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A review by katykelly
Heft by Liz Moore
4.0
An interesting companion piece to Shriver's Big Brother.
Two interconnecting stories are told. The first is that of 500 pound former English professor Arthur Opp, who has been receiving letters from a former student for years and one day gets a phone call from her asking him to meet and help her teenage son. Arthur hasn't been out of his house in a decade.
The second story is Kel's, the son of Arthur's student, a high school senior hoping to earn a Major League Baseball place rather than go to college. We learn his mother is an alcoholic, and ill and that Kel is almost her carer.
How these two come closer and closer to meeting, and their stories do, is well told and quite hard to put down.
Arthur, just like the Big Brother of Shriver's book, needs help to change his situation, and the potential muse arrives in the form of petite cleaner Yolanda, also my favourite character.
Both stories are interesting, Arthur's more so for me, though I really didn't see why he would always say "&" for "and" as well as "O" instead of "Oh". My little bugbear.
A sad story in places, as well as uplifting. And though some people don't like the ending, I thought it was quite right for the story and had no problem with it whatsoever.
I think I still prefer Shriver's take on obesity, but Heft is still an enjoyable and worthwhile read.
Two interconnecting stories are told. The first is that of 500 pound former English professor Arthur Opp, who has been receiving letters from a former student for years and one day gets a phone call from her asking him to meet and help her teenage son. Arthur hasn't been out of his house in a decade.
The second story is Kel's, the son of Arthur's student, a high school senior hoping to earn a Major League Baseball place rather than go to college. We learn his mother is an alcoholic, and ill and that Kel is almost her carer.
How these two come closer and closer to meeting, and their stories do, is well told and quite hard to put down.
Arthur, just like the Big Brother of Shriver's book, needs help to change his situation, and the potential muse arrives in the form of petite cleaner Yolanda, also my favourite character.
Both stories are interesting, Arthur's more so for me, though I really didn't see why he would always say "&" for "and" as well as "O" instead of "Oh". My little bugbear.
A sad story in places, as well as uplifting. And though some people don't like the ending, I thought it was quite right for the story and had no problem with it whatsoever.
I think I still prefer Shriver's take on obesity, but Heft is still an enjoyable and worthwhile read.