The Heart's Invisible furies

"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."

Millions of words in the English language and I'm still falling short of choosing the right ones to describe this masterpiece. I can't express the journey this book took me on in words. To dilute it down, my reaction was a chain of laughing and crying. I don't know how this review is going to do justice to this book, but I'll try anyway.

"The Heart's invisible furies" is an epic experience. It's the journey of Cyril Avery, a gay man born in Ireland in 1945. It takes us through the ups and downs of Cyril's life and also shows the development of Ireland as a country. It's about Cyril's choices and going through the consequences of some of his questionable choices to figure out his place in a world that's hell-bent on throwing curveballs at his every step.

My favourite aspect of this book is the narration. So that's what I will rant about first. After reading "The Boy in the Striped pyjamas", I knew what to expect up to some extent. But this book broke any non-existing bounds on the narration front, floored me and made a fan out of me for John Boyne's writing. The narration is so hilarious. I feel bad for laughing at many inopportune times in this book and I blame the narrative style for that. I could go on and on about this, but you have to experience it to understand. Add this to your TBR now.

My next favourite aspect of this book is obviously Cyril. His story is going to stay with me for a very very long time. His unusual childhood with his adoptive parents, his somewhat detached behaviour, his sexuality, and every part of his life is worth reading. His story as a gay man in a country that is dictated by the Catholic church was so disheartening to read at times because of the extreme homophobia. And as his life spans out, this book showcases how queer people were degraded and mistreated during the AIDS epidemic. Those parts were difficult to get through but very important.

---

"It was a difficult time to be Irish, a difficult time to be twenty-one years of age and a difficult time to be a man who was attracted to other men. To be all three simultaneously required a level of subterfuge and guile that felt contrary to my nature."

---

Cyril is not an ideal person, he's far from it. The mistakes he made and the consequences he suffered because of them defined his life. There were times when I wanted to throw something at his head through the book and sometimes to give a reassuring hug through it. This book alone can make me cry and laugh at the same time. For days, I marvelled at this book after finishing it. I still do it.

---

"But this was Dublin, the nation's capital. The place of my birth and a city I loved at the heart of a country I loathed. A town filled with good-hearted innocents, miserable bigots, adulterous husbands, conniving churchmen, paupers who received no help from the State, and millionaires who sucked the lifeblood from it."

---

I need to cut this short even though I want to go on about my other favourite aspects, one being Catherine Goggin- Cyril's biological mother. I love her. That's it. That's all I'm going to say about that amazing woman. Honestly, I'm not surprised that I love this book. Call it a reader's intuition or just plain stupid hope, but I knew I was going to be ruined after reading this book and as you can see, I was and I'm quite happy with the results.

P.S- I will haunt every one of you if you don't read this book.