Foer and Krauss

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I often thought of Foer's book Everything is Illuminated while reading History of Love. However, I found the latter exasperating. I kept thinking, how can the kids who are supposedly good kids go around lying, stealing, and disrupting their mother's work? It seemed like a way of life for them, and I felt it distasteful. If the tone had been comedic that might've worked .. like a "comedy of errors" -- but all that lying about who has called and who hasn't, hiding letters, throwing them away and replacing them with falsified ones, etc. was downright irritating. And after all that effort put into following along I was hoping for a definite resolution, but knowing of Alma's deceptiveness she may not even mention her meeting to her mother.

I have trouble envisioning how this would work onscreen since I don't think movie audiences generally appreciate things that don't ultimately have a "satisfying" ending even if it's a tragic one.

I don't feel as if Alma and Bird were trying to actually decieve their mother. Alma was only wanting to help her mother fall for someone else because she was still hurting and mourning her husband's death seven years later. Near the last chapter Alma hugged her mom crying and telling her that she just wanted her to be happy. Bird in turn was only trying to help Alma, even though he came to the wrong conclusion of what the problem was, in the end it all worked out. I loved the way it ended though I couldn't help looking forward in my mind and picturing what I hoped would happen next. I hope Alma decided to tell her mom everything. Then I hope she goes to Mescha and tells him that she lied, there was no one else and that it was he that she loved. Whether he decides to forgive Alma or not, well that depends on if he truely loves her, which I think he does. :) Some people think that's too young for love. So not true. I was in love when I was eleven, then thirteen, and the last time I fell in love was when I was fifteen. We were married when I was eighteen, and we've just had our thirteen'th wedding anniversary. We have an eight-year-old daughter and a six-month old son. I still love my husband very very much. More than that, I'm still "in love" with him. :)

Well, I couldn't disagree with you more on the Foer books. Foer is a spectacularly overrated hack. The first novel was a cheap rewrite of more talented books by more talented writers (do a bit of research on this front). The second novel was a slap in the face of the literary public and an insult to intelligent readers. It was a ridiculously indulgent, emotionally shallow, gimmick-driven bit of nonsense that was written by someone too young and egotistical to treat a real historical tragedy with the grace and respect it deserves.

EL&IC seemed to me -- literally -- to have been conceived in the following manner: "Let's see, what tragic event can I exploit to make my sophomore novel seem **serious?** Ah, 911, of course. How daring of me. And I shall have an oh-so-precious and precocious nine year old genius vegan entomologist Francophile narrator tell the tale! And an oh-so po-mo cartoon of a man jumping to his death (but get it, in reverse!!!) will end my brilliant tale!!! Oh, I am so smart!" Bring on the seven figure advance and the pathetic reviews proclaiming Foer's brilliance. Save for John Updike's fabulous review in The New Yorker, which saw through Foer's shallow hackery.

Krauss is also highly overrated -- she has written just two novels yet the critics fall at her feet as though she is the second coming of Virginia Woolf. Her first book was a ludicrous failure if we are judging by any real standards, written as well as any average M.F.A. thesis, and too "concept" ridden to be effective on any deep level. The History of Love shares *numerous* uncanny similarities with Foer's second book -- written at the same time (though they claim they never share their work -- hah) as has been discussed elsewhere. Who knows what the joke is there. But the book is decently written, NOT a masterpiece. Be honest and move beyond the hype. The film will likely improve upon the book as Cuaron is a very talented director, and he turned a mediocre HP novel into a fabulous meditation on loss and death.