Customer Reviews

Irreplaceable

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

If you're willing to take a risk on a debut novel this year, consider Stephen Lovely's Irreplaceable. I found myself enjoying this novel more every fifty or so pages as the characters deepened and their lives become more connected. If the protagonist of a novel is the central character, or the heart of the story, in Irreplaceable, the protagonist would be Isabel, or more specifically, her heart. Isabel and her husband, Alex, have been happily married for three years. While riding her bicycle, Isabel is struck by a truck and killed. Having signed an organ donor card, her organs are harvested, and her heart is transplanted into Janet, who teaches art at an inner city school in Chicago. Lovely presents Alex's grief with great skill, and allows that to play out on these pages, alongside that of Isabel's mother, Bernice. Having overhead her doctors comment about the source of her new heart, Janet tracks down Alex and tries to find ways to express her thanks. Janet's own family is dealing with many issues, and Lovely allows those to develop on these pages as well. Another connection comes from the ways in which the driver who killed Isabel, Jasper, enters the lives of Alex, Bernice and Janet. Lovely describes the transplant process with what seemed like accurate thoroughness. He presents intense emotions without making them more outsized than was necessary. His restraint in developing some characters, such as Janet's husband, David, was in many ways a strength, while it left some gaps in understanding David as a real person. All in all, Irreplaceable is a promising debut by a talented writer.

Rating: Three-star (Recommended)

I found this book to be very moving, analytical and creative. The author explores many feelings on all different levels for each character. Having had a double lung transplant myself, I have often thought about my organ donors family and what my organ donor's life was like. This book brought up some interesting ideas for me. This book kept me guessing.
~Risa

This is a book that I 'consumed', letting everything else fall
by the wayside. The characterizations, details in descriptions
of events in the main characters' lives made me by turns weep
and laugh. It is a wonderfully inspiriing book that I would
recommend for anyone interested in grief, romance, hope, love
and joy. This is a book I read and then passed on to a friend,
and wouldn't hesitate to give as a gift.

Don't let the cover turn you away. Lovely (a childhood friend) spins a compelling and original tale predicated on a heart transplant, but it's his emotional acuity--the way he plumbs the mixed sentiments of the various figures affected by this awful and generous act--that signals the arrival of a great new novelist. His ear for taut, palpable, evocative prose--and, better yet, for complex emotional truths--is evident on every page.

I actually liked the book. My sister recommended it. Glad I read it before I read these reviews. I thought the characters were drawn true to life. I've known a couple of people like Jaspar (scary isn't it?). I thought the author had laid the groundwork for what happens between the mother and the son-in-law. Likely? No. Plausible? Yes.
I thought it seemed well-researched. In fact, could have done with less of the details about heart transplants.

Organ transplants are quite different than other medical procedures, in that, except for the cases of live transplants, possible for some organs, when someone receives a transplant and a new chance for life, someone else has died. What is the cause of celebration for one family, is the result of a terrible tragedy for another. When someone receives a transplant, it is not the happy ending of the story, but just the beginning for all those involved. In Irreplaceable, we are presented with a view into both sides of the experience, those that lost someone they loved, and those that were saved from losing the one they love, someone on the verge of death. Actually, we get a glimpse of a third party as well, the man that caused the death and set it all in motion.

The book opens with Isabel, out on the open road in rural Iowa, on her bicycle for the first ride after a long winter. The weather is starting to turn for the worse, getting windy, the sky getting gray, a ominous storm rolling in. A truck crests the hill; she, a little too far into the lane, is unseen by the driver...and for those that love her, a nightmare has begun. For others, a life has been saved from certain death. It is a life saving gift, but a gift with a price, for everyone involved.
No, the transplant was in no way the end of the story.

This is Mr. Lovely's first book and it is a very good one. His ability to capture the emotions of these different characters is skillful. He is able, on the one hand, to educate the reader about the whole issue of organ transplantation, while on the other hand never losing sight of the very personal repercussions these decisions will have for all involved. As medical science becomes able to do more and more, we can never forget the human and emotional cost...because one day it may be someone we love, or ourselves, asked to pay that price.

So just ignore the book cover, which I thought was very misrepresentative, pick up this book and I think you will be happy you did.

Irreplaceable is a gripping and challenging book that I could not put down - I spent my weekend reading it late into the night and first thing in the morning. It is a painful meditation on loss, mourning, and survival, and presents people behaving somewhat poorly in the depths of their suffering and confusion. Lovely writes with a deep sympathy for his characters; he knows them well, cares for them, and so he makes their choices understandable. I felt roughed-up by the book, but it is nonetheless an eloquent story that leaves me interested in becoming an organ donor myself. As the novel comes to a close Lovely gives small gestures enormous weight and significance. I have been left with a lot to think about and highly recommend this book.

I found this to be an incredible book, beautifully written. The plot (about a heart transplant and its aftermath) is fairly straightforward, but the inner lives of the characters -- the victim's husband and mother, the transplant recipient, and the driver implicit in the death -- are rich, diverse, and very humanly flawed. The characters, in the midst of dealing with grief and guilt, are not at their exemplary best, and that's one of the reasons why this book feels so accurate and so real. Dealing with connections made or broken, boundaries defended or violated, and the hard emotions of grief, guilt, and sacrifice, there are a number of transcendently beautiful parts in this book.
(I borrowed the Kindle version from our local library, and liked the book so much that I plan to purchase it.)

I got really irritated while reading this book. All of the characters were beyond annoying. If these are the types of people in your world - get out any way you can! Sad - this book probably turned a lot of people off from donating their organs. *Spoilers* The widower could not find peace until he slept with his mother-in-law (hunh??) and felt the heart of the donor recipient. Too creepy. The mother-in-law was so nagging that I wanted to slap her. Her obsession to befriend the donor and the donor's mother was sad enough, but she relentlessly harassed and manipulated her grieving son-in-law to also have contact with them. The recipient couldn't leave her donor's husband alone. She kept trying to make contact with him until he accidentally answered the phone. He blew her off and still she would not leave him have any peace. The man who killed the donor was off the wall psycho. Last, the donor's husband was horribly self-absorbed, to the point that it was hard to believe he wanted to spend a minute caring for anyone let alone get custody of the kids. Every single person was so consumed with their own selfishness and neediness, that none of them were likable. Who wants to be an organ donor now? Even the recipient would rather die than get another heart.

I was really looking forward to this book. I can now say, I finally finished this book. And it was a chore to do. Nothing or anyone in the book captured my attention and held on. What became of Jasper? What happened with Janet and David? Why did we have to suffer through the disturbing innuendo and subsequent "thing" between Alex and Bernice. This entire book was unbelievable and unconvincing. Wish I could find something positive to say but I simply can't.