Worthiness, by the Merriam-Webster's standards, means deserving respect. I cannot say AP worthy by the Merriam-Webster standard because I believe worthiness is much greater than that. By the Smith standard, worthy means admirable, it means commendable, which Nicole Krauss's The History of Love, is.
To me the idea that it is a remarkable work of literary merit, might not sit in my brain. I do not believe that it is of the same literary remark-ability as novels such as Forster's A Room With a View, Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, or even St. Exupery's Le Petite Prince. Although her work has several interwoven, complicated threads, detailed plots, and fantastic ideas, the novel, in my opinion, is not one they will admire in a hundred years. Forster's novel speaks of love that comes from a respect much greater than the teenage love they write about in the sappy tween books. Atwood's words are carefully chosen and historically accurate and fantastic. She write with intensity of characters and their ideals. St. Expury's children's novel speaks more volumes than any I have ever read. These novels and children's stories will be spoken about not just because of their delicate words, their in depth plots, or even the familiarity of their authors, but because they speak more than just those things.
As a reader that has experienced Foer's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a few years ago, Krauss's novel is words similar to his, but worlds apart. His novel speaks volumes about connections interwoven and heartbreak that is unbearable, but Krauss's novel is similar in ideas, not with specific details, but themes. His novel is one that those in the literary world will be heart broken about for years to come. Although her ideas and words flow well together, her connections take not only reading in depth, but it takes connecting to the characters, which me and those I share the novel with, had a hard time with. Novels to me, worthy of AP come with more than just great writing, it comes with relatable characters, ones that when they are heart broken, the reader is too. I was not heart broken, I was hardly interested. It was a great novel, but to me it was more of tween heartbreak novel. Just because we were not consistently connected to the Holocaust and its meaning other than the idea that he went unseen. In the overview of the novel you are given the impression that it plays incredible importance in the stories theme.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Take a Look At the Whole Picture...
In this post I will cover what in my opinion, is the presented idea of the work as a whole. It will be a little rough considering my confusion of the novel, but I will try my best.
Recognition, in my eyes is an incredibly important theme within the novel. This theme is not necessarily on the "I see you standing there" level, but more of a "I see you standing there and I see what's in your heart" kind of level. This idea is mostly confirmed by our character Leo, as he would say "All I wanted was to not die on a day that I went unseen."(4), this quote seems to linger throughout our reading, here is where the reader gets the initial theme and throughout the novel it is embedded in the reader further. There are a million instance in the novel where Leo is constantly pushing to be seen, performing to be seen, he is painted, just to be seen. Throughout the novel it is not necessarily identified what his reason is, but the reader knows that a cause is that of World War II. In this war he had to do everything to avoid being seen, he had to go unnoticed, and this made it extremely hard for him to want to continue. Leo wanted people to see him so he was not left alone, so that he would never have to relive that part of his live again.
I know that to some, this theme seems so unconventional, but the idea that going unseen will kill you, that the last time you went unseen your entire people disappeared, that idea would drive you away from writing, away from love, and away from anything that could resemble these things. Throughout the novel our main character has been majorly influenced by going unseen, his importance of being seen, although not nearly as openly admitted as other themes by Krauss, is to me, an incredibly valuable one. This theme of recognition is more than just knowing who you see, but realizing that who you see is more than just them. This idea holds true throughout and is a major aspect to the view between the lines that we, the readers can see.
Recognition, in my eyes is an incredibly important theme within the novel. This theme is not necessarily on the "I see you standing there" level, but more of a "I see you standing there and I see what's in your heart" kind of level. This idea is mostly confirmed by our character Leo, as he would say "All I wanted was to not die on a day that I went unseen."(4), this quote seems to linger throughout our reading, here is where the reader gets the initial theme and throughout the novel it is embedded in the reader further. There are a million instance in the novel where Leo is constantly pushing to be seen, performing to be seen, he is painted, just to be seen. Throughout the novel it is not necessarily identified what his reason is, but the reader knows that a cause is that of World War II. In this war he had to do everything to avoid being seen, he had to go unnoticed, and this made it extremely hard for him to want to continue. Leo wanted people to see him so he was not left alone, so that he would never have to relive that part of his live again.
I know that to some, this theme seems so unconventional, but the idea that going unseen will kill you, that the last time you went unseen your entire people disappeared, that idea would drive you away from writing, away from love, and away from anything that could resemble these things. Throughout the novel our main character has been majorly influenced by going unseen, his importance of being seen, although not nearly as openly admitted as other themes by Krauss, is to me, an incredibly valuable one. This theme of recognition is more than just knowing who you see, but realizing that who you see is more than just them. This idea holds true throughout and is a major aspect to the view between the lines that we, the readers can see.
