A profoundly moving book. ( )

This was a great book. I have not read anything by William Boyd in a long time and this only reinforced my high opinion of him.

I had no problem in general with the way in which Logan met and interacred with the principal literary and artistic talents of his generation, although bumping into Hemingway in war-torn Spain was a bit of a stretch.

The suddenness of Logan's loss of his wife and daughter during the war was very cleverly done. Having been focused on the misery of Logan's time in captivity it was quite a wrench to realise that the real tragedy had taken place on the home front. I live not too far from where Logan and Freya lived in Battersea, and a bomb destroyed the house opposite mine - all very real. ( )

A very special book, because you experience the (very interesting) life of a person called Logan Mountstuart (LMS) reading his personal diary. William Boyd writes exceptionally great. Loved this book. ( )

When you start out, you'll think you might not like this book. The main character is arrogant and, well, young. Brash. But keep going through this fictionalized journal that keeps track of seventy years of a man's life, including his heartbreaks and strongest loves. Other reviewers bash it for its "Forest Gumpness," yet to me it's not all that unbelievable that an upperclass intelligence officer might have contact with influential persons during one of the world's most tempestuous and active periods in history. I've read several William Boyd titles now and he has repeatedly shown his ability to invent worlds I like inhabiting. It's a good winter read, fully sad, sweet, and satisfying. ( )

First of all, just to say the main thing, it's a really good read, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me laugh a lot at the beginning (especially in the school years) & then gradually it made me sadder & sadder. At the end I cried a bit.

What was most poignant for me in the book was the relationship with Freya & Stella, and how there can be this moment / time of happiness in someone's life, only for it sometimes to end ever so soon. It was absolutely devastating when Freya & Stella died, & it wasn't made easier by the fact that so many people died in the 2nd world war. It still seemed tragic to me. I have to say, after that the book depicted Logan's life as going from disaster to disaster, just going downhill really. Especially the bit where he was living in London & was completely broke & living on dogfood... oh my god, that was so so sad especially after he had lived those happy years with Freya. I did think at that point in the book that this was quite disappointing; Logan went from an initially promising life, to a peak when he met Freya, to everything going downhill after that. And yet at the end Boyle actually 'saved' the whole thing, with Logan's last few years in France, which actually felt like a very good ending to a long & turbulent life.

The one thing that left me a bit puzzled- I didn't know what do with it!- was the fact that Logan kept bumping into famous people: Ernest Hemingway, Picasso, Joyce, Virginia Woolf, the prince of England & many others. That particular strategy felt a bit 'gimmicky' and Forest-Gumpy to me... but I guess the book was (among other things) trying to document what happened during the 20th century & not just Logan's life, so in that sense it made sense as a strategy.

Anyway, in general- very well written, very enjoyable. ( )

Excellent. Wonderful. ( )

Is it clever: yes it is. Although I am not sure that it is any more clever than Winnie and the Wolf. Is it well written: yes it is. It did keep me going and I didn't have to keep going back to make sure that I understood (as I did with Winnie and the Wolf). It does carry you through one view of the 20th Century. Did I like it: no I didn't! Frankly I didn't care very much for either the main characters or the celebrated literary figures. I would not want to read any more books by this author yet I can see why some people would really enjoy it. ( )

The journal of Logan Montstuart from his school days between the wars until just before his death in 1991. The fictional Logan was a spy in WWII, an art dealer in NY in the fifties, an art critic, a novelist...... Entertaining and highly recommended. ( )

William Boyd is an amazingly good story teller. In this novel, we follow the life of Logan Mountstuart from his school days to his death which covers most of the 20th century. A writer and art dealer, his life touches on most of the great writers and painters of the age as he moves between London, Paris and New York. I had to keep reminding myself that this was a fictional character because Boyd creates a character of such depth and dimension. I was sorry when the book ended. ( )

