2006 book 113

Nicole Krauss' The History of Love
I'd been putting off reading this, because of course Krauss is married to the writer I find most annoying in the world, Jonathan Safran Foer. I realize that's not a fair reason not to read a book by someone (especially since, when this came out, it tended to receive much more favorable reviews than his book did), but she was sort of annoying by association. But one of my co-workers encouraged me to read it, and when she told me she'd loved it so much she's read it a second time (and she's a busy woman!) I gave in to the peer pressure and got it from the library. And, hey--it actually was good! Krauss has some of those sort-of-pretentious tics in her writing style, but somehow for her it works--maybe because she uses them in moderation. The book is primarily narrated by two people, one an old man who grew up in Poland, fled the Nazis, and once wrote a book called The History of Love. The other is a young girl named after his beloved (her sections are written as lists, one of the aforementioned tics that somehow didn't drive me batty). As the girl tries to unravel the story behind her name, the old man works on writing a new book and trying not to die alone and undiscovered. It's really a very touching and engrossing story. Props to Nicole Krauss, who is way more talented than her husband!