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pikusonali's review against another edition
4.0
Sometimes I think I have no idea what love is. Whether it is something fundamentally essential to our existence or just a dispensable part of our lives? Are all the decisions we take in life, at least in part, rooted in love? Romantic love, platonic love, parental love, even a love you cannot explain – one emotion with so many shades and characters attached to it.
In many ways, The Heart's Invisible Furies reminds me of Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life but the former proves to be way less depressing and builds up to a happy ending. It is more of a social commentary on Ireland and its homophobic nature that persisted well into the late 2000s. We are introduced to Cyril Avery, a closeted homosexual, confused about his identity, scared to come out as he yearns for his best friend Julian – a straight and promiscuous chap.
There is lot of drama in the book, a few twists that will keep you hooked and writing that is not only compelling but entertaining to the core. While A Little Life's Jude is a tortured soul in love with his best friend Willem, forever depressed because of his brutal and shocking past despite getting immense love in return from Willem; Cyril is a more balanced soul, who eventually accepts Julian's disinterest in him and continues loving his best friend in a different capacity. Cyril does find love with someone else and like all characters in the book learns to move on.
At the end of the day what matters is learning how to forgive and forget, how to accept your mistakes and bravely accept the punishment for them. At the end of the day if you a bunch of people, who believe in you, there's nothing more to want. For families are made by emotions, not blood. For just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean that they don't love you with all that they have.
In many ways, The Heart's Invisible Furies reminds me of Hanya Yanagihara's A Little Life but the former proves to be way less depressing and builds up to a happy ending. It is more of a social commentary on Ireland and its homophobic nature that persisted well into the late 2000s. We are introduced to Cyril Avery, a closeted homosexual, confused about his identity, scared to come out as he yearns for his best friend Julian – a straight and promiscuous chap.
There is lot of drama in the book, a few twists that will keep you hooked and writing that is not only compelling but entertaining to the core. While A Little Life's Jude is a tortured soul in love with his best friend Willem, forever depressed because of his brutal and shocking past despite getting immense love in return from Willem; Cyril is a more balanced soul, who eventually accepts Julian's disinterest in him and continues loving his best friend in a different capacity. Cyril does find love with someone else and like all characters in the book learns to move on.
At the end of the day what matters is learning how to forgive and forget, how to accept your mistakes and bravely accept the punishment for them. At the end of the day if you a bunch of people, who believe in you, there's nothing more to want. For families are made by emotions, not blood. For just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean that they don't love you with all that they have.
foxymcflythe's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
constantreader_mh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
chartje's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
bloomerism's review against another edition
guys... it's been five months... i give up for now. I PROMISE I'LL TRY IT AGAIN WHEN I HAVE MORE TIME AND ENERGY
brainra's review against another edition
5.0
A truly heart wrenching, addictive and beautiful portrait of how family isn’t always blood. How our lives can be wasted living up to other people’s views. How deep love can root in our souls and where we can and have peace.
Truly engrossed in the obscure life of Cyril Avery, I found the writing captivating and his story mesmerising. As an outsider in an era of prejudice, judgement and promiscuous priests, Cyril illustrates his journey to finding his true love, family and himself.
The quirky characters and the hilarious banter offer a comic angle on a sad and very real tale of struggling to be different in a world not ready for change.
One of my top 10 books of all time!
Truly engrossed in the obscure life of Cyril Avery, I found the writing captivating and his story mesmerising. As an outsider in an era of prejudice, judgement and promiscuous priests, Cyril illustrates his journey to finding his true love, family and himself.
The quirky characters and the hilarious banter offer a comic angle on a sad and very real tale of struggling to be different in a world not ready for change.
One of my top 10 books of all time!
derekmoodyrutledge's review against another edition
5.0
Loved. So good. So enjoyable to read. Just as near to a perfect novel as you can get.
liz_mcc's review against another edition
3.0
Conflicting thoughts on this one. I almost didn't pick it up when I saw it was by the guy who wrote The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, which I've heard awful things about, but this one came highly recommended to me. And it started strong with what I think is one of my favorite opening lines to a book.
The whole book was so readable--I really flew through it and kept wanting to pick it up to keep reading. The writing is genuinely funny, especially Cyril's deadpan dialogue. I understand other readers being annoyed about the unlikelihood of these characters' lives being so intertwined through the years, but I actually loved it; the fateful meetings (especially between Catherine and Cyril) contributed to the epic feel of this story.
All that said, this book leaned too hard into the Bury Your Gays trope for me. It would have been nice to see. It was also odd that a lot of crucial events happened "off screen" (i.e. ). I was happy to have some of the more traumatic things happen off screen after that early awful scene, but it did seem odd to cut chapters off right before crucial events and then just have characters talk about the events after the fact.
The whole book was so readable--I really flew through it and kept wanting to pick it up to keep reading. The writing is genuinely funny, especially Cyril's deadpan dialogue. I understand other readers being annoyed about the unlikelihood of these characters' lives being so intertwined through the years, but I actually loved it; the fateful meetings (especially between Catherine and Cyril) contributed to the epic feel of this story.
All that said, this book leaned too hard into the Bury Your Gays trope for me. It would have been nice to see
Spoiler
at least ONE gay couple end up with a happy endingSpoiler
Bastian's death, Cyril and his mother having the conversation where they realize they're relatedtaylor_broek's review against another edition
4.0
There were 4-5 times I seriously considered dnfing this book. The first was before page 50. Not because the writing was bad but because it was so good that I felt too much pain! But thankfully there was enough comedy infused throughout this book that made all of the tragedies more bearable. Can I just say how glad I am I’m not Irish in the 60s. I didn’t realize how behind the times they managed to stay on that island. Cyril’s life was so hard but what life isn’t to some degree. Over the span of his life you get to see where his choices lead him. Sometimes you can make the “wrong” choice but it can still lead you to the “right” place. Because ay the end of the day you can not go back. You can feel guilty but it won’t change what had already been changed so the choice is to own up and apologize for what ever choices you might regret but try your best to enjoy what it lead to. You have only one life and at the end it will be what it will be because of whatever choices you made good or bad and hopefully you can be happy with it. A lot of elderly people are super negative and cynical and are almost angry with the life they live and everything the “happened” to them but maybe it doesn’t have to be that way. Maybe you can try to be happy and it will help those around you also be happy even if it wasn’t the life they expected.
You can make a bigger impact than you know just by being true to yourself and being as kind as you can when you can.
This book is hard to rate because it was so sad but it was also inspiring and funny and I really just want to give Cyril a hug! this book was super fricken long but I am still so sad that it’s over because i was really enjoying my time in Cyril’s mind.
This book is so very gay
You can make a bigger impact than you know just by being true to yourself and being as kind as you can when you can.
This book is hard to rate because it was so sad but it was also inspiring and funny and I really just want to give Cyril a hug! this book was super fricken long but I am still so sad that it’s over because i was really enjoying my time in Cyril’s mind.
This book is so very gay