Tracks fictional English writer Logan Mountstuart's life through the 20th century in the form of Logan's diary. At first, I was put off by all the references to famous people but the book slowly grows on you and by the end, you do not want it to end. He has an incredible life, running into many of the famous artists and novelists of the time, combined with adventures that take him to Uruguay, England, Bahamas, Spain, France and New York. He his always honest in the diary, sometimes sentimental and the range of experiences and ups and downs in his life are like a yo-yo as he puts it. An enjoyable read. ( )

Another great story - the whole life of a man as told in his journals, that intersects most of the events of the 20th century: Spanish Civil War, artists and writers in Paris, WWII. Felt like he was a real person and you really knew him in all his dimensions. ( )

This book is lots of fun. It is a fictional journal, goes from prep school on. He spends WW2 watching the Windsors in the Bahamas, but fell out with them over an attempted coverup (where the Duke wanted him to act dishonorably.) Later in NYC he is the manager of an Art Gallery. It is pretty episodic. The last eventful part, where is he 70+ and is a member of a group in England aligned with Red Army Faction people, is pretty unbelievable.

This is a novel written in the form of a personal journal by a writer who lived through every decade in the 20th century (1906-1991). He records his experiences as (1) a student at a prep school & at Oxford; (2) as a beginning writer; (3) as an intelligence officer during WWII (keeping track of the Duke & Duchess of Windson in the Caribbean & later as a prisoner for two years in Switzerland--a confusing story); (4) as an art dealer in New York City; & (5) as a retiree in London & later in southern France. I divide it this way, but he gives equal or greater attention to his private life & his relationships with family, lovers, friends, & incidental acquaintances such as Pablo Picasso & Ernest Hemingway. This is a character I normally wouldn't like--he smokes & drinks heavily, engages in adulterous affairs, & takes his privileged status for granted--but thanks to this author I got caught up in his story & cared about what happened to him. ( )

3889. Any Human Heart, by William Boyd (read 13 May2004) This book was selected as one of the ten "Books of the Year" last December by the Atlantic Monthly. It seems like a major work and much of it is enjoyable reading. The central character, Logan Mountstuart, has qualities and behavior which make him a very unattractive person and the unnecessary use of four letter words detract from enjoyment of the book. But the writing is of high quality and often I found myself looking forward to continuing reading the book. The framework is an account of the life of its central character, born in 1906 in Uruguay, educated in a public school in England and at Oxford, writer of a few novels, has a strange World War II career, three or four marriages, ends up living in France. High quality writing but one wished the author did not think it necessary to spend so much time exploring Mounstuart's reprehensible sex life. But there are admirable things in the book and it may "live." The protagonist meets real people, duly identified in footnotes, such as Evelyn Waugh, Jackson Pollack, etc. And the novel has an 11 page index! ( )

Enjoyed very much. ( )

Any Human Heart

Yet another intriguing, intelligently written book by board favourite William Boyd.

The protagonist, Logan Mountstuart, is a writer whose life spans every decade of the C20th. By turns heroic/anti-heroic and, at times, somewhat quixotic, his life has highs, lows and even boring bits when he's stuck in a rut. Boyd cleverly reduces these latter to a minimum by compiling the novel from a series of journals written by LMS during his life. When LMS was in a rut, there was no journal. Hey presto - all the editing is done. The advantage of this is that the reader is not bored with the minutiae of life. The disadvantage is that it is difficult to keep track of time.

There's a good mix of mood here: humour in the jolly boarding school escapades of LMS as a teen; bitchiness in the successful years as a young author and journalist (dishing the dirt on Hemingway, Woolf, Waugh, etc); adventure during the Second World War (seasoned with the intrigues of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor!).

The real accomplishment in Boyd's format is that LMS goes into a slow inreversible decline after WWII and yet the journals remain interesting, for by turns he lives in New York, Nigeria, London and France. We don't really notice his downhill slide until we meet him as a pensioner trying to eek out an existence in 1980's London. I found these pages terribly, terribly poignant (and a little terrifying to be honest). I was very pleased when LMS escaped to live out his days in relative comfort in a delapidated French cottage.

