Some More Characters/Explanation

Because I only talked about two of the characters in my first post, I figured that describing the rest of the story's characters would be a good idea.  Hopefully the character explanation will also help to give more plot detail.

Alma Singer:  Is the character whose point of view comes in directly after Leo's.  She is a teenage girl who is named after Leo's childhood sweetheart (who moved from Poland to Brooklyn and married another man).  Alma's mother named her after Leo's Alma because she read and enjoyed one of the few published copies of The History of Love (which Leo wrote because of his childhood romance with Alma).  Alma Singer is not your typical teenage girl.  She is fascinated with being able to survive in the wild and has learned how to do so by reading books.  Her interest in outdoorsy stuff comes from her father, who traveled the world and died of pancreatic cancer when Alma was younger.  Alma often thinks about, making it clear that he has a large influence on who she is. She also tries very hard to draw attention to her mother and set her up with men because she thinks her mother is in need of a new husband.  She actually tries to setup her mom with Leo's son, Isaac, who asks her mom to translate The History of Love.  She sets out to meet the author of The History of Love and unexpectedly meets Leo and realizes that he is the real author.

Bird: Is Alma's little brother.  He's a little odd (i.e., thinks that he is a Lamed Vovnik), but is much like Alma.  He has a minor role in the story, but he plays an important role in Alma's life.  His character is told through Alma's point of view.

Alma's mom:  Spends her days inside translating written works.  Alma says that her mom chose to hold onto her father's memory instead of moving on.  Because of this, she is very attached to Alma and Bird and does not have a very eventful or purposeful life.  Coincidentally, Leo's son, Isaac, contacts her and asks her to translate The History of Love to English because he suspects that it is about his father and mother.  This interaction is how the character's stories are able to connect when Alma finds out who Leo is.  Her character is also told through Alma's point of view.

Zvi:  Is Leo's childhood friend from Poland.  When the book shifts to his story, it is told through a third person POV instead of first person.  Leo gave Zvi his manuscript of The History of Love before they were forced to go different paths because of the war.  Zvi figured that Leo died in the war, so he published The History of Love and took credit for the story.  The book was never successful for Zvi and fell into the hands of Alma's father when he came across a copy in a second-hand store.

This story is a little difficult to explain, but basically all of the characters are connected to each other because of Leo's book, The History of Love, which I think is really cool.

Why AP?

At first, I was a little surprised that this was an AP-level novel.  It does not seem like a very challenging read when it comes to diction, sentence structure/style, motifs, allusions, etc.  The writing itself seems less complex than that of the other AP-level novels I've read.  However, I think what makes the story AP-level is its meaningfulness.  The story is pretty much a book within a book and it is more about the character's lives than anything else.  It's unique because its characters (who have their own backgrounds and their own points of view) are connected by the story that Leo wrote called The History of Love.  I think the story's complexity lies in all of its underlying meanings, which give it literary merit.

The History of Love Stylistic Elements

The most obvious stylistic aspect of the novel is it's change in point of view, which occurred for the first time in this section of reading.  However, I need to first discuss the style of the first point of view:

The book started through Leo Gursky's point of view and continued until page 35.  While Leo was the narrator, he put his many thoughts into mostly short, blunt sentences.  For example: "The rain was dripping down the back of my neck.  I felt how much depended on my unlocking that lock.  The minutes passed.  I tried and failed.  Tried and failed.  And then at last my heart started to race" (page 22).  I like the use of choppy sentences because it gets across Leo's mental erraticism.  Another aspect of style is how he tells his past by beginning each story with "once upon a time there was a boy."  Leo's narration is unique because he indirectly feeds the reader information about himself.   Also, dialogue was acknowledged with italicized letters and no quotations.  Besides those aspects, the writing seemed pretty standard and the story was pretty straightforward.

The story transitions into being told through the point of view of a character in Leo's book (or at least I think).  I suspect this because Leo's section ends with him waiting to give his son (who he doesn't really know) a copy of a manuscript he wrote.  The character's name is Alma Singer and her narration has a very different style.  Below is an example of the format of her section.

" 1. MY NAME IS ALMA SINGER

When I was born my mother named me after every girl in a book my father gave her called The History of Love."

So, the format of this section is a little odd and I'm a little unsure if I'm recognizing the connection between Leo and Alma, but I'm so far enjoying the story.