HEFT by Liz Moore

Narrated by Kirby Heyborne, Keith Szarabajka

…..Unhappy in its Own Way…..

This novel is real. Life is hard and this book is hard and discouraging—and real. If you just finished watching Schindler’s List and still feel a little too buoyant, then give this book a try. It will surely succeed in reacquainting you will life’s harsh reality.

This book follows two very different characters. Both are portrayed realistically. I found the depiction of Arthur Opp to be insightfully tragic and well fleshed-out. I feel now as if I have a better understanding of the plight of the morbidly obese: what it must be like to be so corpulent that going out in public is a burden too massive to bear. Arthur Opp is a sympathetic character; a man who has given into his one besetting sin. Not so far from any one of us if we were to cease resisting the temptation to do the same. He is not beyond redemption, but it has taken him many years to get into his present state, and no quick remedy is possible. This was a human being and this was a man with a story.

Kel Keller the high-school Baseball phenom seems to be everything that is wrong with the younger generation: Secret home life with an alcoholic mother. Popular athlete who is encouraged to be the hero by day and subverted by his very popularity into becoming the promiscuous party boy by night—you know, normal high school life. Kel is so out of touch with the reality of his own situation that he can’t bring himself to tell the girl he loves his true feelings but then has casual sex with another girl he hardly knows—and thinks nothing of it! His only regret is that his real love finds out: something that any right thinking person would surely expect, but that never even crosses his mind. His story is a spiral out of control that is, if anything, more sad than Arthur Opp eating his way into oblivion. I found it a very alienating experience getting inside the head of such a youth so intent on being misspent. I hated the scenes with Kel Keller, dreaded them when they appeared, not because they were trite or cliché, but because they seemed so true that it caused me to lose any hope for this present generation. If they are like Kel Keller, then we are doomed.

The narration, by two different performers, is first-rate. It is fitting that the two main characters should have separate narrators since they are so very different people. This contributes to the reality of the story.

Kirby Heyborne is Kel Keller. He gives an authentic portrayal of a confused teenager stumbling through life with no guidance and no moral compass. Kirby Heyborne earns praise for imparting what seem to me to be authentic inflections of a young boy who doesn’t know how to think like a man.

Keith Szarabajka is Arthur Opp. He gives a sensitive reading of the man who wants to be different but is pulled by his irresistible urges. Keith Szarabajka is so talented that he can give an authentic portrayal of not only an obese middlegaed man but also the young Latina housemaid Yolanda. His portions of the book steal the show, chiefly because he is doing the Arthur Opp sections which are the most engaging portions of the story.