Scan barcode
A review by toobusyreadin
The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
5.0
WOW!!! Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. This pretty much describes all 580 pages of this book for me.
In all seriousness, the book jacket gives you very little insight in to what you can expect, and so I went in totally blind, but with very high expectations as it had been voted Book of the Year in 2017. All I can say is I wish I'd read this three years ago...
Cyril (not to be mistaken for Cecil) Avery (not to be mistaken as a real Avery) is born on a violent night in Dublin in 1945 to Catherine Goggin, an unmarried, sixteen year old girl, or whore as the priest called her as he denounced and banished her in front of their small town church. The book follows Cyril's life from the day he was born, until well, practically the end of it. From being adopted and "raised" by Charles and Maude Avery, to meeting his best friend and first crush Julian Woodbead, to marrying his sister Alice and running away at their reception, to meeting and losing his one true love Bastiaan, and moving back to Ireland to discover a son he never knew he had, Cyril's life is far from ordinary, let alone easy.
My immediate first impression was to wonder if the amount of detail Boyne provided was overkill and I can say that it definitely wasn't! While it took me the first hundred pages or so to truly fall in love, once I was in it, there was no escaping. What I thought would take me two weeks to read, I got through in five days. If I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, and now, just three days after having finished it, I'm just about ready to pick it up and read it all over!
Between the history of Ireland during a time where the rules of Catholicism were law and the suppression both men and women faced because of it, to the 1980s AIDS epidemic in the United States, the history incorporated into this novel is so beautifully woven into the actual story and lives of the characters that you'll be wishing there was more. Boyne leaves you feeling every emotion possible from anger and hate, to pity and fear, to joy and relief, and will make you laugh, then cry, and laugh again. I finished reading this book with tears in eyes, in part because it was over, but mostly because this may have been the most wonderful character development I've ever experienced in a novel. I will without a doubt be picking up this book again in the future.
In all seriousness, the book jacket gives you very little insight in to what you can expect, and so I went in totally blind, but with very high expectations as it had been voted Book of the Year in 2017. All I can say is I wish I'd read this three years ago...
Cyril (not to be mistaken for Cecil) Avery (not to be mistaken as a real Avery) is born on a violent night in Dublin in 1945 to Catherine Goggin, an unmarried, sixteen year old girl, or whore as the priest called her as he denounced and banished her in front of their small town church. The book follows Cyril's life from the day he was born, until well, practically the end of it. From being adopted and "raised" by Charles and Maude Avery, to meeting his best friend and first crush Julian Woodbead, to marrying his sister Alice and running away at their reception, to meeting and losing his one true love Bastiaan, and moving back to Ireland to discover a son he never knew he had, Cyril's life is far from ordinary, let alone easy.
My immediate first impression was to wonder if the amount of detail Boyne provided was overkill and I can say that it definitely wasn't! While it took me the first hundred pages or so to truly fall in love, once I was in it, there was no escaping. What I thought would take me two weeks to read, I got through in five days. If I wasn't reading it, I was thinking about it, and now, just three days after having finished it, I'm just about ready to pick it up and read it all over!
Between the history of Ireland during a time where the rules of Catholicism were law and the suppression both men and women faced because of it, to the 1980s AIDS epidemic in the United States, the history incorporated into this novel is so beautifully woven into the actual story and lives of the characters that you'll be wishing there was more. Boyne leaves you feeling every emotion possible from anger and hate, to pity and fear, to joy and relief, and will make you laugh, then cry, and laugh again. I finished reading this book with tears in eyes, in part because it was over, but mostly because this may have been the most wonderful character development I've ever experienced in a novel. I will without a doubt be picking up this book again in the future.