Heft: A Novel (edition 2012)

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. Summary BPL

Among the various book covers, the above gives away the least about a strained triangular relationship among three burdened people but I found it off-putting to the point that I almost didn't read the book! The stack of heavy, white mixed fonts, as I understand it, indicates that the "heft" in these characters' lives--the weight, influence--is absence. A life-burdening absence that is invisible to others except in the shaming behaviors it engenders.

Arthur Opp's obesity and resulting agoraphobia are logically explained from his point of view; the reader is drawn to understand, not judge. Ms Moore handles Charlene's devastating alcoholism through the eyes of her son, Kel, leaving wiggle room for the reader's disapproval. I think Charlene deserves her own book--she is, after all, the restorer of presence to these men. Kel's coming of age--finishing high school and trying out for a college sports scholarship--is only part of his story. He has been acting on his mother's behalf for years now, almost as a father to her; Kel has all the responsibilities of an adult with none of its positive experiences.

Heft is so well written you just absorb the story, unconscious of any literary factors. Anyone who has ever experienced, however briefly, loneliness or disappointment or self-soothed with food or shopped online because it was easier than facing people, will recognize Arthur Opp.

9 out of 10 For fans of beautiful books. ( )

I didn't want to finish this book. After the first 50 pages, I didn't even want to be reading it. But, the story held on to me and the development of the characters continued to keep me turning pages. Hopeful, sad, insightful. ( )

I fell in love with these characters. Tied up neatly, but left room for wonder. ( )

I didn't want to finish this book. After the first 50 pages, I didn't even want to be reading it. But, the story held on to me and the development of the characters continued to keep me turning pages. Hopeful, sad, insightful. ( )

Wow. This book sucked me in from the first few pages. You should read this. ( )