I just finished up listening to The History of Love
I started the audio book and was SUPER excited. I love the person narrating. I loved the “voice”, it was perfect for the character. I loved the story…I loved the telling. Then all at once it changed. There was a girl telling a completely remote and what I thought unrelated story. It was so off that I went to my player and tried to figure out why it wasn’t playing my audio book. They I realized it was. UGH. I missed the guy…and I couldn’t see for a minute how this girl’s story could be related tot he old man’s story. This back and forth continued and they two other people were added. There wasn’t even a hint of how they were related.
I quit listening so many times. It wasn’t a pleasant listen. Then deciding that I actually paid money for this book as I got it off Audible that I decided that I couldn’t waste the money so started painfully listening again. I still liked the old guy and the young girl was starting to grow on me.
FINALLY in the last few chapters I could figure out how they were all related…but then the story just stopped. There was no wrap up and no real conclusion. UGH.
Here’s what Amazon has to say about the book, “Leo Gursky taps his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbor know he’s still alive. But it wasn’t always like this: in the Polish village of his youth, he fell in love and wrote a book. . . . Sixty years later and half a world away, fourteen-year-old Alma, who was named after a character in that book, undertakes an adventure to find her namesake and save her family. With virtuosic skill and soaring imaginative power, Nicole Krauss gradually draws these stories together toward a climax of “extraordinary depth and beauty”.
Amazon readers gave it four stars….I am surprised at that. I’d give it a 3. They story after I’ve listened to the whole thing was interesting….the presentation of it all and ending really took a lot away from the story though. Skip this one….there are other better books out there.
I listened to “The History of Love” as an audio book and I loved it! The actor for Leo Gursky was perfect, I had a great visual image of him. I really enjoyed Alma’s storyline, too, and it was superb when the stories finally came together. It was one of my top five books of 2014.
I see we have different opinions on this book. I look are your reviews and occasionally find a gem, such as “The Plum Tree” which we both enjoyed.
Jo, you can return that book to Audible if you were not happy with it. They advertise that option, and I’ve done it once. It was very easy and within minutes I had my credit back!