The Heart's Invisible Furies: A Novel Hardcover – August 22, 2017

In September 2020, the book discussion group at The LGBT Center in NYC had a full Zoom house to discuss "The Heart's Invisible Furies," which has a dozen "top book" reviews from major magazines and newspapers, and more than 2,000 reviews on Amazon with more than 1,500 of them giving it a five-star rating. A few readers told me before the meeting that they really liked it, so I had high expectations. During the discussion, most of us decided, however, that it was a good summer vacation read but maybe not a five-star book (although I don't think our criticism could dampen the enthusiasm of those who loved it).At first, the book appears to be about Cyril Avery but after a little thought it's also about the changes in attitude in Ireland toward gay people and the way we make our own families. It's a big novel but almost everybody thought that the ten sections - each an evenly spaced seven years - was a good way to describe the changes in Ireland over a 70-year period. It's easy to lose yourself in the big story, but a few readers thought that some of the middle sections dragged things out too much, but the constant action and the cliffhanger and melodramatic turns kept all of us reading.Much of the action in the novel may be melodramatic but the actual events described are often maudlin (falsely sad), immediately followed by some outrageous humor. The novel includes some very funny physical humor but much of the humor is spoken by characters who are blind to their own foibles. I think I appreciated the humor but then, as it went on, I found some of it to be one-note. Because the novel is packed with side-by-side action and humor, it often has a jarring problem with uneven tone; for example, a priest falls out of his confessional and dies after a shocking confession, and Cyril's pious (but clueless) girlfriend and an arresting policeman are killed during an IRA attack. The constant coincidences of Cyril and his birth-mother missing each other in almost every section began to wear on me after a while. But, yes, I did get teary at the end.At times, "The Heart's Invisible Furies" appears to be a bildungsroman, a novel dealing with Cyril's formative years and spiritual education. After years of non-connection and ruining a woman's life by leaving her (which is never adequately explored - a mistake I think), he works at the Anne Frank house in Amsterdam and learns empathy, but there's no insight, no psychology or growth. On his first try, he gets a handsome and intelligent boyfriend without much effort. There's sex, but there's no heat, no passion.In the book Cyril thinks, "I had never really contemplated my own mortality before." This strikes a false note, considering all he had been through. Cyril had attempted suicide, watched his fiancee and a policeman get killed, works with AIDS patients at the height of the crisis, the love of his life was murdered, and he himself lay in a coma for several months. And yet the author would have us believe that Cyril had never contemplated his own mortality before. Either Cyril is completely lacking in introspection or the author is. (Thanks for putting that so succinctly, Doug.)There's problem with the title of the book, too. No one in the group could think of a good reason why this roller coaster of a life sported such a mythic, portentous title, which says a lot about the author's literary ambitions versus his actual achievement. Boyle wanted the book to have a certain depth but unable to create that depth in the work itself, he gave it a literary title. When working the title into the text, he gave that as little thought as anything else. In a book that begins with a father killing his own son, preparing the reader for a saga of vengeance and poetic justice, the author decided to apply the title to Julian, one of the superficial characters who remain angry about one of Avery's early offenses in the book.One of the readers pointed out that it was good to read a novel that included the full life of a gay man, including old age and the loss of a partner, instead of focusing on the young man's life and coming out. The novel is dedicated to John Irving and starts out with a big "World According to Garp" energy and imitates Irving (who we love) but doesn't maintain it. It also name-checks Dickens and has some fabulously funny Dickensian names (such as Mary-Margaret Muffet and Mr. Denby-Denby).All this harping makes it sound like we didn't like the book, which isn't true. It's just not a great book and would have been so much richer had it included some writing like Hollinghurst (who also writes multi-generational stories with dozens of characters), more melodramatic and picaresque fun (like Armistead Maupin or Voltaire), fewer but more meaningful coincidences (like Dickens), or fewer gruesome deaths and less incest on top of the crazy whimsy (like Chuck Palahniuk).

