historical fiction
The Heart’s Invisible Furies is the life story of Cyril
Avery told from his point of view. The novel begins with his young birth
mother’s story when she was unwed and pregnant with Cyril in small-town Ireland
in the 1940s. It then continues through his challenging, loveless childhood with
two adoptive parents who never let him forget he was not their natural child,
his dissatisfied young adulthood when he was continually frustrated being gay
in his Catholic-run country, his adult life outside of Ireland, and through the
remainder of his life surrounded by family.
The characters within Cyril’s story felt so real. The
situations were relatable. I laughed out loud a few times! I really enjoyed the
coincidences with certain people being in Cyril’s life at the right time and
how they were interconnected, and kept reappearing, without his awareness. It
was also fun reliving some of the memorable world moments from my own life
experience through Cyril’s Irish eyes. It’s a story about learning to live
within the confines of your life and overcoming struggles. Cyril did not always
make the best decisions (in fact, he committed one unforgivably selfish wrong
against another person) but he managed to carve out a life in which he could
exist.
A great aspect of this novel is that John Boyne gave us
wonderful closure. All the characters,
concerns, and storylines received full and complete closure before the end. I
loved it! Also, I just realized that
Boyne wrote my favorite novel of 2019, A Ladder to the Sky! I had completely forgotten his name, I’m
ashamed to say! And, I see a trend that this is now two books which include novel-writers
as characters. Of course, I’ll make a point to read more of his novels since
I’ve enjoyed two of his so much!
The audiobook narrator, Stephen Hogan, did a great job with
a variety of accents and voices. He was a fabulous voice actor! My only
complaint was that he did not pause between chapters. He’d finish the last
sentence of one chapter and then immediately read the title of the next chapter
without pausing. THEN he’d pause giving me a second to catch up and change my
frame of mind for a new chapter. I’d
have preferred a few seconds of pause before the new chapter title. I’ll give
him an A-.
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