I did think "Any Human Heart" a little patchy. I found the New York section a little vacuous - but, then, maybe that's how life was in the 1960's arty circle. But I am nit-picking. On the whole this is another triumphant novel from the pen of an author who, in my eyes, is now an unsung national treasure.

P.S Boyd's fictional artist Nat Tate features as a subsidiary character in the New York section. Seems Boyd just couldn't resist rubbing the art world's nose in it just one more time! ( )

This is a great romp through the 20th century, name-dropping as we go. Any Human Heart is a record of the various journals and diaries of Logan Gonzago Mountstuart – mother Uruguayan, father British – from his schooldays at a minor English public school to his death in a quiet little French village. Logan’s life touches most of the defining moments of the 20th century, from the Spanish Civil War to the Baader Meinhof Gang. Through three marriages, episodes in London, Paris, Switzerland, New York and most memorably, the Bahamas,
Logan is a journalist, a writer of biographies and novels, an art dealer, a frequenter of prostitutes, a spy and a prisoner of war. He meets Cyril Connolly, adventures with Ernest Hemingway, visits the studio of Pablo Picasso, plays golf with the Duke of Windsor, works for Ian Fleming during World War II and has a nodding acquaintance with James Joyce. All of which might be unbelievable if it weren’t for the deft credibility, the charm and authenticity of Boyd’s creation. The reader is more than happy to suspend disbelief because this is no crude wade through the shallows of celebrity, this is a very clever book. It works because of the richness and variety of its creativity, with minor and major characters given depth and density. When, towards the end of the book, Logan is rescued from poverty in late-70s London, where he is reduced to making stews from dog food, the reader is more than happy to go with him to his unexpected inheritance in France.
The device of using journals or diaries to describe a life is often considered to be artificial and distancing, but here it is used skilfully, allowing us into Logan Mountstuart’s mind at one remove, making the reader both a voyeur and a confidante.
William Boyd’s last book was a biography of American painter Nat Tate, which had art dealers anxiously searching the back-catalogues for work which didn’t exist, because Tate didn’t either. With Any Human Heart Boyd has gone one better. This time we know from the start that this is fiction, but so solidly and joyously placed in the world that it might as well be fact. ( )

The first Boyd I read, and instantly a fan. Read this when you have plenty of time on your hands as its almost impossible to put down. ( )

Boyd is always entertaining, but opts here for an expansive narrative in both space and time. With a canvas that big, the paint is sometimes spread very thin. ( )

Wonderful, wise and moving. ( )

(#4 in the 2005 Book Challenge)

Keen, I really liked this book! This is a novel written in the format of a diary, taking the narrator from his days at prep school through Oxford, Paris before the war, the war, Paris after the war, New York in the freaky 1960s art scene, the political underground in London during the 1970s, and finally back to France, the countryside this time. One of the motifs of the book is that the narrator is constantly encountering famous people up to and including the King and Mrs. Simpson, and it works better than one would expect. (Plus, I gave up and accepted the fact that all English people* prior to 1930 knew each other when I learned that the woman who is the mother of the boys that J.M. Barrie wrote about in Peter Pan was the sister of Daphne Du Maurier.) The famous people aren't too intrusive, and it's helpful in setting the scene and showing what was going on at the time. This book has a lot of my favorite thing -- giving a lot of domestic details about where and how people lived and worked and dressed and all that. My only slight nagging point is that it's very cavalier about adultery.

This was a recommendation from a fellow Betsy-Tacy member. Oddly, it reminded me a lot of that book I read by Doris Lessing last month.

*yes, I realize it's English people of a certain class and education, but still, that's a lot of people.

Grade: A-
Recommended: To people who like character-driven novels, also an interesting overview of a life that spans nearly the entire 20th century. ( )