This past week, it was my turn to lead discussion on The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. I read the book last summer and just loved the language and the way it was written. I was a little confused by who is who and which characters are taken from real life and who connects to who and so on but...I didn't really notice because the voice was so readable. So, I suggested it for book club and then started reading it again, to take notes and glean discussion points from it. Wow - it is rather confusing. I love the confusion. I like trying to figure out what's going on, it's a challenge and I like that. (Well, as long as there really is something going on - I have experienced the challenge of figuring out what's going on in books that simply don't have anything going on - kinda frustrating!) But, I acknowledge that not everyone wants to be challenged in this way when reading a book. And this made me a little afraid to lead this discussion. I thought maybe noone would show up but...we had a pretty good turn out. In the end, the discussion went really well. I enjoy a meeting when the discussion veers off the book (not off topic, just off book) and reflects a facet of real life or personal thoughts and philosophies - even small debates are fun. I decided I'd share my discussion points here - in case anyone else is faced with this book choice (a choice I would recommend).
There aren't any spoilers here - just stuff to think about:
(1) In two places in the book, we read about a reader being profoundly "touched" or "moved" by a book:
--the second-hand bookseller in Buenos Aires finds The History of Love in a box, sets it aside to read during a slow part of the day. After reading it, she had a hard time putting it in the window for sale. When David Singer sees it in the window, opens it, he knows immediately that he wants it.
--In the first letter Jacob Marcus sends to Charlotte Singer, he says he has read her earlier translation and..."It's sitting here next to me on the table in my room...I don't know what to say about it, except that it moved me in a way one hopes to be moved each time he begins a book. What I mean is, in some way almost impossible to describe, it changed me."
QUESTION: What book(s) have moved you this way, have changed you or the way you see the world; that you may come back to and read again and again? (this was very fun to share with each other; to see what kinds of things affected each of us and why; subject matter, settings...)
(2) This book touches on the topic of literary translation. It is Charlotte Singer's translation is what Jacob Marcus, Alma, and even the reader get to read. It is one of her earlier translations that "changed" Jacob Marcus. And yet these are not books that she wrote, they are books that already existed and she translated.
QUESTION: If you were an author (or publisher), why would it be important to choose the "right" translator? What would be important about that selection process?
QUESTION: A translator is like a performer, the "book" is already there (just like a score, a script, a choreography), the translator (or performer) is merely interpreting it so that the audience can enjoy it in a different way (or at all). Why don't translators gain the same notoriety as musicians, actors, dancers?
QUESTION: Discuss the possibility of a good translation making a book more successful than it was on it's own OR a bad translation making a book bomb when it wouldn't have otherwise. How does this affect the relationship of author and translator?
(3) The book is given to us through various narrators.
QUESTION: How do we know which character is "speaking" in each chapter.
DISCUSS: A graphic design is displayed above each chapter, a heart for Leo's voice, a compass (Alma), an ark (Bird), or an open book (narrator). Did you notice this? What is the significance of each symbol to its corresponding character?
(4) Leo's friend's name is Bruno. Jacob Marcus mentions reading, for the third time, a book titled The Street of Crocodiles. There is an actual book by that title, written in 1934 (originally published as Cinnamon Shops) by a man named Bruno Schulz. In the introduction to Street of Crocodiles, we can read of these events from the real Bruno Schulz's life:
--Crocodiles was written as a correspondence, sent in bits and pieces through the mail
--although the book was originally written for one specific person, it was eventually released to the public
--Schulz also was a literary translator
--Schulz's unpublished scripts were lost after being given to someone for safekeeping
These four, unique bits of information are all in the story line of Krauss' History of Love.
DISCUSS: Where do you draw the line when using ideas from something you've read; what is the difference between paying homage, being inspired/influenced by and...well...stealing/plagiarism?
(5) So, back to Leo's friend Bruno. Many readers comment on how sweet the relationship is between Leo and Bruno, how nice that they have each other to ward off total loneliness. But. What if Bruno isn't real? What if Bruno is just an imaginary friend for Leo? We know Leo has an incredible imagination. In one scene, at the end, he even asks a passerby whether or not there is a girl sitting next to him. He questions the power of his own imagination.
QUESTION: If Bruno is imaginary, why would Leo have made him up? Why/how is he so real that as a reader, we aren't even sure if he's real? How can we argue that he may, in fact be imaginary? Can we prove that he isn't?
(6) Survival requires different tactics in different environments.
QUESTION: Aside from Alma's wilderness guidelines, what measures do the characters in the novel adopt to carry on?
(7) Alma's brother, Bird, believes he is a lamed vovnik. A teaching of Jewish mysticism reveals that there, at any one time, 36 righteous people performing righteous acts to save the world, the rest of civilization - they are called lamed vovniks. These may be different people at different times but, at any given moment, there should be at least 36 people in the world who are being righteous. If that number should fall, it could mean the end. So, we are all to live as if we might be one of those 36 and if we act out in a way that is not righteous, we may share in the responsibility of the demise.
In the book of Genesis, God is going to destroy the city of Sodom because it is filled with so much sin. Abraham asks God if He would consider, if there are fifty innocent people in the city, sparing the city for the sake of those innocent. God says, for those fifty He will spare the city. Abraham continues to lower the number, finding that God will spare the city even if there are only ten innocent people. Because of those ten innocent people, the rest of the city's population will be saved.
DISCUSS: In both of these examples, the righteous/innocent are anonymous, perhaps not even knowing themselves that they are "saviors". Why is this anonymity important to the overall message? What significance do you find in the similarities of these two teachings?
These questions were gathered, gleaned, influenced, inspired by or just copied from these sources:
NY Times online book reviews
The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz
Performing Without a Stage: the Art of Literary Translation by Robert Wechsler
W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
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