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Any Human Heart : The Intimate Journals Of Logan Mountstuart
 
 
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Any Human Heart : The Intimate Journals Of Logan Mountstuart (Hardcover)

by William Boyd (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 503 pages
  • Publisher: Hamish Hamilton Ltd (25 April 2002)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 024114177X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0241141779
  • Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.5 x 4.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 184,359 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #32 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > B > Boyd, William

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk Review

Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born in 1906, and died of a heart attack on October 5, 1991, aged 85. Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child". From his early childhood in Montevideo, son of an English corned beef executive and his Uraguayan secretary, through his years at a Norfolk public school and Oxford, Mountstuart traces his haphazard development as a writer. Early and easy success is succeeded by a long half-century of mediocrity, disappointments and setbacks, both personal and professional, leading him to multiple failed marriages, internment, alcoholism and abject poverty.

Mountstuart's sorry tale is also the story of a British way of life in inexorable decline, as his journey takes in the Bloomsbury set, the General Strike, the Spanish Civil War, 1930s Americans in Paris, wartime espionage, New York avant garde art, even the Baader-Meinhof gang--all with a stellar supporting cast. The most sustained and best moment comes mid-book, as Mountstuart gets caught up in one of Britain's murkier wartime secrets, in the company of the here truly despicable Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Elsewhere author William Boyd occasionally misplaces his tongue too obviously in his cheek--the Wall Street Crash is trailed with truly crashing inelegance--but overall Any Human Heart is a witty, inventive and ultimately moving novel. Boyd succeeds in conjuring not only a compelling 20th century but also, in the hapless Logan Mountstuart, an anti-hero who achieves something approaching passive greatness. --Alan Stewart



Review

Any Human Heart tells the story of Logan Mountstuart's long and rackety life, one which spans every decade of the 20th century, in all its fantastic and humdrum, dangerous and tranquil, tragic and humorous aspects.
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Customer Reviews

59 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (59 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly rare novel., 17 Nov 2006
By R. Blain (France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Any Human Heart (Paperback)
Read this book! This is the kind of book you chance upon just once or twice every few years - a real journey. Not many authors are capable of what Boyd achieves in these pages: a clever interweaving of fact with fiction and a kaleidoscope of emotions that runs the complete gamut of human experience. I read pretty much continuously, but was unable to pick up another book for almost two weeks after finishing this - there was no point, I was...replete. It stayed with me for ages - this is the literary equivalent of a nine-course meal with a great bottle of wine. Deeply satisfying.
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A life less/more ordinary?, 19 Sep 2002
By Mr. M. P. Lewin "M Lewin" (Oxford, England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I suppose that the measure of a good book is whether you want it to end or not.

I certainly didn't want "Any Human Heart" to end. In fact I was trembling when I read Logan Mountstuart's final diary entry. Now I am mourning the passing of a man I could not possibly have known, existing as he did only in the minds of the author and myself in the two days I have done little else but read this book.

On the face of it, "Any Human Heart" has little to recommend it. It has no plot, a character with more flaws than qualities and seemingly no message to impart.

But Boyd's book is about a life. A life that is very different from yours or mine, in as much as mine is different from yours and ours are different from anyone else's. All our lives are plotless and for the most part very ordinary. Most of us have qualities that pale into insignificance when measured alongside our faults. Logan Mountstuart enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame which - despite Andy Warhol's assertions to the contrary - we don't all experience. "Every dog has his day" is probably closer to the mark.

But in reading "Any Human Heart" we get a rare insight into someone else's life - Logan Mountstuart's - from the minutiae of what he ate for lunch to the experiences that rocked his world and changed him for better or worse. Remarkably, it didn't matter to me that Logan Mountstuart was an entirely fictional character. I suppose this is because all our lives are fictions to those who don't live them.

The title confused me at first, but now I understand. We all have our stories to tell and even the most superficially "ordinary" life is extraordinary to someone else. Just consider the popularity of television's "Big Brother" to realise how fascinating we find other people's experiences - presumably because we find our own so dull. But that is not to say that others will.

We all have our ups and downs, our foibles and our virtues and experiences that make or break us. Most of our stories go untold, but Logan Mountstuart's did not. But swap his experiences for your own and this really could have been "any human heart".

Nothing I have read for years has had such a profound effect on me as this has. I don't think I could ever read it again - lives after all are only lived once. But I shall certainly be seeking out more of Mr Boyd's books.

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31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A rare thing, 16 Mar 2007
This review is from: Any Human Heart (Paperback)
Stunningly good. I've just finished reading it for the second time - I never read books twice - and what I remember of it rings true. Big and bold - yes - a fascinating intertwining of historical fact and fiction - yes - but most of all, Boyd evokes the vibrancy of what it is to be alive to life. A fictitious memoir stocked with asides and self-doubt so real that I'd voice them about myself if I had the author's insight and command of language. Filled with simple joys, black despairs, unidealised moral turpitude, lessons of life.

Rereading AHH has rekindled my love for literature after the comparative dryness of Greene, McEwan, Murakami. I really hope that if you read this review, you'll make a respectable attempt to read this book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A romp through the 20th century
This is a great romp through the 20th century, name-dropping as we go. Any Human Heart is a record of the various journals and diaries of Logan Gonzago Mountstuart - mother... Read more
Published 1 month ago by E. Shaw

4.0 out of 5 stars Any Human Heart...
Written in diary style, this novel tells of one man's life lived through the twentieth century and it's tricky to write what it's actually about since the story covers such a long... Read more
Published 3 months ago by J. Sutton

5.0 out of 5 stars Any human heart
Excellent though heavy going book...need to perservere, and you will be glad you did...I was.
Published 6 months ago by T. Foulds

4.0 out of 5 stars A Life Often Scurrilous


This book kept my attention throughout its appreciable length; it is essentially an imaginary autobiography which presumably owes much to the author's character... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Honorary Auvergnat

5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect novel
This is an engrossing, plausible and moving account of one man's life. There are no false notes, the stlye and content change and develop as the character matures and then ages... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Chestnut worm

4.0 out of 5 stars Skilfully uncompromising
Boyd's primary achievement with this novel is his steadfast refusal to compromise his vision of life, any life, as a haphazard often inconsequential, frustrating, baffling,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Mandrake

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read
I really enjoyed this book, eventhough it took me a while to get into it. I found the middle and latter part of his life much more intesting. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Wren

5.0 out of 5 stars A little in the style of Lees-Milne
A wonderful creation. William Boyd must have read some of James Lees-Milne's diaries for this imaginative novel contains the nuances of the various decades of the twentieth... Read more
Published 14 months ago by G. D. Busby

5.0 out of 5 stars ANATOMY OF A LIFE SPANNING THE 20th CENTURY
Written in diary form, this novel describes the life and times of Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, born in 1906 in Montevideo to an English father and his Uruguayan wife, who later... Read more
Published 15 months ago by W. MONTGOMERY

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly a modern classic
A rare wordsmith at his best. Irresistible. Not least a gentle insight into 20th century history. Empathy to, and subtlety of human life is laid bare with remarkable skill. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Cross Pat

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