tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12546017.post5995863933628514749..comments2023-12-22T10:17:24.280-05:00Comments on Bookpuddle: The History of LoveCiprianohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00254338542624853230noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12546017.post-22986833646396338252009-12-21T21:57:37.950-05:002009-12-21T21:57:37.950-05:00Anonymous, thank you for these amazing points. Ass...Anonymous, thank you for these amazing points. Assessment-wise, this that you said is really important:<br /><b>"Leo imagines telling his son; 'The truth is the thing I invented so I could live.'" <br />If you have never felt this way, never held close this need to invent, perhaps the book will not appeal to you. <br />But if you have, it may be destined to be one of your favorite books.</b><br /><br />Beth and Nicole -- yeah this is a book worth sticking with, in my opinion. Beth says she latched onto it all the way through. For me, I must say I love the book most in <i>retrospect</i>. It is a deep deep story.Ciprianohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00254338542624853230noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12546017.post-83732559493933879092009-12-21T21:25:35.280-05:002009-12-21T21:25:35.280-05:00I have heard really good things about this one. G...I have heard really good things about this one. Glad that you stuck with it and ended up liking it.Nicole (Linus's Blanket)https://www.blogger.com/profile/12473607646939202824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12546017.post-54485256761742641122009-12-21T08:14:41.399-05:002009-12-21T08:14:41.399-05:00From beginning to end, I loved it.From beginning to end, I loved it.Bethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14110235078325434919noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12546017.post-88947057139874337032009-12-20T23:15:18.251-05:002009-12-20T23:15:18.251-05:00"Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard ..."Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter." [Keats]<br /><br /><br />Thank you, cipriano, for this review.<br /><br />I think that Krauss (married to Jonathan Safran Foer) is brilliant in this book - which I loved from the beginning. <br />Like cipriano, I was lost, too, yes. But I trusted Krauss to lead me through the fog because of the quality of her prose and the rich emotional quality of the stories in the book within the book. [The History of Love is the name of a book that this novel is "about."] In one of the stories it is told how there was an Age of Glass...when humans were very fragile, breakable. (I know...when aren't they?) It is a story of vulnerability...which is probably the only genuinely true love story to be told on this planet. <br /><br />Unforgettable.<br /><br />Krauss has said in an interview that she wanted the book to be a celebration of the imagination. And that is exactly what it was for me. <br /><br />I feel like most of us imagine things that we know are not true. Things that are not genuine in a "real" world sense. <br /><br />But in Krauss's world, I think that she shows us that the inner truth of the imagined - what we "invent in order to survive" - is ample reason that fiction is written. And why it continues to be read.<br /><br />Structurally - the artifice - holds up all the way through, but as cipriano has already said, no slouching. This is a novel that repays careful reading...and occasionally calls for a measure of patience.<br /><br />Of the main narrator (there are multiple) Krauss says, "Leo imagines telling his son; 'The truth is the thing I invented so I could live.'" <br /><br />If you have never felt this way, never held close this need to invent, perhaps the book will not appeal to you. <br />But if you have, it may be destined to be one of your favorite books.<br /><br />Ever.<br />Thanks, cipriano. Always something to think about on this site.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com