Leo Gursky is a man who fell in love at the age of ten and has been in love ever since. These days he is just about surviving life in America, tapping his radiator each evening to let his upstairs neighbour know he's still alive, drawing attention to himself at the milk counter of Starbucks. But life wasn't always like this: sixty years ago in the Polish village where he was born Leo fell in love with a young girl called Alma and wrote a book in honour of his love. These days he assumes that the book, and his dreams, are irretrievably lost, until one day they return to him in the form of a brown envelope. Meanwhile, a young girl, hoping to find a cure for her mother's loneliness, stumbles across a book that changed her mother's life and she goes in search of the author. Soon these and other worlds collide in "The History of Love", a captivating story of the power of love, of loneliness and of survival.
See how long we will take to read this one? I've started already. Just saying. :
I've every intention of being an upstanding or horizontally-swimming member of this community this time. Off to find the book... *skipping and hopping*
May I suggest a chapter by chapter approach for this book?
I've just finished the first chapter. It's so rich I have immediately started rereading it, also wondering how much detail I would actually remember otherwise by the end of the book.
So here is an idea to run by you. Perhaps we could test to see if it works. How about sharing our thoughts as we have completed each chapter (or just picking the chapters we want to reflect on), using the title of the chapter as heading and putting our comments in a spoiler box?
This will allow us perhaps more in-depth reflections/discussions and glimpses into our gut reactions, first impressions. It might also encourage us to actually read the book together-together? What do you think? Worth a try?
"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say, LEO GURSKY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT."
I immediately decided I was going to enjoy this book. From just this much I have already gotten the flavour of a character with a great sense of irony and capacity for self-deprecation, combined with no need to be delicate with use of language: three admirable qualities in a human straight up, and doubly so in case of a narrator.
Reading on, I certainly didn't get disappointed. By the end of the chapter I found myself thoroughly enjoying all things Leo Gursky, this wonderful sweet man with a bottomless well of surreal imagination, who so tragically missed out on the life he should have had and deserved. No wonder he consequently got bitter and a little twisted over it, yet he managed to work himself through it, and came out at the other end an eccentric, but amicable character. His concern with being "seen", especially after his three and a half years of living "invisible", is so heart-wrenching. Yet, the descriptions of his attempts to be seen every day are just hilariously funny. The shoe shop, the drawing class... This book is thoroughly entertaining, as much as it is rich in characterisation and the telling of the terribly sad story of the star-crossed lovers.
Interesting for us to read this book just after The Book Thief. Another window into how the same bit of history has managed to ruin some other people's lives, and another character with an insatiable love of words and writing. Even if Leo had a long long spell of not writing... there were good reasons. His survival is so similar to Max's.
And how about Leo's description of his delightful old friend, Bruno? His hair like dandelion, Leo secretly wanted to blow on and make a wish? Such a beautiful supportive friendship springs from the pages, it has warmed my heart so.
What a great chapter. It could work perfectly as a short story as it is. With the ending left somewhat open. If that's where the written part of the story ended, what would have happened next? I think we really did see Leo's last day unfold here. He would go out to post the novel to his son and then die, reaching full circle.
I think that's a great idea - it makes it more manageable and probably a lot easier to focus the debate.
Only one problem - I need to get the damn book!!!!
I've started already. Just saying. : 
