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zoept 's review for:
Any Human Heart
by William Boyd
Mmm I was lukewarm about this book. Interesting concept - a life lived vicariously through LMS’ diary entries over 8 decades - and beautifully written with some nice moments. Slow to start, picked up in the middle, bored late on, a bit grossed out after that (the the topic of grooming is uncomfortably glossed over), more interested towards the end but largely apathetic. But maybe that’s the point of the book - the ups and downs, excitements and boredoms and passions and privations of human life?
Certainly doesn’t work in Boyd’s favour that I read this at the same time Alex Haley’s Roots, also a saga of a life tenaciously lived, but one faced with infinitely more complexity and hardship so that LMS’ meandering musings seem comparatively self indulgent and banal. Possibly a harsh (or even irrelevant) comparison, but interesting nonetheless.
Certainly doesn’t work in Boyd’s favour that I read this at the same time Alex Haley’s Roots, also a saga of a life tenaciously lived, but one faced with infinitely more complexity and hardship so that LMS’ meandering musings seem comparatively self indulgent and banal. Possibly a harsh (or even irrelevant) comparison, but interesting nonetheless.