Tuesday, January 26, 2016
The person behind my pages...
What would you do with a choice assignment? Well, I am going to speak more about characters. This analysis will be much less thorough examinations of their personalities and their lives and much more about what kind of speaking and person is behind the narration within their chapters. The point of view will be our main focus and these include first and third person. A lot of the style in the novel, which have already talked about, has to do with each main character individually, this is much less like that.
The first person to speak:
As the main character and first introduced to us, Leo Gursky plays an old man unwilling to be unseen. His sections of the novel are narrated through series of flashback having to do with his past. Things that appeared to be major happenings in his life, such as the war, Nazi's, and his love. All of these things are described with different attitudes, but his most important which carries throughout his narration is honestly and confession. Through these events Leo opens up to the reader and that is viewed by him as a shortcoming, but to the reader as a refreshing trait.
The first person to venture:
The other very important character in our narration is a "young" girl named Alma Singer. A girl that was abandoned through death, and through pain. Living without both her parents because of the death of one and raising her brother because the moment her father died, her mother truly did too. Alma's sections of the novel are a bit different than that of Leo Gursky's. In her sections Alma is telling her story much more like an adventurer. More like when Columbus sailed through the ocean and then wrote about it. Her sections are more fast paced and overwhelming. She tells a lot of things, in a lot of ways, in some very short chapters.
The third person along the journey:
A lot of these chapters are narrated in much more of a hesitant way, like the narrator is trying to tell us something very important, but cannot bear to say it. The narrator is very withdrawn and detached throughout his narration, almost as though we are watching him from the outside. I cannot say much about this view because I am having a hard time with understanding it myself. So at the moment, I will learn more and fill you in. Hopefully I begin to understand what we are watching form the outside.
The first person to speak:
As the main character and first introduced to us, Leo Gursky plays an old man unwilling to be unseen. His sections of the novel are narrated through series of flashback having to do with his past. Things that appeared to be major happenings in his life, such as the war, Nazi's, and his love. All of these things are described with different attitudes, but his most important which carries throughout his narration is honestly and confession. Through these events Leo opens up to the reader and that is viewed by him as a shortcoming, but to the reader as a refreshing trait.
The first person to venture:
The other very important character in our narration is a "young" girl named Alma Singer. A girl that was abandoned through death, and through pain. Living without both her parents because of the death of one and raising her brother because the moment her father died, her mother truly did too. Alma's sections of the novel are a bit different than that of Leo Gursky's. In her sections Alma is telling her story much more like an adventurer. More like when Columbus sailed through the ocean and then wrote about it. Her sections are more fast paced and overwhelming. She tells a lot of things, in a lot of ways, in some very short chapters.
The third person along the journey:
A lot of these chapters are narrated in much more of a hesitant way, like the narrator is trying to tell us something very important, but cannot bear to say it. The narrator is very withdrawn and detached throughout his narration, almost as though we are watching him from the outside. I cannot say much about this view because I am having a hard time with understanding it myself. So at the moment, I will learn more and fill you in. Hopefully I begin to understand what we are watching form the outside.
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
The words of our childhood...
By using a very common style of writing, Nicole Krauss tells The History of Love by shifting narration and views between two very strongly spoken people that we saw in the first section of reading, Including our main character, Leo. Alma, a character that is learning to adapt to losing her family, even after years of growing up, is telling the story by her standards and through her eyes. While Leo is still struggling through his every day, same schedule, same routine, a routine that we get the feeling will begin to change very rapidly.
Alma's chapters of the novel are based on dialogue and details that makes her more relatable. In every chapter there is a a different length for special effects in order to make the reader connect. Leo's chapters are more of an internal narration. His chapters avoid dialogue and focus more on his struggles with family, life, love, and loss. He is a much less lively character to Alma's more positive outlook on what she can make her life to be. Leo does not have much life left to improve and he makes it very clear throughout his narration.
The following chapters are narrated by the novel The History of Love, which is represented my the image of a novel at the beginning of each chapter. In these passages the narration is done by Mr. Singer who we assume throughout the novel is Alma's father. These chapters are noticeably different from the narration so done by Alma and Leo because it is mostly about the past and story telling of the life of Zvi Litvinoff and her meeting Mr. Singer.
The addition of Mr. Singer as a narrator is incredibly important to the style in which the story is told and the novel itself. These sections of the novel change our view about relationships throughout the novel. Through the reading of the added sections and background of The History of Love we see new relationships and ones that will play a huge role in the outcome of many characters.
Thursday, January 7, 2016
When they write my obituary...
