Book Review: The History of Love

I just finished The History of Love by Nicole Krauss on my way to the office this morning. I started reading History after I read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The two authors are married. The two authors write incredibly similarly so just about every book selling website suggests that you read both if any at all. Like a lamb, I followed the advice of one Amazon.com blindly without realizing I may have needed a break between the two.

Anyway, the History is all about an old man who lost his first and only love. This man wrote a book about his first and only love and through time and travel that book ended up in the hands of a widow. This widow was gifted this book by her late husband and they named their first born child after the main character in the book, Alma. Through kid-sized twists and turns, the book author and the girl who was named after its infamous character are desperately trying to find one another for piece of mind among other things. History is heartwarming. But after Foer's book I didn't really need heartwarming. History is also at times obvious and childlike. Now perhaps I came to it a little cynical but Krauss almost insults her readers by tying this extremely convoluted and complicated story up in a perfect little bow. How can something that took 200 pages to tell only take 15 pages to wrap up? Damn it Krauss, we came so far together only for me to be left standing here with my thumb up my *ss.

Anyway. That's that. As for who the h*ll I am, my name is Sara* and I went to high school with Noa. I live in Williamsburg, BK and have a bf and a pup. I enjoy being entertained by books the same way I am entertained by movies and television. This makes me a peculiar book reader because most people turn to books to get away from those other things I mentioned. Hope to meet you at a book club meeting sometime soon.