I’ve been encouraging my friends to read Nicole Krauss’ book The History of Love since I had pleasure of discovering it. I’ve forced my copy a couple of times to people who don’t usually read authors they don’t know. Now, exactly 1 year after I wrote this mini-review on this blog, I am yet to read a book as fresh and as moving as that one. I think I’ll go back to her earlier novel, A Man Walks Into a Room, for a little inspiration. The story of a man who’s trying to rebuild his life after losing his memories might be just what I need to remember the dangers of forgetting and disengagement. As my little attempt to engage, let me send out this message:
Dear Ms. Krauss,
How’s you new book coming? I agree when you said that literature is "an endless conversation about what it means to be human," and that "great books force people to engage in the human conversation." Your books represent that; they renewed my faith and my hunger for the written word. I would have wanted to write something smart or impressively insightful in case the improbability of you stumbling upon this note becomes a reality, but all I can do is to go back to your words, again, and beseech you to keep on writing. The History of Love is most definitely the book "I would have written … if I could write." I’m sure that it wouldn’t surprise you to know that halfway across the globe, a stranger to your life and culture took comfort in acquainting with your poetic tale. No subject is indeed more universal than the interplay of love and the human spirit.
Kind regards,
Z
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