The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

 

No plot – all character development.  That’s the way I described this book last Sunday on the radio (Peter & Pat on books – 1^st Sunday of the month at 8pm).

The orange prize is an obscure sort of inside literati New York/London scene award for young female authors who are innovative in their approach to fiction.  Well I’m old school and did not find Nicole’s approach either thoughtful or stimulating. 

I found the stream of consciousness blather to be like reading snippets from someone’s diary – and the some ones were people to whom I didn’t take a liking.  They were boring people.  Alma Singer was totally forgettable.  Leo Gursky was a putz.

The missing plot gimmick leaves the reader without a “hook”, something you can grab a hold of so you can look over to your bedmate and say, “I’m reading a great book about murder on the orient express”.  ---PLOT--- and quickly, dozens of subplots and themes come to mind, so your partner says, “Tell me a little more about it”.  But we don’t have a defensible plot for Leo, so leaning over across the bed, I would say, “I’m reading a book about this nebbish who comes to America after the war and looks up his old girlfriend but she is married now, so not a part of the story anymore.  But she had Leo’s son, so fifty years later Leo tries to look up the son, but he has died by now … .. but at this juncture my bedmate would be snoring, in their loveable way.

For ten years, I’ve finished even the “worst” of book club selections.  This one was just too blah.   I will leave a backdoor open.  Maybe it was me. 

This past few weeks has been an emotional and stressful time for me.  My sister went back to Waterloo Nebraska and laid to rest our mother’s ashes; her estate was settled which allowed me to pay off my home mortgage, and commit to the completion of my house renovations; I have been distracted enough that I forgot and missed the casting call for the Library’s Reader’s Theater 2013 program.