Love, you say? Well, duh—it's right there in the title. Even though every relationship in The History of Love ends poorly—separation, betrayal, misunderstandings, and death abound—we still come away feeling pretty darn good about love and love stories. How is it that even the people who have suffered the most from having fallen in love still remember it as the most precious thing in the universe? How do the folks who have not yet experienced it know it when they see it? And what in the world would be in the pages of a history of love? (It's certainly hard to keep to just one volume.) The book, alas, doesn't give simple answers—but, of course, love is nothing if not complicated.
Questions About Love
- What can we learn from the excerpts from The History of Love spread throughout the book? Some of these excerpts have very little connection to what we today would call "love." What does that say about "the history of love"? Also, what makes those excerpts so different from the rest of the book?
- What are we supposed to take away from Alma's mother's inability to fall in love again?
- Consider the "love scene" between Alma and Misha. How does this capture the teenagers' first wary tiptoes into the world of love?
- How do you imagine Alma's future relationships? What will her understanding of love be like as an adult?