the history of love

I rarely rewrite somebody else's prose. Only at times when I like it so immensely that I would like to memorize each word in it. So forgive me doing it now, so openly in the public, but the topic seems to suit the occasion, anyway.

And one more thing: I have digged this book out of my vast book collection, equipped during that short time when the second hand clothes shop near my childrens' kindergarten offered books in English, and offered them at ridiculous prices. I knew it wouldn't last, so each Wednesday I made the effort to be there. After buying it, I forgot about that book and put it into the queue of volumes waitning to be read one day.

Two or three weeks ago one of my students said she was reading a book about an old man who goes out to a sport shoe shop and asks for modern sneakers only to get the chance of speaking to somebody. When she said the title, History of Love, I remembered I had it on my bookshelf. Do not let the apparent banality of the title mislead you as to the content. It goes back as Shoah and as far as Poland, from New York, where it is set.
The fragment - below.