Heft: A Novel [Hardcover]

Liz Moore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2012

A heartwarming novel about larger-than-life characters and second chances.

Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career—if he can untangle himself from his family drama. The link between this unlikely pair is Kel’s mother, Charlene, a former student of Arthur’s. After nearly two decades of silence, it is Charlene’s unexpected phone call to Arthur—a plea for help—that jostles them into action. Through Arthur and Kel’s own quirky and lovable voices, Heft tells the winning story of two improbable heroes whose sudden connection transforms both their lives. Like Elizabeth McCracken’s The Giant’s House, Heft is a novel about love and family found in the most unexpected places.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Moore’s endearing novel, following The Words of Every Song (2007), looks at the lives of two solitary characters learning to acknowledge and accept their troubled realities of family and providence. Fifty-eight-year-old Arthur Opp, a college professor turned morbidly obese recluse, lives in a dilapidated house in Brooklyn, where his only human connection is through correspondence with a former student, the vulnerable and lonesome Charlene. When Charlene unexpectedly contacts Arthur with the news that she is the mother of a teenage son, Kel, Arthur is compelled to reflect upon and refocus his life, tenuously striking up a friendship with his young cleaning woman. Meanwhile, Kel is a gifted high-school athlete who depends on his physical prowess to navigate his interpersonal relationships. Kel’s dream of becoming a professional athlete is well within reach, yet his ambition is confounded by his mother’s alcoholism. When Charlene attempts suicide, Kel is left to forge a life of his own. As the book shifts between the perspectives of Arthur and Kel, Charlene’s connection to the two characters reveals surprising junctures along the way. --Leah Strauss

Review

“A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices.” (Colum McCann )

“Arthur Opp is heartbreaking. A 58-year old former professor of literature, he weighs 550 lbs., hasn’t left his Brooklyn apartment in years and is acutely attuned to both the painful and analgesic dimensions of his self-imposed solitude. Kel Keller, a handsome and popular high school athlete whose mother drinks too much to take care of him or even herself, faces his own wrenching struggles. The pair, apparently connected only by a slender thread, at first seem unlikely as co-narrators and protagonists of this novel, but they both become genuine heroes as their separate journeys through loneliness finally intersect. Though Moore’s narrative is often deeply sad, it is never maudlin. She writes with compassion and emotional insight but resists sentimentality , briskly moving her plot forward, building suspense and empathy. Most impressive is her ability to thoroughly inhabit the minds of Arthur and Kel; these are robust, complex characters to champion, not pity. The single word of the title is obviously a reference to Arthur’s morbid obesity, but it also alludes to the weight of true feelings and the courage needed to confront them. Heft leads to hope.” (People Magazine )

“This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal -- she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it.” (Russell Banks )

“Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication.” (Mary Gordon )

“In Heft, Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!” (Ann Hood )

“[W]hen you've finished and returned Heft to the library or lent it to a friend or archived it on your e-reader, you'll find yourself missing having the characters around. You'll wonder, while you're waiting for the light to change or kneading bread dough, what happened next. ...Moore [has] created characters that I'll probably never forget.” (Nancy Pearl - NPR.org )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1 edition (January 23, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393081508
• ISBN-13: 978-0393081503
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.1 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (182 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #374,910 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Liz Moore is a writer, musician, and teacher.

She wrote most of her first novel, THE WORDS OF EVERY SONG (Broadway Books, 2007), while in college. The book, which centers on a fictional record company in present-day New York City, draws partly on Liz's own experiences as a musician.

After the publication of her debut novel, Liz released an album, BACKYARDS, and obtained her MFA in Fiction from Hunter College. In 2009, Liz was awarded the University of Pennsylvania's ArtsEdge residency and moved from New York to Philadelphia. She has taught Creative Writing at Hunter College and the University of Pennsylvania. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Writing at Holy Family University in Philadelphia.

Her second novel is HEFT (W.W. Norton, January 2012).

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 74 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A story with heart and heft January 15, 2012

By Susan Tunis TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I have to tell you, this novel grabbed me from the opening pages, which take the form of a confessional letter from former professor, Arthur Opp, to his long-ago student and long-time correspondent, Charlene Turner. They haven't seen each other in years, and Arthur has a lot to confess.

"The first thing you must know about me is that I am colossally fat. When I knew you I was what one might call plump but I am no longer plump. I eat what I want & furthermore I eat whenever I want. For years I have made very little effort to reduce the amount that I eat for I have seen no cause to. Despite this I am neither immobile nor bedridden but I do feel winded when I walk more than six or seven steps, & I do feel very shy and sort of incased in something as if I were a cello or an expensive gun."

