Customer Reviews

Secret Heart (Readers Circle)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

David Almond's fifth book is a haunting look at an unusual young boy, written beautifully and with fantastic, memorable characters. It occasionally becomes a little confusing and repetitive, but the characterizations are stunning, and overall it's a great read.

Joe Maloney is a dreamer, a shy stutterer whose mother works shifts at a bar and whose father "spun the waltzer at a fair." His teachers want him to study, but he can't. His former friend, Stanny Mole, has fallen in with a ruthless creep called Joff, and wants to show Joe how to kill -- but Joe doesn't want to. And he sees visions of a tiger prowling around, but there are no tigers where he lives.

He makes his way to the circus, which is due to shut down in a few days. There he meets an enormous wrestler, an old woman who sees into people's souls -- and Corinna, an acrobat with whom he shares a mysterious bond. These strange people will help him learn how to find his way around the people who taunt and try to mold him, and about the tiger inside him.

This may be Almond's most confusing book. It starts off in a rather colorless way, except for the interludes where Joe sees the tiger. Almond's stark prose becomes much more flowery halfway through, when Joe meets up with the circus people; it lends itself to a few genuinely nauseating interludes where we see the sort of killing that Joff urges boys to do, claiming that it will make men out of them. But there's no hamhanded moralizing in this book, thankfully. The last third is very surreal, very strange and otherworldly, but those who don't demand a concrete answer for everything in a book will be fine with that. The biggest problem is that at times it gets a little repetitive, with people shouting the same insults after Joe and Corinna, and Joe wondering for the umpteenth time whether Joff is his father.

Joe is likeable from the start, a kid who doesn't really fit anywhere and who feels pressure from all sides to be something he isn't. His patient mother is an almost saintly figure; the circus performers range from the surreal to the everyday, but all are friendly and kind, especially the blind old lady Nanty. Corinna is somewhat like Joe, except more outgoing and less sensitive to the taunts of others. And if there's a villain, it's Joff, a murdering tough who tries to mold boys to be like him, including Joe's friend Stanny (who pretty clearly doesn't believe a word coming out of his own mouth).

This is not a book for everyone -- the boundaries are very hazy and the storyline stretches into fantasy. But it's beautifully written and strangely plotted, and definitely worth the read.

Misfit Joe Maloney is taunted and teased by his peers. Even his mother comments on his oddness. Destined to remain apart by strange visions no one else can see, Joe is drawn to a ragged circus that suddenly appears at the edge of town. The circus folk are as much at odds with the town folk as Joe is. Intrigued by their strangeness and mystery, Joe sinks into a world where fantasy and illusion meld with and replace reality. Joe is faced with confronting and accepting his differences, and the torture that goes with it, or joining forces with those bent on making a man of him. The juxtaposition of cruelty and compassion in this tale speak to that very nature in each of us.

It would be difficult not to recommend a book by David Almond. His lyrical writing creates fresh perspectives, thought-provoking storylines, and intriguing characterizations. While Secret Heart doesn't capture the heart of the reader with the same intensity of Skellig or Kit's Wilderness, the imagery and beauty of the language is compelling enough to recommend this book.

I love books that can be read on several different levels. I imagine a middle school reader could enjoy this book as a coming-of-age story. But it is also a book of great depth and beauty, as represented in one of my favorite quotes: Joe closed his eyes. He felt Nanty's hands cradling his head, and he felt how tender they were. "How can a thing like a head be held within a lady's fingers?" she whispered. "Here's dreams and memories and ancient tales that's being told and told. Here's stars that shine a billion miles away and deep dark caves and forests and Helmouth and teachers and mothers and horns of unicorns and the stripes of tigers. Here's a thing that's bigger than the world and all the worlds there ever was. And look. All held within a tent of tender bone and skin and cradled in a lady's fingers. How can this be so?"

The surreal province, David Almond has created in his fifth book, Secret Heart, is dark, haunting, and reminiscent of the stylistic and contextual elements of English classics produced by the likes of C. S. Lewis and even Kipling. Simple, stuttering, dreamy Joe Maloney is the prototypical, ostracized young boy who doesn't fit in. He has phenomenal powers, of imagination and observation, bordering upon the supernatural.

The progression of the first half of the plot is rather slow but steady. The reader travels to the town of Helmouth in the slums of England, where `nothing happened. In helmouth, everything came to just nothing.' Adding to this gloomy setting are the despicable occupants of this town who simply cannot allow someone like Joe to live peacefully.

