Any Human Heart - Softcover

Boyd, William

4.28

22,664 ratings by Goodreads

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0141047569 ISBN 13: 9780141047560

Publisher: Penguin, 2010

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Logan Mountstuart's long life is both ordinary and extraordinary. A writer, a spy and later an art dealer, Logan mixes with the men and women who shaped the twentieth century. But he's also a son, a husband and a lover, and he makes the same mistakes we all do in his search for happiness. William Boyd's bestselling novel, a rich, intriguing and entertaining account of a life lived to the full, comes to the tv screen in a major new series scripted by the author himself.

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Review:

Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born in 1906, and died of a heart attack on October 5, 1991, aged 85. Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child". From his early childhood in Montevideo, son of an English corned beef executive and his Uraguayan secretary, through his years at a Norfolk public school and Oxford, Mountstuart traces his haphazard development as a writer. Early and easy success is succeeded by a long half-century of mediocrity, disappointments and setbacks, both personal and professional, leading him to multiple failed marriages, internment, alcoholism and abject poverty.

Mountstuart's sorry tale is also the story of a British way of life in inexorable decline, as his journey takes in the Bloomsbury set, the General Strike, the Spanish Civil War, 1930s Americans in Paris, wartime espionage, New York avant garde art, even the Baader-Meinhof gang--all with a stellar supporting cast. The most sustained and best moment comes mid-book, as Mountstuart gets caught up in one of Britain's murkier wartime secrets, in the company of the here truly despicable Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Elsewhere author William Boyd occasionally misplaces his tongue too obviously in his cheek--the Wall Street Crash is trailed with truly crashing inelegance--but overall Any Human Heart is a witty, inventive and ultimately moving novel. Boyd succeeds in conjuring not only a compelling 20th century but also, in the hapless Logan Mountstuart, an anti-hero who achieves something approaching passive greatness. --Alan Stewart

Review:

Its pleasures are endless. . . . Supremely entertaining. "The Washington Post Book World ""Boyd has an exceptional ability to tell a really compelling story, in dense imaginative detail, about characters with complex, and convincing, emotional lives. . . . I've already read this book twice and probably shall again. Of how many novels can that be said?"--Peter Green, "Los Angeles Times Book Review " The sort of rare novel that redeems the essential purpose of prose fiction. . . . A high celebration of the plain fun of a life lived with relentless appetite and reasonable grace. "The Baltimore Sun " Entertaining and moving. . . . Can be read with sheer pleasure not only for the delicacy of its emotions but for the truth of its perceptions. Like saying goodbye to a good friend, it s hard to see this brilliant novel come to an end. "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette " A wonderful character and a wonderful book. . . . Boyd persuades you that you ve read the confidences of a real, flawed, marginal character battered by every malice and caprice of 20th-century history. "The Seattle Times " A pleasure front to back, and a fond tip of the bowler hat to the upper-class fiction spawned by a long-gone world. "Newsweek " One of the most skillful and appealing writers at work today. "The Atlantic Monthly " A novel of deep humanity and insight. "Newsday "" "Its pleasures are endless. . . . Supremely entertaining." -"The Washington Post Book World ""Boyd has an exceptional ability to tell a really compelling story, in dense imaginative detail, about characters with complex, and convincing, emotional lives. . . . I've already read this book twice and probably shall again. Of how many novels can that be said?"--Peter Green, "Los Angeles Times Book Review ""The sort of rare novel that redeems the essential purpose of prose fiction. . . . A high celebration of the plain fun of a life lived with relentless appetite and reasonable grace."--"The Baltimore Sun ""Entertaining and moving. . . . Can be read with sheer pleasure not only for the delicacy of its emotions but for the truth of its perceptions. Like saying goodbye to a good friend, it's hard to see this brilliant novel come to an end." --"The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette " "A wonderful character--and a wonderful book. . . . Boyd persuades you that you've read the confidences of a real, flawed, marginal character battered by every malice and caprice of 20th-century history. " --"The Seattle Times ""A pleasure front to back, and a fond tip of the bowler hat to the upper-class fiction spawned by a long-gone world."-- "Newsweek ""One of the most skillful and appealing writers at work today."--"The Atlantic Monthly ""A novel of deep humanity and insight."--"Newsday "

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