A Very Good Read

The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

“Long before we discovered that he had fathered two children by two different women, one in Drimoleague and one in Clonakilty, Father James Monroe stood on the altar of the Church of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, in the parish of Goleen, West Cork, and denounced my mother as a whore”.

At 701 pages this is a long read, but don't let that put you off reading this magnificent novel. It is a story of Ireland from the 1940's to present day through the eyes of one ordinary man, Cyril Avery, from conception to old age, beginning with the above paragraph narrated by Cyril before his birth.

In an Ireland that was almost theocratic in its obsession with the church Catholic priests saw themselves as self appointed Guardians of public morality. I hope those hypocrites are burning in hell.
Cast out from her West Cork village, 16 and pregnant Catherine Coggin makes her way to Dublin. Unable to support herself and a baby, she entrusts her son to a Redemptorist nun, knowing that she will see to it that the baby goes to a good home. Cyril is adopted by a wealthy eccentric Dublin couple, Maude and Charles Avery. They mean well but are ill equipped for raising a child. Maude and Charles’ relationship is cordial and business-like. Maude treats Charles like an ottoman - of no use to anyone, but worth having around. Charles shows scant interest in Maude, finding her presence both reassuring and unsettling. And they constantly remind Cyril that he is not Real Avery.
All his life Cyril seems to miss out on something. A little clueless to the way the world works he struggles with trying to discover an identity, a home, a country. Being a gay man in an extremely conservative Ireland, his experiences of the harrowing history of Ireland, LGBT rights, the AIDS crisis, the sexism and homophobia typical of the era leave Cyril adrift in the world. His only anchor is the tenuous friendship with the  glamorous and dangerous Julian Woodbead.

The Heart's Invisible Furies will make you laugh and cry while reminding us of the enduring power of the human spirit. I liked how the story connected so many people over the years. Cyril even met his real mum at one point and neither of them knew. I felt so sad for them, I wanted them to know that each had found some peace and happiness, I wanted Boyne to re-write it!!

I thoroughly recommend it.

∼ Happy Reading ∼ 

Polly x