A review by ktrain3900
The Heart by Maylis de Kerangal

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I think where this book is most fascinating is its premise: 24 hours in the life of a heart and those affected by it. I liked how it meandered among the lives and perspectives of its ordinary, extraordinary characters. I sometimes liked those characters, I sometimes found them tedious. I liked how it moved in time, past and the present twisting together in what often felt like infinite strings and knots, or layering like mortar and large bricks (like the long paragraphs) building to... what? I'm not entirely sure. Everyone you know has a full and complicated life of which you know little. I think that's a lot of it. There is an ethereal quality yet it was also very mundane (in the literal sense of being of the world). In a sense it's a slice of life novel... or slices of lives maybe? Certainly a book writers should read, I think.