The novel explores some wonderful themes pertaining to self knowledge, gender expectations, and the reconceptualization of the traditional hero. Furthermore, it is undoubtedly a great work of imagistic wealth, containing aspects of stream of consciousness. The dynamics of a parent-child relationship are also subtly addressed through Joe's `Mum's' willingness to give him space and credit to develop and grow, even though he is, conventionally speaking, a special child. Nonetheless, there are certain disturbing elements in Almond's work as well. While it may not appear so in a first reading of the text, on closer reading, the novel appears to be rather didactic. For instance, it brings to fore the time long battle between man and nature, in which nature symbolizes goodness, renewal, and rebirth while man is emblematic of meaningless destruction and hate. There is no middle path offered as one can either be one or the other as is depicted in Joe's ability to blend into the natural world. The novel also appears to negate, organized institutions symbolized by Joe's aversion to school, the psychologists, and social workers who desecrate the sanctity of his domestic and mental privacy. Whether that's entirely justified is for the reader to decide. Moreover, the fact that Joe chooses `the wilderness, the larks, the rats and rabbits and stoats. And he accepted the loneliness that went with this choice,' raises the question whether the novel is promoting a life of escapism, exile, and self-isolation for those who think differently. It can also be perceived as concluding that only people at odds with conventional society, like the circus people and Joe, are truly kindred souls with noble missions.

There are certain jarring discrepancies in the plot as well. For instance, while it seems to propagate the respect of nature there is morbid sadism involved in the Hackenschmidt's treatment of the poor Andulican goats that are transformed into unicorns through a cruel process.

Although Almond's novel is classified as children's literature, it is redolent with sophisticated literary and philosophical context like naturalism and reincarnation granting it an edge over other children's literature that undermines the reader's ability to grapple with complicated ideologies. All in all, keeping mind Almond's admirable record of award-winning children's literature, the Secret Heart is highly recommended reading. The only pre-requisite is that it be approached with an intelligent and critical approach so that none of the true wealth contained in it is lost.

Once again David Almond writes a story that is at once accessible and profound. Once again his prose blurs the distinctions between the real and the imagined, and we enter into a world which feels real and yet has a hint of the magical about it.

Joe Malone is a loner. He prefers teh open countryside to being cramped in school. He is surrounded by people trying to make him fit with their definition of what a man should be.

When a small and dying circus comes to town, he finds a kindred spirit. In particular he finds someone who understands the reality of his secret heart.

This is not a long book. Had it been longer the adults might be more fleshed out and less inclined to just induce conflict. But the book works as it is, and the conflicts of society's expectations and our own desires, and so much more are all explored here in another wonderful tale by this first rate author.

I read somewhere that we are no longer human beings; we are consumers.
This is not a book for consumers. It's for human beings who have not lost touch with their unique magic, a shamanovel. A magic boy sees more than others; a girl guides in his initiation into self-knowledge. A wise woman, Nanty Solo initiates him into who he really is. A wise man, Hackenschmidt teaches him that manly tenderness lies beneath a fierce exterior. The boy is recognized among the magic people as one of their own, while he is reviled by the "consumers" - children who have lost touch with their unique magic.
Wonderful evocative language takes us with the boy on his journey and initiates us with him.
Everyone can read this book on their own level.
Bravo David Almond

After reading Skellig and Kit's Wilderness, I had high expectations for this more recent offering. When finished, I couldn't help feeling a little disappointed. The material is interesting, and there's some beautiful imagery with the tiger, but the plot seemed rather weak. Also, Almond's depiction of traditional circus is inaccurate. I lived in such a circus for years and no one called us "gyppo scum." Some of the artists in this book are also displayed as grotesque freaks. Still, Almond's writing is always absorbing, and this is no exception.

Review

This book was about a boy named Joe Maloney and how he was not made for this world and how he was so much different than everybody else. One day a circus comes to town and Joe goes over to see what its like. As doing so Joe sees a beautiful girl named and realizes that he has fallen in love with her. When Joe goes to sleep that night as done he is watched by a lion in his dream. Joe realizes that he is more at home more than he has every been before. I thought that this was a very well done book that i would recommend to children of all ages. This book was definitely a book that you could read over and over again to anybody.

I read Secret heart. I thought it was a good book. It was a good book because it was an interesting book. This book was not my favorite book. I read other books that were more detailed. I would think that 4th though 5th graders should read this because it would be a little too hard for 3rd and under. I recommend this book to other people. It would be a good books for people that like tigers.

The Secret Heart was an ok book.The one thing that I did not like about my book is it had nothing to it and was always talking about a tiger.This book was about a boy a girl and a tiger.They were the main characters.I chose this book because it looked like a mystery so i picked it out.It was ok in some parts but most of it I did not like.I thought it was more of a grown up book. In my book they all lived in Helmouth which was a boring town that nobody or anything ever came to this town except for one when a circus came. The circus was right behind his house so Joe saw it as soon as he got up.When he was walking to school he met a girl in the circus who did the balance beam. Joe kind of likes this girl so he invited her to his house and that is all I am going to tell you. That is my book review.