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Book: The Heart's Invisible Furies, John Boyne
Publication date: 2017
WCRG meeting: 27 June 2018
Rating: 7.8
It is a long novel encompassing the life of a homosexual man in Dublin from the 1930’s. It is very much an Irish story and conveys a great deal about the life of a gay man in a very restrictive society dominated by the Roman Catholic Church. Several members of the group had themselves experienced life in Dublin and one at least had considerable feeling for the experience of being gay in that environment.
The group thought that the main theme of the book was the sadness and frustration of the gay man who, for much of his life, could not acknowledge what he felt and what he wanted. As a result he had short sexual encounters in back alleys but found the experience of love for a man very difficult to fulfil. When he found some of the experience of being a father with Ignac, even that was full of violence and loss
The other main theme was Ireland itself and in particular the suffering caused by the Roman Catholic Church both to women and to gay men. The way in which girls were driven from their homes by the cruelty of priests, was echoed by the general population. Smoot in Amsterdam gives a very fierce condemnation of Ireland or at least of this aspect at this time and by that stage we know some of the reasons for it.
Several of us were critical of the coincidences in the plot although we also recognised that some of the very best writers eg Shakespeare have also made free use of coincidence. One person found the way in which the characters were revealed and the action developed slowly was satisfying because that enabled greater understanding. We thought that the characters were well drawn and were set into a believable context. Dublin was made vivid through Mary Margaret and the Avery couple but Amsterdam perhaps less so. The language was discussed and we liked the way in which Irish was suggested but not intrusive.
Overall, there was appreciation and no-one had a very negative response to the book.
The group thought that the main theme of the book was the sadness and frustration of the gay man who, for much of his life, could not acknowledge what he felt and what he wanted. As a result he had short sexual encounters in back alleys but found the experience of love for a man very difficult to fulfil. When he found some of the experience of being a father with Ignac, even that was full of violence and loss
The other main theme was Ireland itself and in particular the suffering caused by the Roman Catholic Church both to women and to gay men. The way in which girls were driven from their homes by the cruelty of priests, was echoed by the general population. Smoot in Amsterdam gives a very fierce condemnation of Ireland or at least of this aspect at this time and by that stage we know some of the reasons for it.
Several of us were critical of the coincidences in the plot although we also recognised that some of the very best writers eg Shakespeare have also made free use of coincidence. One person found the way in which the characters were revealed and the action developed slowly was satisfying because that enabled greater understanding. We thought that the characters were well drawn and were set into a believable context. Dublin was made vivid through Mary Margaret and the Avery couple but Amsterdam perhaps less so. The language was discussed and we liked the way in which Irish was suggested but not intrusive.
Overall, there was appreciation and no-one had a very negative response to the book.
The score given to it was 7.8 out of 10.
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