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Title: Any Human Heart by William Boyd ISBN: 0-375-41493-2 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Boyd is one of the world's greatest living story tellers.
Comment: Once again William Boyd has produced a jewel. His ability to bring true history into a novel is totally unmatched. But even Boyd has outdone his last few publications with "Any Human Heart," not since "Brazzaville Beach" has he written such a page turner. This book flows effortlessly from cracking good tale to tragic reflection. His creation of this heroic character Logan Mountstuart left me crying at certain points in the book, and I can assure you I have never done that while reading a book before. Boyd uses a diary as a vehicle to detail the facts and emotions of Logan's life, and this adds to the drama, suspense and pain of his story.
If you have the time and you are looking for a summer assignment, go to the book store and purchase William Boyd's library. Read them in any order you like. But if you are looking for one excellent example of this writer's genius, then Any Human Heart is a great place to start. I cannot recommend any book more highly.
Rating: 4
Summary: The Fascinating and Remarkable Story of Logan Mountstuart
Comment: William Boyd's latest novel, ANY HUMAN HEART, focuses on the life of Logan Mountstuart --- a writer, friend, lover and world traveler. His fascinating story is revealed through daily journal entries; his personal day-to-day writings relate his movements, thoughts and whereabouts.
The journals begin with Mountstuart's boyhood in Uruguay and then move to Oxford and the publication of his first book. We next travel with him to Paris --- where he rubs shoulders with the likes of Hemingway, Picasso and Joyce --- and Spain, where he covers its civil war.
During World War II, Mountstuart becomes a naval intelligence officer and befriends the Duke and Duchess of Windsor (though this eventually turns sour). Following the war, he goes to New York as an art dealer, to Africa as a literature professor, to London and finally to France, where he lives out the rest of his days. All the while, we watch him grow up through his musings and his rich life, which is characterized by friends, family, drugs, lovers, artists, booze, military men, fiends and foes, happiness and sadness, triumphs and personal tragedies. It is, journal entry after entry, the entire makeup of a life fully lived.
Logan Mountstuart is like Forrest Gump in a way. He is able to meet some extraordinary people and be embroiled in a number of important events. But this does not happen because of a goal or a determination to get someplace --- he just happens to be there at the time. Oh! There's Virginia Woolf again. Oh! Jackson Pollack is a charlatan. The Duchess is vindictive! Poor Hemingway, why did he have to shoot himself? Boyd brings all of these people and events into sharp focus, using a fictional character that you swear is real.
Boyd does throw events and people at Mountstuart with a bit too much gusto at times. The writer thinks to himself: How can I make his life a little more interesting right now? The story is beginning to drag. Yes, okay, I'll ship him off to Nigeria during its Civil War. Hmmm, the writer muses, what funny thing can happen to an old man who has traveled the world? Of course, have him fall in with some sort of terrorist cell.
All in all, however, ANY HUMAN HEART is an accomplished piece. It brings together those small, seemingly insignificant details of one's life (breakfasts, vacations, weather reports), puts them up against world events and shows how one's life slowly, perhaps imperceptibly, changes from one day to the next. I'm hungry so I'll end here. Perhaps I'll cook up some scallops and eat them outside. It's bright and sunny but a bit cold. I'll have to wear a hat.
--- Reviewed by Jonathan Shipley
Rating: 5
Summary: Well worth waiting for!
Comment: I have been a William Boyd fan since reading "Brazzaville Beach" (one of my favorite books) many years ago. I think this book is his best work yet. Following Logan Mountstuart's life through his diaries I found myself disliking him at times but yet always appreciating his honesty... and always enjoying his adventures. A page turner from the beginning, I cried at times and was truly sad to finish the book. Fabulous!
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Title: Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd ISBN: 0380780496 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Great Fire: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0374166447 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Blue Afternoon : Volume 1 by William Boyd ISBN: 067977260X Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 14 January, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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