Customer Reviews

Any Human Heart

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(4)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Life, as understood by Logan Mountstuart, is a series of random events, not events which are fated, controlled by a higher power, or the result of carefully made decisions. There's nothing and no one to blame for whatever good or bad luck we may have in life. A person may choose to enjoy the good times, seek out happiness wherever possible, and live life to the fullest or sit back passively and just endure whatever happens. Logan Mountstuart is one of the former types, a man who recognizes that "Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary--it is the respective proportions of those categories that make life appear interesting." But Mountstuart also believes that one can look for and find the extraordinary within the ordinary.

Through his personal journals, begun in 1923, when he is seventeen, and continuing to the time of his death in 1991, we come to know Mountstuart intimately, both as an individual, growing and changing, and as an Everyman, someone who participates in and is affected by the seminal events of the 20th century, after World War I. Because he is a writer, he is able to travel and to know other writers and artists of the period. When he meets Aldous Huxley, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Cyril Connolly, Evelyn Waugh, and Ian Fleming, the reader has the vicarious fun of being there and meeting them, too, since Mountstuart, as a person, appears to be very much like the rest of us. He buys early paintings by Paul Klee and Juan Gris, and Pablo Picasso draws a quick portrait of him and signs it. He engages in intellectual discussions about Braque, Picasso, James Joyce, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the Bloomsbury group and keeps the reader aware of literary and artistic achievements of the era.

It is in his depiction of the historical moment that Boyd shines. By describing events through Mountstuart's experience, he is able to give a human face to people and circumstances which have influenced our history, and his choice of small details, often unique, offers a new slant on some familiar events. Boyd is particularly good at showing simultaneous events--Franco at the gates of Barcelona while Hitler is entering Prague--and his explanation of Neville Chamberlain's giving up of the Sudetenland resonates as an honest and even logical attempt to avoid the desperation of war. When Ian Fleming, who works for the Secret Service, gets Mountstuart a job in Naval Intelligence, the reader is introduced to the colorful world of the Duke of Windsor, as Mountstuart "spies" on him to make sure that the Duke's German sympathies do not make him a pawn of the enemy. Post-war, Mountstuart continues to be involved with the world of artists and writers--and world events--eventually living in Nigeria before retiring to France.

For the reader the book is a fast read, despite its length, filled with personal stories and colored by world events. Mountstuart's belief that life is just the aggregate of one's good luck and bad luck--that things simply happen--leads, of necessity, to a story which is not organized by a hidden, underlying theme. Befitting its philosophy, it is episodic and random, using the passage of time as its primary framework. Mountstuart himself accepts what happens to him, though it often saddens him, and does not agonize over what he might have done differently--he does not believe that he could have changed things. In that regard he remains one-dimensional, in many ways an Everyman for the history of the times. Fun to read, the book offers a new "take" on events which have shaped our own times, offering no lessons for the future, other than to live life, despite its ups and downs. As Mountstuart himself points out, life ultimately is a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child." Mary Whipple

Once again William Boyd has produced a jewel. His ability to bring true history into a novel is totally unmatched. But even Boyd has outdone his last few publications with "Any Human Heart," not since "Brazzaville Beach" has he written such a page turner. This book flows effortlessly from cracking good tale to tragic reflection. His creation of this heroic character Logan Mountstuart left me crying at certain points in the book, and I can assure you I have never done that while reading a book before. Boyd uses a diary as a vehicle to detail the facts and emotions of Logan's life, and this adds to the drama, suspense and pain of his story.

If you have the time and you are looking for a summer assignment, go to the book store and purchase William Boyd's library. Read them in any order you like. But if you are looking for one excellent example of this writer's genius, then Any Human Heart is a great place to start. I cannot recommend any book more highly.

this novel is so brilliant, so swiftly paced and poetically composed, i can hardly do it justice. i have read (and taught in university courses) Boyd's books over and over again down the years (a fav is The New Confessions) and Any Human Heart rates right up there with the best work he's done. there's a real melancholia evident here--so those who are looking for the hilarity of such early works as A Good Man in Africa or On the Yankee Station are gonna be puzzled a tad. Logan Mountstuart is a great creation...so pleased, especially as i didn't like Armadillo and The Blue Afternoon--despite the fact that, with Ian McEwan, Wm Boyd is my favorite contemporary novelist. get this as soon as you can...

A good, sometimes brilliant, effort by William Boyd: a fictional diary spanning the bulk of the 20th centry "written" by a minor British literary figure. I found sections of this novel extremely compelling: the World War Two diaries, the New York diary, and parts of the diaries devoted to his life and education at Oxford in the 1920s. Other sections I found rather ponderous, particularly the latter sections set in Nigeria and France. Since this book is structured in the form of a diary, it lacks the forward narrative drive of a good novel. This isn't necessarily problematic but, to this reader anyway, the book drags toward the end where a novel should be building to its dramatic peak. Still, however, Boyd succeeds in conveying the sense of disillusionment and sadness of growing old and wondering "is that all there is?"

