Love, Loss, and History in Krauss's The History of Love

Introduction

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss explores the emotions, feelings, and beliefs that shape everyone's experience of love. The novel unfolds over the course of many decades, illustrating love's changing forms and the way it affects different people. To fully understand its main themes requires carefully examining how history causes loss, how it creates bonds, and what Krauss is ultimately saying about these forces. This essay analyzes the character Leopold (Leo) Grusky in order to illuminate how love and history are deeply interconnected throughout the novel.

History as a Source of Loss for Leo Grusky

History causes loss for Leo through the events occurring at the onset of World War II. At the time, he is in his twenties and in love with a woman named Alma. They are living in Poland before the Nazi invasion of 1939. Their relationship began when he was ten years old and had continually evolved since then. Leo professes his unconditional love for Alma, declaring that they will always be together and that he will never care for another woman in the same way.

However, Alma's father, fearful of the changing political situation in Europe, sends her to the United States. Prior to her departure, she becomes pregnant — a fact unknown to Leo. When the Nazis invade Poland, Leo is forced to hide in the woods and forage for survival for two years. He eventually makes his way to the United States and finds Alma, only to discover that she has married the manager of the factory where she works and has had another child. It is at this point that he learns he has a son named Isaac.

While all of these events unfold, Leo documents his story in the form of a book. He entrusts it to his childhood friend Zvi, who publishes it as his own work. Leo falls into a state of depression, watching his son from a distance and attempting to convince Zvi to credit him for the original manuscript. In this way, history causes Leo to lose Alma, his son, and recognition for his own literary work. As the novel illustrates:

"She gave him a photograph of a boy who was now five. She said you stopped writing. I thought you were dead. He looked at the photograph of the boy who would grow up to look like him, who, although the man didn't know it, would go to college, fall in love, out of love, and become a famous writer." (Krauss)

This passage captures the compounded losses Leo experiences — the loss of Alma, the loss of his son's childhood, and the loss of his own identity as a writer — all set in motion by the historical catastrophe of the Nazi invasion of Poland.

Conclusion

Clearly, history and love are interconnected based upon the events that unfold and the impact they have on everyone. In the novel, Leo is the classic example of this, showing how the German invasion and occupation of Poland had a profound effect on his life. This set off a chain of events that made him an observer of his past loves and a stranger to the feelings he once held so deeply. Through Leo's arc, Krauss demonstrates that love cannot be fully understood apart from the historical forces that shape, interrupt, and sometimes destroy it.

Krauss, Nicole. The History of Love. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Print.