Reasons why "The History of Love" is not one of my favorite books

I really wanted to like this book. It sounded great, it had great reviews, but for some reason it just fell short of my expectations. And I'm not all that hard to impress when it comes to literature. I enjoy reading and I enjoy a variety of books. I just couldn't bring myself to love this one. Granted I didn't hate it either. It was just okay. Here's a breakdown of some reasons why it just didn't resonate with me.

1) IT'S NOT A LOVE STORY
I'm not sure why this one bugged me so much but you'd think in a book titled "The History of Love" there'd be some love. Aside from Leo's flashbacks to when he was dating Alma, this book is not really about the beauty and joys of love. It's about losing love and dysfunction in love. Leo never finds love after Alma Mereminski. He also never gets to really love or parent his son. Alma Singer's mom never finds love after her husband dies. Alma awkwardly almost finds love in Misha and later Herman but both turn out to be dead ends. I feel Krauss should've expanded more upon love, whether that be in Leo's past or in Alma's present/future, instead of sheer sadness and loneliness with no resolution or improvement.

2) The ending 
After all of the buildup and confusion, the ending was underwhelming and abrupt. It felt as though Krauss just gave up on writing the book. Alma Singer and Leo end up being connected by Bird, which seemed random and unrealistic. They meet in a park, establish that Leo wrote the book, hug, and then Leo possibly has a heart attack? It felt shallow and anticlimactic in comparison to the complexity of the story. I was expecting them to cross paths in his son's house when they both visited but Krauss overlooked that and dragged the book on far longer than needed. I can't really explain what I was expecting from the ending, but I was expecting more than what we were given. I was hoping at least maybe some sliver of happiness but... no because

3) There is no happiness in this book whatsoever
The characters are very well developed and differentiated but they're all so sad. It was very hard for me to read in that aspect. It was one of the most depressing books I've ever read.

4) There are a lot of loose ends 
I think Krauss just tried to do too much with this book, there were just far too many leads with no follow up or closure whatsoever. In the beginning, it appears Alma is primarily serving as a matchmaker for her mother, but Krauss quickly and abruptly drops this concept. One day Alma is writing letters to Jacob Marcus (who also just kind of disappears), the next she's completely forgotten about her mother's love life. Alma kind of figures out she's in love with Misha but he's suddenly phased out for the rest of the book. Alma's uncle comes to visit for a few weeks and then disappears without contributing much of anything. Misha is described as believing he is the Jewish Messiah but there is no focus on his character until he randomly becomes a narrator for the last few chapters of the book. All of these fragments of the story that Krauss just abandons contribute to how confusing this book can be.

5) It is really confusing 
Between all of the narrators and their connections, the flashbacks, the lists and charts, the history of "The History of Love", this book is at times chaotic. This lead to a lot of confusion and frustration on my part. Again, I think this connects to the fact that Krauss just tried to do too much. You would probably have to read this book at least twice to really understand and appreciate the story.


Although Krauss' writing is overall quite beautiful and poetic, due to the chaos, the abrupt ending, and the overall morose tone, I just couldn't bring myself to love it. However, if you can either dedicate the time to read this book multiple times or you're able to overlook some of these little glitches, this book is definitely worthwhile.