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THE HISTORY OF LOVE / A REVIEW
Nicole Krauss's delicious novel leaps and scampers from a story within a story, individuals within individuals, a book within a book and finally to a mapcap frantic 32 page climax where she plants a thought, by itself, on each page ~ thoughts like " A hundred things can change your life . And for a few days, between the time I received the letter and the time I went to meet whoever had sent it ~ anything was possible ."
And indeed, anything is possible in this wonderful and inquisitive journey about love which could well be titled The Power of Love. I am reminded of a wonderful quote from Gibran, in that regard, which sums up this book " And think not that you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course. "
Krauss dramatically knits her story about a long forgotten and discarded book THE HISTORY OF LOVE weaving her magic from the people who read or translate this book .
Consider how she brilliantly sets the stage ;
" This particular book was the last of the two thousand to be printed, and sat for longer than the rest in a warehouse in the outskirts of Santiago, absorbing the humidity.
From there it was finally sent to a bookstore in Buenos Aires . When the store changed owners it fell victim to a massive clearance, and was trucked off to another warehouse, foul, dingy, crawling with daddy longlegs, where it remained in the dark and damp before finally being sent to a small secondhand bookstore not far from the writer Jorge Luis Borges.
The owner took her time unpacking the books she'd bought cheaply and in bulk from the warehouse . One morning, going through the boxes, she discovered the mildewed copy of THE HISTORY OF LOVE.
She'd never heard of it , but the title caught her eye. She put it aside, and during a slow hour in the shop she read the opening chapter, called ' The Age of Silence '"
And away we go ~ delightfully dodging between chapters, characters and situations and occasionally a priceless gem like this experience of first love;
" But now she seemed different to me. I became aware of her special powers. How she seemed to pull light and gravity to the place where she stood .. I half expected that in another moment I'd be able to make out the cells of her skin as if under a microscope ...But it didn't last long, because at the same time I was becoming conscious of her body, I was becoming aware of my own. The sensation almost knocked the breath out of me . A tingling feeling caught fire in my nerves and spread. The whole thing must have happened in less than 30 seconds. And yet, when it was over, I'd been initiated into the mystery that stands at the beginning and end of childhood. It was ten years before I'd spent all the joy and pain born in me in that less than half a minute."
Welcome to the sensory experience of love and written by someone who obviously knows its overwhelming power and mystery ~ as I most certainly do.
This book is a wonderful reminder of the timelessness of love or, better yet, that those who we love deeply become part of us forever.
As a writer, I was inspired by the creative license Krauss gave herself and her book succeeded enormously.
I highly recommend it to all.
Allen L Roland
Catch me the first Monday of each month
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TRUTHTALK
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