The Heart's Invisible Furies: A Novel

Almost every human being yearns to love and be loved. Often this is given first by our family, and when it isn’t, the soul searches for affection in other places. This is the hardest road. And so it begins. Ireland, 1945, sixteen-year-old Catherine Groggin sits in church waiting for her ‘turn.’ The dread of what might be coming builds from the first sentence until the priest drags her up and shames her in front of the entire parish, mentally and physically abusing her while everyone looks on. He then banishes her; she is, after all, pregnant and unmarried. I was horrified that an entire building full of people, including her whole family, would sit by and watch this happen. But back then the Catholic religion ruled with an iron fist, and people came to heel. Thankfully, plucky Catherine won’t let her flame be doused; pulling herself up by her bootstraps she heads for Dublin and a new life. Unable to take care of her newborn son alone, he is placed for adoption. The book weaves its way through Dublin, Amsterdam, and NYC, and is essentially the life story of Cyril Avery as told in the first person. Adopted by Charles and Maude Avery, little Cyril is treated more like a piece of furniture than their child. He aches to feel close to someone, anyone and realizes from the age of seven that his attraction to other boys is strong. Of course, religion and 1940s society insist that it is wrong for him to feel this way. In fact, a high percentage of the populace classify being gay as a heinous crime. Trying to deny who he is and fit within societal norms becomes a complete disaster. He longs to tell someone his secret, it’s pent up inside him like a beast, but each time he tries, some horrific occurrence surrounding the confession forces him back inside his shell. His self-destructive behavior impacts on everyone around him. The sneaking, lying and pretending that becomes his existence eventually crescendos into an event so epic that it forces him to flee Ireland for Amsterdam - and this proves to be the turning point for our friend, Cyril. However, even while standing in exquisite sunshine, darkness is only ever a heartbeat away. A perfect bite of laughter, intrigue and darkness The Heart’s Invisible Furies kept me reading like a mad person. The cast of rich, deep characters is enchanting as I felt each of them and their struggles. The writing is beautiful without being overdone, holding that perfect balance. I savored every scrumptious word from the first to the last, leaving me fulfilled. John Boyne is a superb storyteller and boy did he have a tale to tell! There are difficult themes surrounding homophobia and the treatment of gay people; ultimately this is a novel about the relationships experienced throughout one person’s lifetime. I recommend this as being too incredible to miss. One of my favorite reads of 2018!

"A line came into my mind, something that Hannah Arendt once said about the poet Auden: that life had manifested the heart's invisible furies on his face". Any author who takes a quote from Hannah Arendt, a German-born American political theorist, professor and writer of books like The Origins of Totalitarianism and Eichmann in Jerusalem, who was the subject of the fascinating movie, Hannah Arendt, to be the title of his book, is an author to take note of and I took 40 of them as I read The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. What amazes me is that I hadn't heard of this author before becoming aware of this book. How I became aware of this book is thanks to Elyse, a most voracious reader and reviewer, who I'm proud to call my Goodreads friend! She called it the best book of 2017 and bubbled over with enthusiasm for the writing, the characters, the dramatic backdrop of Irish politics, culture and church. Elyse was passionate about the book and I dare say, I am too. Elyse mentioned in her review that the dialogue of a particular character, Mary-Margaret Muffet, was particularly funny. I will expound on that. The first two parts of the book, and the end of the last part, are filled with dialogue that for me was LOL funny. The humor in this book is one of its characteristics that I most enjoyed. I highlighted several examples on my Kindle (one of the many functions I love about Kindle), which can be found on Goodreads (one of the functions of Goodreads that l like, as well as the other readers and reviewers it allows you to meet). Boyce is in fact a master of dialogue, as well as the way he draws his characters, both of which frequently put me in mind of the great story writer, O. Henry (I wondered if O. Henry was an influence on Boyce's writing). In fact, I think it is the dialogue per se that serves to draw the memorable characters, starting with Cyril who is the narrator and central character whose life starts in Ireland in 1945 when Cyril is born and takes the reader through 2015 when he dies. The book visits Cyril every seven years throughout his life. We see what it was like to be Gay in Ireland where it was illegal and thought to be disgusting and could only be hidden because gay men were routinely beaten and even murdered for their sexual orientation, with no repercussions. We see how life in Ireland is fundamentally influenced by the Church and more specifically the Priests and the hypocrisy therein. Cyril's life carries us through the book, but it is often the other characters, like his "adopted" parents, Charles and Maude, his best friend and object of his lust and love, Julius, a few of the priests, his "girlfriend", Mary-Margaret Muffet, and others who give the book its gusto and hilarity. “I always called them Charles and Maude, never ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’. This was on Charles’s insistence as I wasn’t a real Avery. It didn’t bother me particularly but I know it made other people uncomfortable and once, in school, when I referred to them thus, a priest punched me around the ears and told me off for being modern.” This novel was as insightful as it was long (close to 600 pages) and I would not delete one word. It's one of those books you read that makes you laugh, cry, think, learn and wish it will never end.