The fact that he weights somewhere between 500-600 pounds is just the beginning of Arthur's confession. He states, "In my letters to you these past two decades I have been untruthful by omission." He admits that not only has he not taught in years, but that he hasn't left his house in over a decade. He ends the lengthy missive, "In spite of everything, at heart I am still the same Arthur.

I'm going to stop right here and suggest there may be two kinds of reader responses to Arthur Opp, sympathy or revulsion. My immediate response was sympathy for this lonely man who fantasizes about salvation in the form of Dr. Phil. If your immediate response was revulsion, this is not the book for you.

As it happens, Charlene hasn't been entirely truthful about the details of her own life. And because so many stories follow predictable and formulaic patterns, early on in this novel I thought I knew the story I was reading. I thought it would be one of those heart-warming tales of two lonely people finding love and community. And it was and it wasn't that. I was delighted that author Liz Moore surprised me at many turns, and her story didn't follow the predictable path. Not entirely. There were notable divergences that gave the novel additional substance.

Heft really is a novel full of heart with flawed characters it was easy to fall in love with. The tale moved quickly. The characters were very well-developed and believable. I remained engrossed throughout and was satisfied at the end. Heft is nothing more than a good story, but that's plenty enough for me.

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars What consitutes a family? January 19, 2012

By Bibliophile By the Sea TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Heft is a wonderful story that will make you want to rethink what the word "family" really means.

Arthur Opps once was a college professor, but that was 18 years ago. Now, Arthur is a 58 year-old shut in who weighs in excess of 500 lbs. His best friend, who lived next door, passed away in 1997, and the last time Arthur has left his house in Brooklyn was in September 2001. The internet has made his reclusive life easy, since food and anything else he needs is delivered right to his front door. He has no family, no friends, no job, and no one to talk to, so over the years, his only comfort has come from the food he consumes, and occasional letters from a former student named Charlene Turner, who was 20 years younger than him.

Charlene and Arthur were two lost souls. Both were sad and lonely people, who spent hours talking over the course of the semester. When the class was finished, Charlene never took another course, but began to write Arthur letters. First he was rather shocked, but when he lost his job soon after, to him she seemed like the only friend he had.

(Arthur)...."And partly it was that I recognized myself in her---in her awkwardness, her loneliness, her being very out of place, an outsider in a roomful of compatriots. These feelings I recognized as my own. She spoke differently than her classmates. She had that accent, which I came to love, and that hopefulness that won me completely. One of the things I loved most about her, what I valued, was her lack of awareness."

Then abruptly the letters stopped, until one day many years later she contacts Arthur to reveal a little more about her life, and to ask him a favor. Her son Kel Keller, who is in high school is in need of some guidance, and since Arthur was the smartest man she had ever known, she asks that he help point her son in the right direction. On the surface, Kel seems to have a lot going for him, but he is dealing with some difficult issues which he tries to conceal from others.

Suddenly, Arthur's spirits seem brighter at the possibility of seeing Charlene again after almost 20 years. He hires a cleaning service to get his house in shape, and when 19 year-old Yolanda shows up, he finds himself looking forward to the days she cleans and their conversations which follow. Little by little life seems a bit brighter for Arthur.

The way in which the story unfolds is not perfect, but I cared so much about the characters that I was able to overlook any flaws in the story structure. The story alternates between Arthur's story, and Kel Keller's story. Both stories are heartbreaking at times. Heft, was one of my favorite kinds of novels, complete with dysfunctional, but well developed characters that I was cheering on all the way. It's a story that made me rethink what a "family" really is, and a story that left me feeling at least somewhat hopeful. It's a page-turner.

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Novel of Lonely People January 21, 2012

By Bonnie Brody TOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

Arthur Opp weighs between 500 and 600 pounds. It has been ten years since he has left his home. He feels trapped, alone and extraordinarily lonely. The only things that bring him pleasure are eating and his correspondence with an ex-student, Charlene Turner. At one time, Arthur was a college professor but now, at 58 years old, it's been decades since he's worked. He lost his job at his university and lives on his father's dole. His father is a famous architect. Arthur and he are estranged.

Charlene had idolized Arthur in the one college course she completed. They became friends but Charlene had to drop out of school. For awhile she worked but for most of the years she's been on disability because of lupus and alcoholism. She has a son, Kel, who she's raised on her own. However, for most of his life, it's Kel who has taken care of Charlene.

The novel weaves in and out of these two fascinating narratives and we learn how hopeless Arthur feels his life is. Charlene sends Arthur a picture of Kel and asks Arthur to call him. Kel loves baseball and it's his dream to make it to the major leagues. He has not seen his father since he was four and he dreams of reconnecting with him.

It's almost impossible to describe the wonders of this novel. Every page is a poetic gift filled with inner awareness of people and a perspicacity about human nature. It is a beautiful piece of writing, one that I will cherish.