Heft

By: Liz Moore

Narrated by: Kirby Heyborne, Keith Szarabajka

Length: 11 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Audie Award Nominee, Literary Fiction, 2013

A heartwarming novel about larger-than-life characters and second chances....

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn’t left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career - if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene’s unexpected phone call to Arthur - a plea for help - that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. Like Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House, Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.

©2012 Liz Moore (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices.” (Colum McCann, National Book Award–winning author)

“In Heft, Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!” (Ann Hood, best-selling author of The Red Thread)

“This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal - she’s written a novel that will stick with you long after you’ve finished it.” (Russell Banks, Pulitzer Prize finalist)

Forced to Think

What did you love best about Heft?

The two perspectives and the way they interact.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heft?

When a shut-in allows another person in his house for the first time in years.

Which scene was your favorite?

Kell's girlfriend gets angry at him, for a reason that makes sense to her and which is barely on his radar.

If you could take any character from Heft out to dinner, who would it be and why?

I would take the whole damn cast, even Trevor, because I feel connected to them. I know their flaws and I like them anyway.

Truly Amazing Audiobook

This audiobook was perfection. The story was extremely interesting, and the narration was ideal. The performances were spot on and I cannot imagine the characters being portrayed in any other way. This is a book that is truly a joy to hear read aloud. The pace is fantastic and the story remains interesting from beginning to end.

Surprise

I had never heard of this book but really enjoyed it. It held me from the first page (or minutes?). Only downside is that I hope there is a sequel because it ended a bit abruptly, although you can imagine what would happen next. In other words, not a cliff hanger but I would really like to spend more time with the characters.

a fun two-story novel

This novel is really two interconnected stories. The first is about a 450 pound recluse, looking at his lonely life at present and looking back in his past - his time as a boy being made fun of, as an adult with his career as a teacher, and a crush he had on a young college student of his. The other half of this book follows the teenage son of the recipient of that crush. He is a star baseball player, trying to fit in at a private school where he feels like an outsider and he has to deal with his sick mother. I liked both stories quite a bit. I enjoy coming-of-age stories, and this was a good and original one. Each first person's narration has its own reader, and the older man's reader is especially good. This novel kept me engaged from start to end.

Anti-climatic

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

No

Would you be willing to try another book from Liz Moore? Why or why not?

Yes

Have you listened to any of Kirby Heyborne and Keith Szarabajka ’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

No

Any additional comments?

I enjoyed it, but it took most of the book to get to what I thought would be the main story and left me hanging.

Very enjoyable!!

Story is so engaging. Narration is superb! I would highly recommend this book.

Lightweight Character Study

Heft gets off to a promising start. Arthur Opp, an obese shut-in, begins to explain to us how he got so lonely that his only remaining relationship is with binge eating. That was me about 30 years ago, watching my waist line grow proportionally to my heartbreak after the bad end to an important relationship. So I was very interested in seeing how author Liz Moore would develop Arthur's character relative to my own experience.

Unfortunately, Arthur's narration is soon supplanted by that of a Westchester County high school boy, and Heft turns into a YA novel about dealing with an alcoholic mother, snobby schoolmates, and being an accomplished and popular multi-sport athlete. (Sound of loud record scratch!) Wait -- "dealing" with being a popular high school athlete? Yes. OK, Kel's single mother is a major problem, but everyone else around him loves him and supports him through that struggle, even when he acts out. What's the story here?

The narrative eventually shifts back to Arthur as he takes baby steps to address his situation, thanks in large part to the arrival of a perky pregnant teenage housekeeper, as well as a letter from his past. But his segments grow shorter as Kel's drone on and on. This is major missed opportunity number one, abandoning Arthur. Number two, there is the opportunity for a significant study of fatherhood that is never explored to the same depth as, say, what Arthur is eating or why Kel wants to pursue baseball instead of college.

Which leads to major missed opportunity number three. Moore does give us a couple of detailed listings of Arthur's binge meals, but she never really develops a compelling metaphor. Sure, he eats because he's lonely, but this is literature, please take it a little past the obvious. Or, being a former English teacher who has an enduring crush on one of his students, maybe expand on the brief mentions of literary works that the student got so wrong and how that affected Arthur's affection for her.

Which brings me to this: Writing reviews for Audible, I feel bad about having to recommend not listening to a book. I know, I have to just be honest, but still... So I will close this review by heartily recommending The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin, which is also about a lonely man who has given up on life and love only to find it through an unlikely turn of events -- events similar to those in Heft. More than anything else, Zevin sticks with her protagonist, as Moore should have done with Arthur Opp, and makes the most of her central metaphor, the love of books.

I have to add a note about the narration. Both narrators (one doing Arthur, one doing Kel) are perfectly fine. But the book is written with frequent breaks, sometimes after one- or two-sentence paragraphs. There is a pause of a couple or three seconds at every break. This totally disrupts the flow of the narrative, annoyingly. There isn't even the need for these breaks, as the next paragraph often is a direct continuation of the preceding one. Bad choice, very bad choice, by both author and the director of the audio version.

The characters came alive!

Would you listen to Heft again? Why?

Liz Moore makes this story come alive with her vivid descriptions, she made me understand how Arthur Opp felt as my empathy for his life grew. What an engaging read!
I couldn't stop listening!

The narrator paused, sighed, and gave such a performance!! I thoroughly enjoyed every minute! My only regret was that there was an end to the story!

Great story, characters, but the ending?

What did you love best about Heft?

I loved the characters and especially Keith Szarabajka's narration.

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

I wish it wouldn't have ended so abruptly. I suppose it's a mark of a good story when it leaves you wanting to hear more, but the ending to this story felt abandoned.

Which scene was your favorite?

Any scene with Arthur and Yolanda.

Very compelling.

Where does Heft rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

Rates among the top 10.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heft?

I don't have one.

Which scene was your favorite?

Nothing stood out.

Who was the most memorable character of Heft and why?

I loved Arthur. What an interesting man.

Any additional comments?

The story lulls you into a comfortable place.