I should have been working on my revisions instead of reading this novel today, but I woke up in such a fog that I couldn't even imagine where to begin. I tried to convert my C.V. into a resume instead of doing revisions but I was too brain-foggy for that too, so I gave up and started reading. (Thankfully, I have finished that wretched piece of shit, Flowers for Algernon, so reading is now pleasurable again.)
So far, I'm really enjoying this book. Sometimes it makes me laugh out loud straight from the belly; more often, though, it makes me weepy and pathetic and while I'm no avoider of the waterworks, I feel I could use more laughter these days. But as Roger and Aristophanes know, comic writing isn't as well-respected and common as it should be.
Anyway, The History of Love is quite compelling. It's a sort of mystery, but not a murder mystery; maybe a puzzle would be a better way to describe it. There are (at least) 2 first person narrators and a third person omniscient narrator who stops in every once in a while; there are many characters who are not obviously connected, although one of the connections I began to suspect earlier today is starting to be revealed.
Nicole Krauss is married to Jonathan Safran Foer, one of the US's current literary golden boys; he's doing so well, in fact, that according to my internet sources (always reliable) Krauss doesn't like to talk about him in interviews. And fair enough; one wants to be respected and considered on one's own terms.
However, the rumour (which they both apparently find absurd) that they perhaps collaborate on one another's novels doesn't seem far fetched to me - I definitely see a lot of clear similarities. I don't care though; good books are good books, regardless of who wrote them.
(I found Krauss's novel while wandering around in a bookstore, which I've been known to do on occasion.)
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