I had a feeling John Boyne may have put his heart and soul into this book, though I had little idea how so. The blurb is intentionally vague, we know Cyril has been adopted and that the book is about his struggle with coming to terms with his identity. The last novel of his that I read was The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, a moving story set during WW2, seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a German concentration camp. In The Heart’s Invisible Furies, a title taken from a quote by Hannah Arendt, the German-born American political theorist: “A line came into my mind, something that Hannah Arendt once said about the poet Auden: that life had manifested the heart’s invisible furies on his face.” we meet 16-year-old Catherine Goggin, sitting quietly in church in a small Irish village of Goleen in County Cork, as she is about to be denounced and humiliated in front of the entire congregation, then thrown out of, not only the church, but her home and the village, for bringing shame on the community. The story is narrated through the voice of her not-yet born son, the boy that we come to know as Cyril Avery; he will be adopted and raised by Charles and Maude Avery, after Catherine travels to Dublin and takes up employment in the tea room of the Dáil Éireann (House of Representatives), where she is given a chance by the manageress, and eventually becoming that herself. The book is divided into different parts, each covering a significant chunk of Cyril’s life, initially in Ireland, then a period in Amsterdam, time in New York and finally coming back to Ireland. Cyril finds it extremely difficult within his family, his school and his culture to be himself. Through his inability to be and express himself, we see how oppressive a culture can be against anything or anyone who dares to step outside the acceptable norm, highlighting the extreme hypocrisy that therefore must exist, as humans by their very nature are not clones of each other, they are born and exist in more than just binary variations. In this first part, as Cyril is growing up, John Boyne makes something of a parody of his life, in particular in relation to his adoptive parents, who continually insist on reminding him that he is not a real Avery, and Cyril himself, so used to hearing this, will correct every person who uses the word mother or father, by inserting the word ‘adoptive’ to be sure they too understand. “I always called them Charles and Maude, never ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’. This was on Charles’s insistence as I wasn’t a real Avery. It didn’t bother me particularly but I know it made other people uncomfortable and once, in school, when I referred to them thus, a priest punched me around the ears and told me off for being modern.” The first time we read this, it seems sad, but the continual repetition makes it comic, and it is a tool that Boyne uses, perhaps to soften the effect of what must have been quite a soul-searching book to write, as he reaches deep into his own life experiences to create the life of Cyril. At the age of seven, he meets Julian, the son of a lawyer who is helping his father stay out of prison for tax evasion, they will become best friends. "But for all that we had, for all the luxury to which we were accustomed, we were both denied love, and this deficiency would be scorched into our future lives like an ill-considered tattoo inscribed on the buttocks after a drunken night out, leading each of us inevitably towards isolation and disaster." While the novel focuses on Cyril’s attempts to survive in a world hostile to his natural inclinations, his experiences highlight the struggle that so many people encounter, unable to live their lives openly and honestly without the fear of rejection and violence. Boyne peels back the layers of Irish inclinations and attitudes in the 20th century and shows how destructive this closed mindedness is on the lives of anyone who crosses an imaginary line of acceptable ‘being’. The contrast with how Cyril is able to live his life in the Netherlands, shown through the carefree Bastiaan, who has known no such bigotry in his life experience is revealing. It’s hard to say too much about the novel without giving away spoilers, except to say that this astonishing novel is a courageous, honest attempt to show how the way we conform to society and culture’s expectations, against our own nature’s can be so harmful to so many and it makes us wonder how life might be, if we lived in a more utopian world, where tolerance reigned supreme. Boyne admits the comic form isn’t one he’s indulged in before and he has deliberately avoided writing anything personal in his novels until now. “Perhaps Cyril Avery is everyone I might have been, that I am, that I amn’t, and that I might be yet. The desire to fall in love and to share one’s life with someone is neither a homosexual nor a heterosexual conceit. It’s human. We’re all suckers for a pretty face or a kind heart. What else can we do but keep hoping that the right person will show up?” John Boyne

Loved this book. I laughed out loud numerous times. Shed a few tears as well. The characters are all so well developed and woven together as the book goes on.

Beautiful book. A "realistic fiction". Well written, touching, it made me cry and it made me laugh.

I don't have enough words to describe how wonderful, well-written, and important this book is. It moved me incredibly deep and changed something in me.

A long and eventful journey through a life, well written and a pleasure to read. A book full of surprises. Just when you think you have come to the end a other story emerges of parallel lives.