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Heft
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Review
This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal -- she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it. --Russell Banks
'Liz Moore s skill as a tight storyteller is matched by her sensitivity to the things people do to stay safe ... Moore, whose love for her characters is palpable, helps them ease off their heavy cocoons before they suffocate. [An] astonishing second novel ... Every kiss, every mouthful of food resonates with a gorgeous revelling in life s physicality; so much so that the big ideas behind this quietly impressive narrative show themselves naturally and beautifully ... Full of surprises and love and healing, Heft is the most unsentimental sentimental journey you will read this year. --Melissa Katsoulis, The Times
'Read it: you'll like it.' --Observer
Heft is a suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin
A gentle fiction, as big-hearted as it s star is heavy. --Vogue
'Liz Moore s skill as a tight storyteller is matched by her sensitivity to the things people do to stay safe ... Moore, whose love for her characters is palpable, helps them ease off their heavy cocoons before they suffocate. [An] astonishing second novel ... Every kiss, every mouthful of food resonates with a gorgeous revelling in life s physicality; so much so that the big ideas behind this quietly impressive narrative show themselves naturally and beautifully ... Full of surprises and love and healing, Heft is the most unsentimental sentimental journey you will read this year. --Melissa Katsoulis, The Times
'Read it: you'll like it.' --Observer
Heft is a suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices --Colum McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin
A gentle fiction, as big-hearted as it s star is heavy. --Vogue
Book Description
You can find love in the most unexpected places
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I thought this was a terrifically enjoyable book. A tale of an immensely fat, reclusive New Yorker and a slightly troubled young man from a difficult home doesn't sound that alluring because there are so many ways in which it could have been dreadful, but it turned out to be remarkably insightful, compassionate and readable.
It is almost impossible to give an idea of the story without giving away more than I would have wanted to know before starting the book so I won't try, but told in two first-person narratives, this is a novel about loneliness and belonging, family and bereavement, kindness and possibility. Liz Moore shows real insight into the inner lives of her two male narrators and gives them completely convincing voices. They are very different characters, but both are fundamentally good-hearted people with problems. Moore avoids the pitfalls of tedium or sentimentality which could so easily ruin a book like this, and she paints illuminating and compassionate portraits of both characters so that I found myself very bound up with their stories. I was drawn in from the start and, even though it isn't a "suspense" novel, there are secrets to be revealed. It is very well structured and paced, so I became really gripped as things unfolded and it kept me up far too late because I didn't want to stop reading.
Rather against my expectations, I found this a really thoughtful, enjoyable and touching book and I recommend it very warmly.
It is almost impossible to give an idea of the story without giving away more than I would have wanted to know before starting the book so I won't try, but told in two first-person narratives, this is a novel about loneliness and belonging, family and bereavement, kindness and possibility. Liz Moore shows real insight into the inner lives of her two male narrators and gives them completely convincing voices. They are very different characters, but both are fundamentally good-hearted people with problems. Moore avoids the pitfalls of tedium or sentimentality which could so easily ruin a book like this, and she paints illuminating and compassionate portraits of both characters so that I found myself very bound up with their stories. I was drawn in from the start and, even though it isn't a "suspense" novel, there are secrets to be revealed. It is very well structured and paced, so I became really gripped as things unfolded and it kept me up far too late because I didn't want to stop reading.
Rather against my expectations, I found this a really thoughtful, enjoyable and touching book and I recommend it very warmly.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review
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I loved this book from the moment I picked it up. It is about two people Arthur Opp and Kel Keller. Arthur is a very over weight recluse who has a very uneventful life, his only enjoyment comes from eating and he is really ashamed of the way he eats. He once used to teach and one of his ex pupils Charlene Turner was in a way the love of his life. Charlene is such a sad character and also the mother of Kel. Kel is an eighteen year old poor kid in a rich kids school, he survives because he is good at sports. Charlene contacts Arthur to ask him to tutor Kel, but this doesn't happen, but does start a chain of events that changes both thier lives. I am not sure why it is called Heft as it is not a name that anyone mentions, unless its about weight of emotion that this book carries . The end was not what I expected. I just want to mother both of them and would love to read about their lives after the last pages, but this is now left to the imagination, which is what I think a good book should do. Great book, well writen and wonderful characters.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Kirby Heyborne and Keith Szarabajka are the perfect narrators to bring to life Liz Moore's powerful second novel. Their voices present so much more than dialogue, reflecting personalities, hopes and dreams. It's an uncommon treat to hear such able voice performers deliver this meritorious tale. Singer, songwriter, actor, narrator, Heyborne is a man of many talents. Many will remember Szarabajka for his stellar television performances on Law & Order, Star Trek, and others. The pairing of these two fine actors yields better than 5 star listening. .
