By JK, on August 4th, 2009 At a KIRBC meeting over a year ago, my friend Emily brought in The History of Love. As is tradition, she read us a passage, and I knew instantly that I would love the book. As it turns out, Emily wasn’t the only one who loved it – History comes with SIX pages of praise at the front, perhaps the most I’ve ever seen. That’s a lot of pressure for a book, but luckily, this one charmed me from the opening paragraph:
When they write my obituary. Tomorrow. Or the next day. It will say LEO GURSKY IS SURVIVED BY AN APARTMENT FULL OF SHIT. I’m surprised I haven’t been buried alive. The place isn’t big. I have to struggle to keep a path clear between bed and toilet, toilet and kitchen table, kitchen table and front door. If I want to get from the toilet to the front door, impossible, I have to go by way of the kitchen table. I like to imagine the bed as home plate, the toilet as first, the kitchen table as second, the front door as third: should the doorbell ring while I am lying in bed, I have to round the toilet and [...]
By JK, on February 14th, 2009 I was talking with my friend Jen a while ago, and she mentioned she had just bought a book of fictional love letters. Before the conversation was over, I’d looked it up on Amazon, and I ordered it soon afterward (sorry independent booksellers). Because let’s face it, I’m a sucker for love letters (even if they’re not for me). Four Letter Word: Original Love Letters is not only a great idea, but one that came with a lot of literary clout. There was a pretty heavy Canadian contingent – Leonard Cohen, Douglas Coupland, M.G. Vassanji, Miriam Toews, Joseph Boyden, Graham Roumieu, and even the grand dame herself – Margaret Atwood. The book also has an impressive line up of international authors including Neil Gaiman, Damon Galgut, Jeanette Winterson, Audrey Niefenegger and Ursula K. LeGuin.
The letters cover all kinds of love besides the obvious falling in – love lost, love spurned, forbidden love, lust, love for friends and love for parents. They also communicate through a wide range of mediums including email, reference letters, and classified ads. They range from heartwarming to heartbreaking, some made me laugh out loud, while others brought me to tears (which really, is incredibly impressive when [...]
By JK, on February 14th, 2009 Though this day often drives me crazy with its over-hyped consumerism and seemingly obligatory pairing, I am still a hopeless romantic at heart. And since books were really my first love (and to this day, perhaps my greatest), a beautiful passage about love from one of my favourite novels (from Virginia Woolf’s The Waves):
“Why, look,” said Neville, “At the clock ticking on the mantelpiece? Time passes, yes. And we grow old. But to sit with you, alone with you, here in London, in this firelit room, you there, I here, is all. The world ransacked to its uttermost ends, and all its heights stripped and gathered of their flowers and holds no more. Look at the firelight running up and down the gold thread in the curtain. The fruit it circles droops heavy. It falls on the toe of your boot, it gives your face a red rim – I think it is the firelight and not your face; I think those are the books against the wall, and that a curtain, and that perhaps an arm-chair. But when you come everything changes. The cups and saucers changed when you came in this morning. There can be no doubt I [...]
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