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)

Apt Title

4.5 stars
Heft is defined as a “weight or heaviness” and as an “importance or influence”. This fits in so many ways for this heartbreaking but hopeful story. There is the unbearable weight of loneliness, the heaviness of feeling invisible, unloved, and unworthy, the actual number on a scale when a person eats to numb emotion, the importance of love and caring (or the serious impact of abandonment), the crushing burden of an unhealthy/addicted parent, and the weight of secrets and shame. This book contains a story quite different than I have ever read, yet the themes of love, family, loss, and meaning were so familiar. I was really caught up in the lives of the two main characters, and I felt as if I knew them.
One small issue, and it may have been more noticeable because I listened to the audio version of the book, but I really want to send the author a list of synonyms for the word “said”. I don’t know that I have ever noticed before how obnoxious it is when no other word is substituted in dialogue and it is repeated again and again and again. After a very short while, it grated on my nerves. That irritation took away from the story for me. The voice of the younger character was also a little off to me. He sounded a bit robotic at times.
Overall though, I recommend this book. I thought it was a very interesting and emotional read. Worth the time and credit.

glad I have it a try

I was disappointed in the ending but I really enjoyed the book. I feel like we needed one more chapter.

Slow listen with no afterglow

Is there anything you would change about this book?

I would not have included Arther Op's confession in the beginning.

Has Heft turned you off from other books in this genre?

No

What aspect of Kirby Heyborne and Keith Szarabajka ’s performance would you have changed?

The actor reading The part of Arthur Op was perfect. Paced well and Expressive. The voice of Kel was too slow and too adult.

Was Heft worth the listening time?

No, I listened at normal pace for hours and then sped it up 3x normal speed.

Any additional comments?

I was disappointed, the characters were predictable and I did not know them any differently from the way they were developed in the beginning.

This book really touched me

If you could sum up Heft in three words, what would they be?

Beautiful, compassionate and lonely.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heft?

The first sentence.

What does Kirby Heyborne and Keith Szarabajka bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Everything, Keith's voice is mesmerizing, It was a bit shocking to have Kirby come in, but they both read me a wonderful story.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No extreme reaction - I just wanted to keep listening.

Any additional comments?

So well done - it has been a bit since I listened to such a good book.

Main characters were so well developed

I truly enjoyed listening to this book. Kirby H is one of my favorite narrators & he did not disappoint. The author developed both main characters to the point that in each case I felt an overwhelming need to sympathize with them. The details of their lives were so realistic - it made the book one of my favorites this year. There was no "mystery" or "thriller" - it was just believable regular people with problems one could relate to. Hopefully we see more of Liz Moore in the future.

It ended before it ended.

I was not ready for the story to end. I wanted to know what was next for Arthur, Kel, Yolanda and Lindsey. Enjoyable story.

Surprising book!

Hopeful and honest. Heartfelt and tender. I especially loved the touching interreflections the main characters shared throughout the book. I wanted to know them better and be invited to the dinner party. I'd bring flowers and laugh a lot.

Loneliness Defined; Its Cure Explained

Heft, shaped and written by Liz Moore, narrated by, Kirby Heyborne, and Keith Szarabajka. If you are contemplating your loneliness, you need to read Heft.

Heft sets up three distinct and unique personal circumstances, each of a person who suffers dramatic episodes of isolation, solitude, and seclusion. Our three sufferers are all related, by circumstance, but we learn of each person’s story separately; or somewhat so. Two of our sufferers find each other and we learn of their angst in a symbiotic story, the third person who suffers loneliness does it on his own but is the essential ingredient in the story behind the other two lonely-hearts.

The story, Heft, is about a man with wealth who because of misjustices becomes hermitted. His companion is a poor Latin girl who finds herself with child and without its father, and out-casted by her parents. The boy, is handsome but burdened by responsibility to his adrift mother. The mother is a lifelong admirer of the hermit who had been her professor before the injustices put him into self-imposed solitude. This may all feel depressing, and loneliness is gloomy, but the story is light hearted, dead serious, and enlightening.

This book though is equally about not speaking up and providing the world around you with information so it may process you fairly. A good part of this book is about the actors failing to speak up about their circumstance and because of their hesitations, life goes by, they miss out on opportunity and what is left is the loneliness. In fact, the only negative is the actor’s continued failure to speak up becomes a bit frustrating. Be quiet and you are misunderstood.

The readers did very well but for the pace of the tale. I do not think that is a fault of the speakers, but rather the production style, which may have been a bit better had the read been a bit more paced. Feel lonely. Do read this wonderfully curative book.

Best narration ever

Since I can’t read, I have listened to thousands of audio books. I thought Richard Armitage was tops, but for me there is a new king of the narrator mountain. This Kirby Hey.... something.
I am going to look for more books narrated by him.

Abrupt ending

Good story with good characters. Was looking for a little more closure to the story, ended abruptly.