The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne Review

WARNING: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS BELOW

“If there is one thing I've learned in more than seven decades of life, it's that the world is a completely fucked-up place. You never know what's around the corner and it's often something unpleasant.”- The Heart's Invisible Furies, John Boyne

Cyril Avery is not a real Avery -- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? 

Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from and over his many years will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country, and much more.

This should be a book that I would love. It’s the history of a gay man in Ireland, following him through time as he comes to accept himself. And yet, there was something about it I didn’t click with. The biggest problem with this book is that it lacked in subtlety, especially with the development of the characters.

The "good" characters or at least the ones we’re suppose to like are far too obvious for my liking, as are the "bad" characters. Morals are delivered with the blow of a sledgehammer. This isn’t a quiet book by any means, which is likely why it didn’t work for me. I like quiet books, because I hate being lectured at no matter how much I agree with the lecturer and I often felt lectured at in this case. The characters that we are supposed to like are smart and have an air of superiority or have opinions that line up with the main character, whereas the characters that we are supposed to dislike are usually stupid or are the exact opposite of the characters that are likable. It comes across as being very bitter, and I wonder how cathartic the book was to write on the part of the author. I can’t blame him for that, I write to do the same, but I don’t publish my works.

But I don’t know John Boyne personally, so I’m just speculating here. I’ve never even read anything by Boyne, not even The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, but hey, reading this book was one hell of a first impression.

I did like the sense of humor in the book, though. I can’t describe what it reminded me of but it was my kind of humor. My favorite scenes in the book were the ones where Cyril’s adoptive parents showed up, because they were wonderful comic relief. Those scenes really pulled me through the book. 

I also liked how on some level it reminded me of Brideshead Revisited, mostly Cyril trying to have a relationship and marriage with Alice, Julian’s sister, as a replacement for Julian. Ironic when you think about it, especially given how Catholic Brideshead is and how Anti-Catholic this book is. Then again, most people chose to forget just how Catholic Brideshead so that they can focus on the sheer amount of homoerotic subtext and sometimes text-text (depends on how much you read into certain scenes) in the book, to the point where some actually consider it an LGBT book.

I felt nothing towards most of the characters because they felt like characters. Even Cyril never really crossed the line from fictional to realistic for me. And yet, my favorite character, Charles, was the kind of man who could only be a book character, and yet Boyne had so much fun with him that I had to like him. He was definitely more tolerable than some of the other characters, like Catherine, whom I often wanted to punch.

Of all the books I’ve read this year, the book that reminds me of this one the most is Life: An Exploded Diagram. Both books inserted historical elements with the life of their main character to add a unique twist on the coming of age tale, with often humorous elements. I think Life did it better. The humor was warmer, the characters felt like people, not just mouthpieces, whereas in this book they often did. Again, if you must lecture me do it in a way where it doesn’t feel as obvious.

So, I don’t know if I will ever read anything else by John Boyne. It’s pretty safe to say that I probably will never read The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, as if it hasn’t happened by now it probably won’t ever. I didn’t hate this book- it was so long that if I hated it I wouldn’t stick with it- and there is enough good in it that I even liked it at some points. My main complaint about The Heart’s Invisible Furies also isn’t the same complaint a lot of people have with it, which was that it was too long. I gave it some leeway there- it’s a character study taking place over the course of many decades, of course it’s long and slow-moving; though I do agree with the comments stating how built on convenience it is. No, my main complaint is how unsubtle it is. I’m in the minority here and acknowledge it, and honestly I wish I could be one of the five stars reviews. Oh well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don’t.

5.5-6 out of 10