Overall: The Hearts Invisible Furies follows the story of Cyril Avery from 1945 through 2015 in post-war Ireland and other countries throughout his life. A cast of unforgettable characters, great writing, and alllllll the emotions make this book a real winner 7.5/10The Good: There are many different aspects to love about this book, but my favorite is the main character, Cyril. This is the type of novel where you form a deep and strong attachment with the main character; he feels like a friend and this is only done through exceptional writing and character development.The book is divided into different parts, each covering a significant portions of Cyril’s life, initially in Ireland, then a period in Amsterdam, on to New York, and finally coming back to Ireland. Cyril Avery is given up as a baby by an unwed teen mother in Ireland. Cyril is adopted by the Averys (Maude and Charles), whose treatment of Cyril is more of a business arrangement than that of what you would expect from parents.“I always called them Charles and Maude, never ‘Father’ and ‘Mother’. This was on Charles’s insistence as I wasn’t a real Avery. It didn’t bother me particularly but I know it made other people uncomfortable and once, in school, when I referred to them thus, a priest punched me around the ears and told me off for being modern.”The first time I read "you are not a real Avery" my heart broke from Cyril. Though this in itself is sad (and there are many sad parts throughout this) the author does this is in almost a humorous way by creating eccentric and unique characters. The characters, and I mean almost all the characters are unique, complex, and one of the best parts of this book.During the course of this book I felt every emotion... multiple times, and often quite extremely. Not just one glistening tear crying, but ugly crying. Not just a chuckle, but laughing so hard my sides hurt. I think you can understand what I mean by this, but this book is powerful and will stay with you for awhile. It is heartbreaking, funny, intelligent, complicated, but more than anything I think it has a resounding tone of hope and illustrates the need to just keep going, no matter what. I very much enjoyed the historical component of this book. The book takes place in a very real period in Ireland's history, when being or expressing homosexuality meant harsh judgment and persecution by friends and family, excommunication from the Church, and even imprisonment. Though much has changed (thank goodness!) the book is a reminder that people suffered under these rules surprisingly not that long ago. There is also a good amount of discussion regarding the AIDS epidemic. The humor the author uses throughout helps cushion that reality but it was eye opening to me, and I found myself looking up more about this time period and many of the points addressed.The Bad: I do not have that much to say here other than certain parts seemed a bit long and there was lots of sadness. I really enjoyed this book and would highly recommend it.Favorite Quotes:“Maybe there were no villains in my mother’s story at all. Just men and women, trying to do their best by each other. And failing.”“I’ve spent so much time pushing the boat out that I forgot to jump on and now it’s out beyond the harbour on the high seas, but it’s very nice to look at.”“I've always believed that if women could only collectively harness the power that they have then they'd rule the world.”“If there is one thing I've learned in more than seven decades of life, it's that the world is a completely fucked-up place. You never know what's around the corner and it's often something unpleasant.”“What you know about women,” replied Maude, “could be written in large font on the back of a postage stamp and there’d still be room for the Lord’s Prayer."“You look like a Greek God sent down by the immortal Zeus from Mount Olympus to taunt the rest of us inferior beings with your astonishing beauty, I said, which somehow in translation came out as "you look fine, why?”“Do you enjoy being a writer, Mrs Avery?” asked Julian.“No, of course not, she said. “It’s a hideous profession. Entered into by narcissists who think their pathetic little imaginations will be of interest to people they’ve never met.”

Loved the richly drawn characters, the fascinating settings, and the compelling arc of Cyril’s life throughout this beautifully written story.

Boyne introduced me to an unfamiliar world and then lead me gently through the twists and turns that revealed the humanness of each of his unconventional characters.

Very well written, great storyline

first half of the book is brilliant: great dialogues, nice story very well puzzled in 7 year episodes, sad and touchy, realistic, unforgettable characters, homesexuality treated rawly, crudely ... everything fits and flows. But, always a but, second part loses some kind of realism, becoming more cliché, too good all the characters, not as realistic as expected, introducing too many more characters half way ... maybe it shouldn't have been that long ... a very nice and entertaining read and not being Irish, hope you Irish are not in general as depicted though if still ruled by a strong Church I'm afraid that as the book says, changes not expected in our lifetime ... being Spanish, hand in hand we walk ...

This book is a sort of a different read for me. Yes it was something unique from all the other books that I read. This is a book about Cyril, the protagonist who is a homosexual in Ireland. The story begins from 1945 where Mrs.Goggins, Cyril's mother is thrown out of the church and ends in 2015. This explains the length of the book indeed (713 pages). It describes more about Ireland and the lifestyle change of people there way from older days to today. I really was able to discover lots of new ideas from the book. It gave my mind a more broad view on different parts of the world and stuffs. The entire life of Cyril from scratch made me realize that the world is really huge and means more than what we knew. It was really a wonderful experience reading this book. Although it didn't go well for me at first, the subsequent parts where really interesting. The narration was good and kept going smoothly. There were lots of varied characters and yes it requires your effort in keeping track of them. Each people in the books had their own thoughts yet everyone was justified and that is what I like the most of this book. The relationship between Cyril and Alice was my favourite especially specially towards the end. The book was so hilarious and I kept laughing at many places. It was also moving at the same time with lots of loses and sadness happening. It is a book where one could really understand so many things and will love it. I really liked it on the whole.

good