The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

W.W. Norton and Co. 254 pages.

A novel that puts the literary into literary fiction, "The History of Love" assaults you with its originality. Author Nicole Krauss toyed with chronology, structure and standard page formatting in crafting this post-modern book about a book (called, naturally, "The History of Love"). In doing so, she succeeded in getting everyone's attention (it was nominated for an Orange Prize, among others). There is definitely much to admire in Krauss' book and it almost demands a second reading. Yet at times, it feels like she was trying just a little too hard to be quirky and daring. Put another way, there were plenty of moments when it was a little too obvious that the artist was in the room.



The story of the novel - which more or less concerns the unique connection between a young girl named Alma, an altacucker named Leo Gursky and a book called The History of Love - is not half as interesting as the novel's structure, which bounces through time and takes the guise of letters, diaries and standard prose. The plot unfolds through four narrative voices. The first is standard, first person narration by Gursky as he details his lonely wait for death. The second is written as excerpts from Alma's notebook, which may or may not be from a book she's writing called "How to Survive in the Wild"; in any case, her story details her obsession with the book The History of Love. The third narrator is Bird, Alma's brother, who speaks to us through diary entries.

The last narrator is the most intriguing: the only third person voice, we are unsure if this is a) Alma writing at a distant time; b) an unnamed historian or c) Krauss herself. Whoever (she?) is, this narrator only appears in the middle of the book to tell us historical information not being conveyed anywhere else. It is here that the post-modern nonsense kicks in: the presence of an external narrator suggests that the first person accounts (Gursky's narrative, Alma's excerpts, Bird's diary) have all been assembled by an outside force who is now presenting the book to us. The continual shifts from one narrator to another and the unusual formatting (some pages only have one or two words on them) all continue to remind us that we are holding a book and that the external narrator is trying to convey something that isn't being conveyed through the plot itself.

If all of this is making you yawn, then this really isn't the book for you. The History of Love is a book about a book written by someone who adores books for people who love them. It's definitely innovative and in many respects, it's a tour-de-force. But whenever so many rabbits are being pulled from so many hats, one has to wonder why the magician felt the need to resort to so many tricks. Does the unique structure of The History of Love  actually help the narrative? Are the tricks really the best way to convey the story Krauss wanted to convey? As I said, a second reading may be in order...

As a side note, The History of Love is so far the first book I've encountered that should never be e-published. It's peculiar formatting is so integral to the book that an electronic version might probably alter Krauss' intentions. Even an audio version might not do the book justice. In this, at least, we have something truly remarkable: a narrative that can truly only be appreciated through the medium of print.