Heft [Hardcover]

The story opens with a letter that former Professor Arthur Opp has written to his student, Charlene Turner. They haven't seen each other in many years, but they have kept in touch.

Arthur Opp, from Brooklyn, lost his job at the university and lives on his father's money. His father is a famous architect and he and Arthur are estranged. Arthur has no family, no job and no one to talk to. His only comfort has come from the food he consumes. Everything he needs is delivered to the front door. You see, Arthur weighs between 500-600 pounds and hasn't left his home in ten years. He is agoraphobic. In his letters to Charlene, he hadn't mentioned these things to her, not because he lied, but because he chose to leave them out. However, in the last letter he admits to those things and ends with "In spite of everything I am still the same Arthur".

Charlene, too, hasn't been telling him the truth. Charlene admired Arthur and his was the only course she completed. They became close friends and dated for a time. They were similar in many ways. Both were shy and lacked self-esteem. She didn't dress well and rather looked odd. Charlene had to drop out of school. She worked a little after that and then had to go on disability because of Lupus and Alcoholism. Charlene has a son named Kel, whom she raised on her own. However, for most of Kel's life, he looked after Charlene. In a letter to Arthur, Charlene sends along a photo of Kel and asks Arthur to call him.

Kel loves baseball and he hopes one day to make it to the major leagues. He is 17 years old, a poor kid going to a rich school. He hasn't seen his father since he was four and dreams of reconnecting with him.

There is also Yolanda, who Arthur called in to clean his home. She is a colourful character and brings life and humour into Arthur's house.

Everyone has an addiction in this novel. Arthur is addicted to food. Charlene is addicted to alcohol and Kel is addicted to baseball. One wonders if they can ever overcome their problems.

Liz Moore has written a beautiful and touching novel with so much passion and empathy. The characters are well-developed, believable and loveable. You will remember HEFT long after the final page.

I loved this book and call it a WINNER.

"Powerful, heartbreaking, and ultimately redemptive." Yes, that's an excellent way of describing Liz Moore's second novel. Yet, one cannot overlook her graceful prose, imagination and characters so finely drawn that we find ourselves hoping, wishing, somehow willing their happiness.

The narrative is divided between two, first Arthur Opp, a 550 pound former professor who has not left his parents' home in some ten years. He has discovered how to have the necessities delivered to his door. The home is commodious, a three floor Brooklyn Brownstone. As he says, "There are nice things on the upper floors I suppose but I haven't seen them in a decade. I have no reason to go up there. I couldn't if I tried.

He is alone. No one visits; the phone does not ring. His only contacts have been a few letters exchanged with former student, Charlene Turner. She was a bit of an oddity at his school, self-concious, not dressed like the others but full of dreams. For a while Arthur and Charlene become companions, perhaps drawn together by their mutual lack of self-esteem and alienation. He takes her to museums, to plays, teaches her, and then they grow apart.

The second narrator is Kel Keller, Charlene's teenage son who loves baseball and wants to be a major league player. But, he's torn, often exhausted by and resentful of the care his alcoholic mother requires and their house on the wrong side of the tracks. Not only is it in a rundown section of Yonkers but it is often dark and cold because his mother cannot afford to pay the bills. Yet Kel is accepted at a prestigious school where he soon fits in due to his athletic prowess. He's puzzled yet drawn to the well to-do families he comes to know. When he visits their homes he feels "like an intruder, like somebody staking something out."

As the connection between these three develops we again recognize the author's ability to not only draw vivid true to life characters but also to make them matter. And matter they do for few of us will forget Arthur, Charlene or Kel and the life stories they have shared.

- Gail Cooke

Two topics you might not expect to share a story: an ex-professor's debilitating excessive obesity and a young man's burning desire to become a professional baseball player. Their stories intertwine in an impossible way, leaving the reader to contemplate the outcome. A very touching story, written from two POV's, handled expertly by the author.