An old man in the city of New York, Leo Gursky knew what he wanted. A job, a life, and the love of his. A grumpy man's character formed by the circumstances he experiences, Leo is faced with adversity when his faith is under the reign of Hitler in his homeland of Poland. As the novels main character, Leo first strikes you as a pessimist, but through stories of heart wrenching experiences the reader starts to understand the reasons he is broken because of. He has lost a home that no other exists and the love of his life because "There isn't a word for everything"(page 11) and soon Leo learned that there aren't enough words to explain goodbye and explain love, but only enough words to break a heart. Only by Leo's "selfishness" has he been able to keep his best friend. His heart and love for the people that have impacted make him hard to dislike and easy to relate to. What a reader is unable to relate to is Leo's relatively strong understanding of his death, although it has yet to come.
Speaking of relating, Bruno is the best friend and hall mate to our main character, Leo. Growing up friends in Slonim, Poland, Leo and Bruno thought they would never know each other again. But one hurried day in New York, they knew each other again. Speaking the same language has not made them closer, because they don't speak it. Yiddish was the language of their childhood and soon it became strange. They "couldn't use them in the same way and so"(Page 6) they "chose not to use them at all."(Page 6) "Life demanded a new language."(Page 6) Life demanded more than just speaking a new language for Bruno, though. Life demanded a news way of life. A man who loses his wife, Bruno attempts suicide in order to relieve his pain. This is where we get a glimpse inside Leo's heart. "So selfish"(Page 7) he thought of himself, to save someone who didn't want to be saved, to save someone who no longer wanted to live. But to not save someone you so desperately need and love is minimally selfish, but compassionate and eye opening.
Grieving loss much like Bruno is another one of our main characters. Alma, named for the novel she is in, is grieving the loss of not only one parent, but two. This is not because both her father and mother passed away, but because when her father passed, her mother was bed ridden and forced Alma to not only grow up, but be a grown up. At a young age she was a parent to a sibling and household caretaker. Quickly Alma learns to love everything her father was while she knew him and used it to her advantage. While raising her brother she realized that his lack of parental stability was clear and that he was not only unhappy with the life he was living, but with the way they were living it. Both to young to know what unhappiness is, Alma begins to worry about the things she is doing in order to keep her greatest friend safe and from harm. As his nickname clearly states, Bird's can fly. But children can't and that makes for a worry-some childhood for Alma.
"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day'[...]'I try to make a point of being seen.'[...]'All I want is to not die on a day I went unseen."(Pages 3 & 4)
"He'd had enough. All he wanted was to sleep forever. Taped to his chest was a note with three words: GOODBYE, MY LOVES."(Page 6)
"I hope these chapters are all you hoped for; anything less is my fault entirely."(Page 61)
Speaking of relating, Bruno is the best friend and hall mate to our main character, Leo. Growing up friends in Slonim, Poland, Leo and Bruno thought they would never know each other again. But one hurried day in New York, they knew each other again. Speaking the same language has not made them closer, because they don't speak it. Yiddish was the language of their childhood and soon it became strange. They "couldn't use them in the same way and so"(Page 6) they "chose not to use them at all."(Page 6) "Life demanded a new language."(Page 6) Life demanded more than just speaking a new language for Bruno, though. Life demanded a news way of life. A man who loses his wife, Bruno attempts suicide in order to relieve his pain. This is where we get a glimpse inside Leo's heart. "So selfish"(Page 7) he thought of himself, to save someone who didn't want to be saved, to save someone who no longer wanted to live. But to not save someone you so desperately need and love is minimally selfish, but compassionate and eye opening.
Grieving loss much like Bruno is another one of our main characters. Alma, named for the novel she is in, is grieving the loss of not only one parent, but two. This is not because both her father and mother passed away, but because when her father passed, her mother was bed ridden and forced Alma to not only grow up, but be a grown up. At a young age she was a parent to a sibling and household caretaker. Quickly Alma learns to love everything her father was while she knew him and used it to her advantage. While raising her brother she realized that his lack of parental stability was clear and that he was not only unhappy with the life he was living, but with the way they were living it. Both to young to know what unhappiness is, Alma begins to worry about the things she is doing in order to keep her greatest friend safe and from harm. As his nickname clearly states, Bird's can fly. But children can't and that makes for a worry-some childhood for Alma.
"When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day'[...]'I try to make a point of being seen.'[...]'All I want is to not die on a day I went unseen."(Pages 3 & 4)
"He'd had enough. All he wanted was to sleep forever. Taped to his chest was a note with three words: GOODBYE, MY LOVES."(Page 6)
"I hope these chapters are all you hoped for; anything less is my fault entirely."(Page 61)
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