Sophia C. reviewed on 8/21/2011 + 289 more book reviews

The History of Love, a novel within an novel, champions the idea of enduring love and connection. Three storylines—a retired locksmith in New York, a teenager named after the protagonist of the title novel, and a Polish-Chilean writer— are slowly woven together, entreating the reader to discover the connection between them. Nicole Krauss does an admirable job keeping those voices distinct and playing with inventive forms (for example, the teenager's chapters are formatted with numbered headlines). However, I didn't find one of the major characters sympathetic and didn't care for the short sentence fragments that dot his chapters. Although the connection is realized in the end, it seemed anticlimactic as the other interesting characters that Krauss has created are swept aside for the moment of the All-Important-Connection. The story collapsed into being about the life of that one character. Overall, it was an interesting read.

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