the reader of books

I loved it! Read it.

Initially, I disliked Claudia while admiring her -- she is intelligent and outspoken, but she is more concerned with people in theory than in practice. She embarks upon a career as an historian because she is insatiably curious about the multitude of untold stories throughout history. She is deeply affected by the unnamed historical figures whose lives were completely dictated by circumstance and fate -- the Aztecs who perished when the Spanish landed, Hungarians in Budapest in 1956, basically everyone in the world during WWII, and Russian people in general -- but she seemingly has no such understanding of the people who populate her real life, like her mother, her sister-in-law, and her daughter.

I grew to love the prickly Claudia. She's very dismissive of people (particularly for being too boring or stupid), but she is equally tough on herself. She introduces the people and events in her life in a way that feels most natural to her, rather than chronologically; describing peripheral characters, while building up to the two most important people in her life. She is intensely interested in the ways our lives collide -- we all have multiple past and future selves of varying importance and we act as hinges, connecting both our disparate selves and one person to another. Each individual has his own story, which at various points, comes in contact with others' lives. Life is totally random and sometimes it really sucks, but unless we engage in the world and with the people in our lives, we would cease to exist. As Claudia says, "Because unless I am part of everything I am nothing."