The History of Love: A Novel by Nicole Krauss

This book was given to me as a holiday present from a friend, and at the time I knew the title and the author but had never gotten around to investigating the book for myself. Nicole Krauss is the wife of one of my absolute favorite authors, Jonathan Safran Foer. I was honestly a little afraid of reading the book. I made a snap judgement based on the title and cover of the book: I thought it looked sappy. I didn't want it to be sappy. I didn't want it to be like The Notebook. I didn't want my opinion of Foer to be tarnished by his taste in sappy women.

But you know something? Krauss turned out to be an amazing writer. This is not at all sappy (sweet, if anything), this is not at all like The Notebook (these characters are not beautiful people doing beautiful things), and the writing is incredibly well-crafted, funny, and lovable. I love her now as much as I love Foer, and intend to read the rest of her works in the future.

I instantly fell in love with the first introduced character, Leo Gursky. He's old, he's Jewish, he's tired, but he wants as much validation of his existence as he can get from other people. I love his relationship with his old pal, Bruno. They're just great together. (I'm beginning to notice that I have an affinity for stories about old Jewish men. Who knew.)

Then there's another set of characters that get intertwined, but I'm not going into a plot summary here because it's so well done and I don't want to ruin the surprises and complexities in a simplified explanation. I would recommend this book to anyone, absolutely anyone, who's up for a good fiction work. It's not enormous, it's quick but filled with incredible content, and it's really touching in a multitude of ways. I loved it and I will probably read this multiple times in my life, because it's just worth reading again.

Essex County by Jeff Lemire

Yesterday I read volumes 1-3 of Essex County by Jeff Lemire. In the past I had read Volume 1: Tales from the Farm and adored it. At the risk of sounding like a terrible, artsy-fartsy review writer, I would describe it as a little raw, touching, and personal. Those are really pretty disgustingly common descriptors, but I feel like all three volumes deserve them in the most genuine of ways.

Maybe I'm biased towards enjoying stories that are based in rural or farm towns since I grew up in one myself, but I felt that there was a lot to connect to even from the immediate beginning. I think it could be enjoyed no matter what your background is, because it's so well-composed and unfolds in such a great way. It starts off with the story of Lester, an imaginative little boy who is trying to figure out life and where he belongs, and as the series goes on you get to learn how his past and present intertwines with the lives of other folks in Essex county.

The artwork really fit well to the setting and style of the story, as well as the character's personalities. They were each illustrated so perfectly. Some panels are more scratchy looking than others, but it all fits together as a whole; the feel of it matches the look of it.

I don't often want to purchase every graphic novel I read (I would have a stupidly large collection) but this one is definitely going on my to-own list. I would be happy to read it over again, and it's possible to do in a quick manner because there are more graphics than text. Anyway, I loved this one and I think everyone should read it.

Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk by David Sedaris

I'm a huge Sedaris fan, so I was definitely curious about this new book since it's his first entire book of fiction. That said, it's not too far off from his previous works. The same wit is certainly there, the same dark humor. And the animals in these short stories interact much in the same way that the humans in his other books interact. None are perfect, some are certainly redeemable, and others are completely loathsome.

While the animals are given human-like personalities, they behave still in animal ways. They still eat what animals eat, do what animals do, but interact in a way that is humanish. It isn't the kind of fiction where they're dressed up in clothes, and it isn't the kind of fiction you'd be wanting to read to a kid before bed (or at all), but it's very entertaining.

Along with the short stories, there are illustrations by Ian Falconer, which are far from his Olivia illustrations. They match Sedaris' humor-- funny, yet dark, and often either morbid or repulsive.

Personally, I thought this book was a lot of dark fun and I enjoyed it very much. It's easy to read in just a day since it's large type, but I spread it out into a few because I didn't want to rush through and devour it quickly as is my normal habit. For anyone who likes Sedaris, they will not be disappointed.