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)

Unforgettable, moving and inspiring

I have never before had such an emotional response to a character in a book. Arthur's honesty and self-awareness is part of what makes him so endearing, even while his self-esteem, weight issues and decisions raise other emotions. Arthur is so real to me and Moore did an amazing job of realistically portraying how a person can withdraw so far from society while simultaneously yearning to belong. Arthur's words are so poignant and vivid, he had my heart from the very beginning. While Yolonda (his maid) and Kel (a pro-baseball hopeful teenager) live sterotypical have-not lives, their personalities drew me in as well.

This is a suspense story of dysfunction with vulnerability, courage, love, clarity and persistence rather than action and Ninja skills. The storylines were not obvious, as I expected them to be, but were unique and unexpected. The abrupt ending was a disturbing surprise. I just was not ready to let go of Arthur, Yolonda and Kel.

A great deal of accolades also goes to the narrators who did a superb job. I will look for more of their work and other books by Moore.

A Brilliant Tender Heart Inside 500 lbs of Heft

I loved the characters in this book. They're the kind I miss when the final few sentences draw the story to its conclusion. I have to "close the book", and wonder what will happen next in their lives.
A family member mentioned she'd read the book rather than my preferred method of audio reading. I cannot imagine knowing the personalities in Heft without the incredibly insightful performances of the two readers. Especially tender was Kirby Heyborne's depiction of the lead character.
The story was fascinating, surprising, never slow but instead seemed to get better and better as it progressed.
I couldn't put it down therefore I finished it all too soon!

Just OK

In my book 3 stars is just average. This book did not compel me to listen while my car idled in the driveway, nor was it so bad that I was just biding my time until it was over. That being said, this is an OK story. Not a waste of a credit, but certainly not over-the-top.

Beautiful Story!

What did you love best about Heft?

The insight into people who are so often judged only from the outside. We are such an intolerant society and this book would be an excellent English lit book for junior and high schoolers.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Heft?

When Aurther tells the story about visiting his father after the death of his mother - it helped explain who he was and the depth of his pain.

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

The innate innocence and goodness of both characters would have been somewhat diminished without the skill of these readers and that is so integral to the development of both characters.

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

Both - not extreme in either case, but very moving and joyful.

Any additional comments?

Arthur's complete acceptance of Yolanda without pigeon-holing her by stereotype was really sweet.

I didn't think I'd like it

I loved it. It's a book about love and family, and reminded me of something a therapist told me, decades ago. "There are all kinds of family". Arthur Opp is fat. I mean really fat: 550 pounds. He doesn't leave his house, has his groceries delivered, and his house is a dire mess. (When you're fat, it's a struggle to clean house!) He's been corresponding via letters to an old student of his, on whom he had a small crush when he was a professor. All of a sudden it comes up that she might visit him, and OH NO he simply must get the house in some semblance of order. He calls a maid service, and voilà, Yolanda.

Meanwhile in another part of NYC, Charlene, the former student, has so many health problems, physical and mental, that she's thinking about what will happen to her son should she die. Kel, her son, is a poor kid in a rich school who really doesn't fit in.

It's a terrifically sad yet hopeful story about love and relationships, however improbable. I'm so glad I read it. I'm the richer for it.

Compassionate and meaningful

Great book for anyone grappling with self esteem issues or in the wake of a loved one passing..

Enjoyable, but mediocre read

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

I did enjoy this book, however the characters and storyline did not really grab me the way I had hoped that they would. Many of the characters were too extreme and had self defeating tendencies which made them frustrating and difficult to relate to as deeply as I would have liked.

Ehh

The reader for the young boy was robotic sounding. The reader for the adult character was a bit boring at times.

The story had promise which kept me with the book. Then it had an ending that fell flat on its ass.

Read it twice

This was one of the earliest books I “read” on Audible After reading a recent review, I decided to revisit it.

One story line in it I recalled very well, while the second I seem to have forgotten almost completely. How does that happen?

The lives of these outcast characters, all seeming to be caught in the worst situations of feeling left out and not fitting in, tug at the reader. Yet it is not maudlin and hopeless. The reader is eager to find out what happens next. It certainly holds one’s interest and pulls one in.

I leave this second reading feeling the love that human beings can have for each other does save us all, if we can just let go if our past sad experiences and let it in. I urge you to read this story centered around a lonely, vastly obese recluse, as strangers become family and breathe relief and release.

HEFT is perfectly "weighted!"

I loved this book so much, the detail and depth of characters. I mourned the day I finished this book, as I felt a kinship and love for the mesh of characters.