The narrative in Heft is divided between two, first Arthur Opp, a 550 pound former professor who has not left his parents' home in some ten years. He has discovered how to have the necessities delivered to his door. The home is commodious, a three floor Brooklyn Brownstone. As he says, "There are nice things on the upper floors I suppose but I haven't seen them in a decade. I have no reason to go up there. I couldn't if I tried."
He is alone. No one visits; the phone does not ring. His only contacts have been a few letters exchanged with former student, Charlene Turner. She was a bit of an oddity at his school, self-concious, not dressed like the others but full of dreams. For a while Arthur and Charlene become companions, perhaps drawn together by their mutual lack of self-esteem and alienation. He takes her to museums, to plays, teaches her, and then they grow apart.
The second narrator is Kel Keller, Charlene's teenage son who loves baseball and wants to be a major league player. But, he's torn, often exhausted by and resentful of the care his alcoholic mother requires and their house on the wrong side of the tracks. Not only is it in a rundown section of Yonkers but it is often dark and cold because his mother cannot afford to pay the bills. Yet Kel is accepted at a prestigious school where he soon fits in due to his athletic prowess. He's puzzled yet drawn to the well to-do families he comes to know. When he visits their homes he feels "like an intruder, like somebody staking something out."
As the connection between these three develops we again recognize the author's ability to not only draw vivid true to life characters but also to make them matter. And matter they do for few of us will forget Arthur, Charlene or Kel and the life stories they have shared.
- Gail Cooke
The narrative in Heft is divided between two, first Arthur Opp, a 550 pound former professor who has not left his parents' home in some ten years. He has discovered how to have the necessities delivered to his door. The home is commodious, a three floor Brooklyn Brownstone. As he says, "There are nice things on the upper floors I suppose but I haven't seen them in a decade. I have no reason to go up there. I couldn't if I tried."
He is alone. No one visits; the phone does not ring. His only contacts have been a few letters exchanged with former student, Charlene Turner. She was a bit of an oddity at his school, self-concious, not dressed like the others but full of dreams. For a while Arthur and Charlene become companions, perhaps drawn together by their mutual lack of self-esteem and alienation. He takes her to museums, to plays, teaches her, and then they grow apart.
The second narrator is Kel Keller, Charlene's teenage son who loves baseball and wants to be a major league player. But, he's torn, often exhausted by and resentful of the care his alcoholic mother requires and their house on the wrong side of the tracks. Not only is it in a rundown section of Yonkers but it is often dark and cold because his mother cannot afford to pay the bills. Yet Kel is accepted at a prestigious school where he soon fits in due to his athletic prowess. He's puzzled yet drawn to the well to-do families he comes to know. When he visits their homes he feels "like an intruder, like somebody staking something out."
As the connection between these three develops we again recognize the author's ability to not only draw vivid true to life characters but also to make them matter. And matter they do for few of us will forget Arthur, Charlene or Kel and the life stories they have shared.
- Gail Cooke
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
'I would remind myself of how many people there were like me, & how...
This is a review where I have to be careful not to be over the top, because, plainly said, I loved this book so, so much. Read more
Published 19 days ago by L. H. Healy
Hard going.
I found it really difficult to get into this book. The description of the book sounded pretty good. I quote - "Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his... Read more
Published 21 days ago by T. Walker
Heartbreakingly real and full of hope.
I'm a sucker for recluses and wounded souls so I couldn't wait to get hold of Heft, the story of lonely Arthur Orr, former college professor, who hasn't left his house since 9/11. Read more
Published 27 days ago by Book Critic
a reader
Arthur Opp an overweight ex academic has been confined to his home for over a decade. Kel Keller a 17 year old poor student is trying to keep pace with life. Both solitary . Read more
Published 28 days ago by ReaderA
A well written page turner!
I was drawn to this book by the promise of an insight into the mind of a character who was obese, and it did not disappoint. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Clare Mccann
good read
This is a tale of two lonely people, Arthur Opp who has made himself a virtual prisoner in his own home, and teenage Kel Keller who barely wants to be at home because of his... Read more
Published 1 month ago by murmuration
Heft?
As stories go , this isn't bad, its very readable in fact. But just doesn't really meet expectations. Read more
Published 2 months ago by TheRedBlueBlur
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