The HIstory of Love?

To be honest, when Ms Robbins recommended a book called The History of Love to me, my initial reaction (in my mind) was, "Oh no, Ms Robbins thinks I'm THAT kind of girl...."  I'm so beyond glad I didn't give up on this book based solely on it's title.  This book is odd, yet still enthralling and very well written.  It is written in the split perspective style, mainly from the views of a young teen girl named Alma, and an elderly man named Leo Gursky.  Leo Gursky is a very old man, waiting for death, living in New York City.  He is an immigrant from the Nazi Era, who came here to both escape the Nazis and reconnect with his great love, Alma.  Now, this love is a different Alma, the same Alma as in the book within the book, The History of Love, this is the Alma that the teenage Alma is named after.  Alma is a teenage girl who is struggling with the coming of age experience, despite the strange conditions she faces at home.  Her mother is deep in her grief from Alma's father dying when she was nine years old, her brother thinks he is the next messiah, and her mother is translating the book, The History of Love, for a client whom Alma is trying to set up with her mother.  As you can see, there is quite a bit going on in this book.  In The History of Love, the reader can witness two separate coming of age experiences with two very different people.

Leo Gursky, despite his advanced age is actually coming of age.  I think that when people reflect on themselves and their lives they are developing and growing.  For example, at one point he says, "Then he did the hardest thing he'd ever had to do in his life, he picked up his hat and walked away."  He says this when recollecting a time when he had finally tracked down his Alma and she basically tells him the have a child together and that she never wants to see or hear from him again.  This quote expresses an important lesson to learn as you grow up, sometimes you must get up and walk away from something you love more than yourself.  Can you imagine having someone or something you love so much that you travel across the sea to track down, only to get to their doorstep, be told you have a child, and be rejected by the person you love more than your life in your home country?  Leo Gursky must have had to grow up quite a bit in a matter of moments when faced with rejection and the news that he had created a life.  Also, at one point he recounts a memory of spending the seemingly endless time he had as a teenager with Alma.  He remembers them learning words in English together, looking them up in the dictionary and repeating the words.  At one point Leo asks Alma how to say a word and she tells him she doesn't know, Leo connects this memory with her sending him a letter saying, "When will you learn there isn't a word for everything?"  This is an interesting question.  Leo looks too hard for words, rules, guidelines, even directions for life.  Alma is saying that he has to stop in order too finally grow up.  Leo, even this late in his life still can grow as a result of remembering these experiences, he can still change.

Alma is at a perfect moment in her life to be growing and changing and coming of age.  She is an adolescent, in a slightly dysfunctional family.  She grows in a normal fashion for an adolescent, she goes through many stages.  For example, she goes through a stage of embarrassment at her family, a common thing for adolescents to do.  At one point she is talking to her brother and she says, "Just try to be normal.  You have to at least try."  This is a very common thing for teenagers to do, they suddenly become very aware of who their family is, what they do, and whether it effects the public view of them.  Another thing she says is, "I decided to learn to survive in the wild like my father.  It would be good to know in case anything happened to mom, leaving bird and I to fend for ourselves."  This is an example of a teenager trying to support other people in order to feel strong and supported.  She is preparing to support a whole other life and survive in the footsteps of her father.  Doing this lets her be more like her father and feel strong.  Alma is going through the motions like any other teenager, except she has a more exceptional situation, with a brother, no father, and a vulnerable mother.

The History of Love is a fantastic book.  I cannot suggest it more.  The characters are intertwined beautifully, with fascinating lives of their own.  I definitely recommend it, don't judge it at first glance like me!