I hesitated with this book. The title didn’t appeal to me. The History of LoveCertainly not my kind of book. A book of love, a book about love, the reading of others bound within the glories of love? No, I’ve been in love and love, that kind of love, the romantic love, swept away love, the one which makes you sigh leaving all cares of the real world behind, that kind of love doesn’t seem to fit within my life anymore. So I don’t care to read about others and their joys.
But a friend encouraged me to read this and since I trust her, I decided to have an open mind. And within the first few pages the story of Leo, the immigrant Russian Jew, now living in Brooklyn, hoping to survive his life, oh, just a little bit longer, took me to a place I thought I never visited, but found out as I went along, this love certainly was a love I knew very well. It’s the love of the meaningful few who make your life unique. I was reminded there are surprises still around every corner.
Nicole Krauss is the author and from her tiny photo on the back, she looks to be a somewhat young woman. Almost immediately I wondered, and still do, how she found this voice of Leo. How did she put down into words his dialect, his inflections, for I can hear Leo speak as if I’d sat next to him, day after day, on the Number 4 line into Manhattan. Krauss’s imagination must be a joy for her and those who know her, for she’s immersed herself within the life of Leo and hidden behind her lovely looking face, I think there hides an old Russian Jew.
The book takes off in a somewhat curving line, but then makes a sharp right angle and fourteen year old Alma Singer suddenly enters. She too is from Brooklyn; bright, sassy, and seeking some sort of hope for her mother’s loneliness. It’s her love for her mother and her quirky brother...who thinks he can fly...which leads her to seek out the author of a book her mother is translating...a book on the history of love...and its elderly Russian author. And so another side of Krauss is revealed, for she too occupies Alma.
This novel is heartbreaking as well as delightful. It’s devastating within the character’s losses, yet, funny and charming. It’s poignant and even suspenseful. Like all the elements of life itself. A life of love. And not just a passing love, but the deep love one has for those closest to them. A love born out of hope, for hope, after all, is all anyone really has.
The writing is gorgeous, the story touching and Krauss handles it all gracefully.
Priscilla Whitley
A Thousand Splendid Suns by: Khaled Hosseini
This was by far one of the most powerful books I have read in years. It was the kind you can’t bear to put down, but as the pages in your right hand begin to disappear you become compelled to shut it just to keep the end far away.
My little love affair with this novel didn’t begin right away, though. Like the rest of the country I too devoured The Kite Runner. But I saw the movie first which was something I rarely ever do. Good film. Better book (aren’t they all?). The story of Amir and Hassan is of course incredible but I had trouble replacing the images from the movie with my own as a I read it. I also tend to have a bit of an elitist attitude when it comes to books and loathe reading something everyone else is reading (ahem…Da Vinci Code anyone?). There’s no reason. I just do. So I thought it would be perfect to read his second novel. I took it with me on a little weekend vacation to a lake in western Maryland, found a place by the water and settled in for the next few hours.
In all honesty I had a lot of difficulty getting in to it. There was hardly a summary on the book’s jacket, which is good in that it allows you to just read with no preconceived notions, but I also didn’t know where the story was heading. Either way, I kept reading. Hours and a wicked sunburn later I put it down. When I was asked how it was, I kept saying ‘it’s good. I don’t quite know where it’s going. But I trust Hosseini." I repeated that sentiment the next day too. Even when no one asked at dinner I brought it up and said I liked my book but wasn’t sure why yet.
The key thing is I really did trust him. That’s hard, I think, to trust a writer. Essentially (if they’re good) you’re letting them borrow your mind, to plant words and ideas and for you to supplement your own conceptions. To capture someone like that is hard, but for them to then believe in you is a gift.
Anyway, in the same spirit of my not having known anything about this story to begin with, I am reluctant to divulge the plot here. What I will say is that where in The Kite Runner the story is primarily about boys/men and their relationships, this is most certainly about women and the perils they face within their culture and their country. Like The Kite Runner the book is split in two; divided by time, place, but ultimately intertwined together. Two generations, two wildly different women. I’m glad I kept reading. It was absolutely worth it.
I can honestly say that I never saw any of the plot coming. Every page surprised me, and I think that is a rare and unique thing to do as a writer. I wept, I laughed, I smiled. I have been truly touched by the characters who were developed in such a subtle way. This, I must point out, provided a distinctive substance to their nature. He dedicated a lot of space to building these characters. It was risky, but all worth it.
The other aspect of the book I wanted to address was the context of its time and place. Both The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns address the perils this country and her people have been through in the last century or so. The culture is rich, and comes alive in both, though in very different ways. I applaud Hosseini for writing characters who come from different backgrounds. Being from there I think it would have been easy for him to continue to write about the Afghanistan he is familiar with, the people he grew up with. But I appreciate the details and effort that were put into providing a perspective, and more importantly a voice for these women.
Reviewed by Aurora Matthews
Note: In keeping up with the spirit of this free-flowing site, I decided to write this in blog-like form rather than a traditional book review.
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