Perhaps Boyd's greatest success here is the way he manages to recreate time and place. These "diaries" feel very real and each page comes alive with authenticity.

If you're looking for an introduction to William Boyd, better start with an earlier novel of his "The Ice Cream War." For all its merits, "Any Human Heart" is an acquired taste. It requires patience in long stretches, but overall, the effort does reap some rewards.

I was not familiar with William Boyd's work and picked up this novel because it sounded intriguing. It is an exceptional book, managing to be at once a moving personal story, a brief (and often funny) history of the arts and politics of the 20th century, and an examination of a society in decline. The protagonist's meetings with historical characters, from Picasso and Hemingway to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, are surprisingly convincing and never seem like a "gimic." I found the second half of the book somewhat less convincing than the first, and I got rather tired of the hero's obsession with his [physical] life, but all in all--a great read. I will look for more William Boyd.

I loved this book! Any Human Heart is a real treasure to read, and totally ambitious in its scope. Following the trials and tribulations of Logan Mountstuart, it jumps through the twentieth century with lightening speed!

We are witness to Logan 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.

Yes - he isn't a particulary honorable character, but this is what makes Logan so appealing. He's a flawed human being, like the rest of us, and he makes his fair share of mistakes in life. I loved this incredible backdrop of twentieth century life that Boyd has constructed around this character, the personalities that he meets on the way - Virginia Woolf, Edward and Mrs Simpson. And I loved the fact that the story spans so many continents - Europe, America, Africa etc. A great novel, and I'm looking forward to picking up more of Boyd's works.

Michael

In Any Human Heart, William Boyd manages to create a not entirely likeable character, Logan Mountstuart, who nonetheless is an entirely sympathetic protagonist. Logan is not the nicest person in the world. He manipulates friends for his own amusement, sleeps with one of his closests friend's fiance, and commits a number of other, minor atrocities. Yet for all Logan's badness, I missed him when I finished the novel and throughout, I found myself rooting for his finding some semblance of happiness. Logan is entirely human in the sense that his story indeed could be the story of any human heart--any British heart is probably more like it. He manages to come in contact with quite a few notables from the twentieth century and reinvents himself and his career many times over. Perhaps no one lives a life as rich as Logan, maybe so. But that still does not take away from the fact that Any Human Heart is a terrific novel, excellent storytelling. Enjoy.

I can't add much beyond the (clearly more capable than I)reviewers who've commented on this book. It's a real novel. Captivating, intriguing, insightful. Like any great novel, it posits a world and lets you live there for a while. I regretted having it come to a close

"Any Human Heart" is a gloriously crafted masterpiece of modern fiction and undoubtedly William Boyd's best novel to date.

The life of fictional character Logan Mounstuart is told in real time through a process of revelation as we trawl through the pages of his pristinely kept personal diary, where trivialities of a deeply personal nature, sometimes revealed in deeply embarrassing voyeuristic detail, are juxtaposed against experiences that mark his accidental collision with 20th Century social history in the making. Without the benefit of hindsight and a false 20/20 vision that an omniscient narrator would have provided, Logan's words are vibrant with currency and charged with a spontaneity and immediacy that guarantees honesty and integrity. As we follow him through his school years, his brush with the Bloomsbury set in England, his experiences during the Great Depression, the Spanish Civil War, his mix up in wartime espionage, leading to his sad personal decline and descent into abject poverty as the century draws to a close, we are left with the distinct impression that Logan's lifetime highs and lows are seldom of his own choosing and the insight that it isn't what life delivers but how we deal with its challenges that finally matter.

The novel is also brimful with thrilling episodes - far too many to enumerate - as Logan's career undergoes a series of dramatic transformation - though his scary encounter with the sinister Duke and Duchess of Windsor is easily the most memorable.

Boyd's ultimate coup de grace may lie in his storytelling technique, which reveals an uncommon deftness in keeping Logan always deeply human and ordinary, thus enabling him to tell a story of an extraordinary life and making it utterly believable.

Boyd's prose is sharp, poised, humorous and intelligent. "Any Human Heart" is hence a wondrously literate yet emotionally generous piece of work that glows with resonance recalling great literary giants like Evelyn Waugh. Few fictional writers today manage to find and convey that delicate balance. Boyd has done it. "Any Human Heart" is enduring contemporary literature of the finest quality that deserves to be read and enjoyed by all. Highly recommended.

Gee the reviewers of this book are sparing in their praise. "Quite affecting..." and "All is not wonderful..." What's a poor novelist got to do to please these guys? This book is flat out perfect. I got lost in the story almost from page one and by the time I reached the end I really KNEW Logan Mountstuart. I cried at the end because I didn't want him to leave. His story gave so much and had so much more to give. See! I'm doing it to myself again... What really comes through in this brilliant novel is the courage of the author to have Mountstuart make some dramatically bad life decisions, yet he is still guided by a strong sense of integrity and truth. It makes you want to follow those same guiding principles in your own life. Only the greatest books make you think about how you live your life. This is such a book.