William Boyd - Any Human Heart

Pros: continually evolving story leaves no room for boredom
Cons: perhaps you're not into the whole journal-format

It's 1923 when we are introduced to Logan Mountstuart, a seventeen year old student in an english boarding school. He spends his days studying (somewhat), with extra time being dedicated to his two best friends, Peter Scabius and Ben Leeping, and the bit ...

Pros: a telescoped view of history through the fictional adventures of our hero
Cons: the hero himself is not always sympathetic

I kept trying to put Any Human Heart down, but as hard as I tried, I kept picking it up again. I found Logan, the hero, often insufferable, especially when the book dissolves into random journal entries, as if Boyd had forgotten to write parts of it. ...

Pros: Journal format. Yeh a book with a fast forward button!
Cons: Every 90 pages gotta bust out the French Dictionary to understand the one liners.

As Logan Mountstuart the main character puts it "I travel only at my own instigation" (pg. 79). But does he really live a life as an adventure through his own doing? Like many explorers he is an opportunist who lives life as it comes.

I read this book a month after living in The Big Apple and completely relate to Mountstuart. The adventures of life are at the tip of "Any Human's" fingers if they DARE to gamble uncertainty and grasp it with intuition. This convincing fictitious journal is about a child, adolescent, and adult. Boyd cleverly selects the title "Any Human Heart" because during the adventures of Mountstuart you will learn to love, hate, pity, and envy the bastard.

This book is not recommended for people who:
a) Like sappy fairy tale endings.
b) Always like to win.
c) Who only fell in love once.

The book is recommended for people who:
a) Believes life is like the seasons... it's constantly changing with or without you.


My all time favorite book. Thanks KYL!