"Few novelists of recent memory have put our bleak isolation into words as clearly as Liz Moore does in her new novel."
"Moore’s characters are lovingly drawn…A truly original voice."
"Every once in a while, you read a book with such well-written, memorable characters that you know you’re going to remember them forever…Heft is a wonderful oddball of a book. I loved it."
"Heft is a work that radiantly combines compassion and a clear-eyed vision. This is a novel of rare originality and sophistication."
"In Heft , Liz Moore creates a cast of vulnerable, lonely misfits that will break your heart and then make it soar. What a terrific novel!"
"Heft achieves real poignancy…The warmth, the humanity and the hope in this novel make it compelling and pleasurable."
"Tender, thoughtful."
New York Times Book Review
"Moore’s writing is clear, persuasive, and totally engaging, bringing her characters to life in all their sweet, quirky glory."
"[Moore] writes with compassion and emotional insight but resists sentimentality…Heft leads to hope."
"A suspenseful, restorative novel from one of our fine young voices."
"This is the real deal, Liz Moore is the real deal—she's written a novel that will stick with you long after you've finished it."
Moore (The Words of Every Song) taps the fascinating psyche of the morbidly obese in her second novel, a stout volume with a split narrative between corpulent recluse Arthur Opp and Kel Keller, an admired high school baseball player. Though slow to start, Moore succeeds in creating an insightful page-turner that seeks to demystify archetypal characters. Arthur is a reclusive, independently wealthy ex-professor who occupies the lower floors of his family home. A sporadic correspondence with former student Charlene sustains him for years until her surprise phone call pushes him to rejoin society. Charlene is the common link between Arthur and Kel, who narrates the book’s latter half and who, despite his apparent charmed existence, actually leads something of a double life caring for his alcoholic mother. As the story slowly unfolds, the importance of the connections between the three becomes increasingly evident. The writing is quirky, sometimes to a fault, yet original, but the diptych structure is less successful, as the respective first-person narrators are sometimes indistinct. Regardless, Moore’s second novel wears its few kinks well. Agent: Sterling Lord Literistic. (Jan.)
Morbidly obese, 58-year-old shut-in Arthur Opp's only real contact with the outside world comes through his extended written correspondence with fellow misfit and former student Charlene Turner, 20 years his junior. When Arthur thinks Charlene might come back into his life, he finds the courage to let a cleaning service into his home and slowly befriends 19-year-old maid Yolanda. The novel alternates between the voices of Arthur and Charlene's 18-year-old son, Kel, though the two have never met and are unaware of each other. A popular and athletic teen on the surface, Kel is saddled with responsibility, and his tenuous self-sufficiency begins to crumble under the weight of his mother's descent into illness and alcoholism. At the beginning, all of the characters are alone and apart, burdened by secrets. But over the course of the novel they come to learn that we can build new families when our own don't suffice. VERDICT Moore's lovely novel (after The Words of Every Song) is about overcoming shame and loneliness and learning to connect. It is life-affirming but never sappy.—Lauren Gilbert, Sachem P.L., Holbrook, NY
In musician/novelist Moore's bifurcated second novel (The Words of Every Song, 2007), the two first-person narrations--from a housebound, grossly overweight former literature professor and a teenager in crisis over his future--never converge although they eventually intersect. Weighing in at over 500 pounds, Arthur Opp is approaching 60, alone and lonely in the Brooklyn house he hasn't left for years. Since his only friend has died, he avoids facing the world outside his front door; all his material needs are delivered. He spends his days eating. Then he receives a letter from a former student. When Charlene Turner took Arthur's class 20 years ago, she was intellectually out of her depth. Yet Arthur recognized a kindred spirit. After one semester she dropped out and he never saw her again; soon after, partly due to unfounded suspicions about their relationship, his own career disintegrated. Now Charlene makes a vague request that Arthur tutor her son. Anticipating her visit, Arthur hires a maid, Yolanda, a pregnant high-school dropout who brings unexpected life and energy into his home. But although the title refers to Arthur's quirky, larger-than-life charm, readers will find his story expendable compared to the struggles faced by single mom Charlene's son Kel. Kel's narrative, full of male adolescent swagger and uncertainty, is heart-wrenching. Charlene's desperate attempts to give him the chances she missed cause Kel to struggle with deeply divided loyalties as he commutes from his working-class Yonkers neighborhood to a prestigious Westchester high school where Charlene used to work as secretary. Handsome and athletic, Kel is beloved by his friends and teachers, who have bent rules to keep Kel enrolled ever since Charlene quit (or was fired) several years ago. Now a senior, Kel is tempted by a professional baseball scout, while Charlene drinks away her days to dull the pain of lupus and concocts her wild scheme, doing whatever it takes to get Kel to attend college. Only a hardhearted reader will remain immune to Kel's troubled charm.