements are given away, simply by the way language is used. It also adds to the affective nature of the story, and it left me feeling a lot of powerful emotions.

My favorite character is, hands-down, Bird.

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He’s such a captivating character, and I think he’s on the spectrum.

However, the ending did leave me wanting. I didn’t feel a sense of resolution,

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even now that contact was finally made between Alma Singer and Leopold Gursky.

I think much of this is due to my belief that

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Leopold dies, meaning that Alma is unable to get the answers she wants, and the story of Alma Mereminski, Leopold Gursky, and Isaac Moritz dies with Leopold, as he is the last surviving of the trio.

It’s possible that Bernard knows some, but not all.

Nevertheless, I flew through this thing and, in the end, I think it’s a story that I’ll hold on to for a long while.