That 'literary novel' I swore was overhyped actually changed my mind

I was super skeptical when my book club in Chicago picked The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne last fall. The back cover made it sound like a sappy family drama, and I nearly skipped the meeting. But after reading the first 50 pages, I was hooked on the way it wove humor into heavy topics like being gay in 1940s Ireland. Has anyone else had a book they resisted turn out to be one of their favorites?

3 comments

3 Comments

emma_jones8d ago

Oh man, same here. Thought it'd be boring but wow, that book wrecked me.

rowanw917d ago

Wait till you think about what happens to all the side characters after the story ends. Like the kid who gets pulled into the conflict but doesn't survive the first act. Nobody talks about how their story is just completely over while the main characters get closure and maybe even a happy ending. That really hit me hard because it made me realize how brutal real life is. There's no guarantee that my own supporting role in someone else's life will have any payoff or even a proper goodbye. Makes you wonder if we're all just extras in somebody else's story and nobody's keeping track of us.

wells.evan7d ago

The thing that gets me is how the book makes you realize that some people just vanish with no warning or explanation. Like in real life, you might be going about your day and never see someone again without any big dramatic scene. That one old guy at the bus stop who always waved at you just stops showing up. You never find out what happened to him. The book does that same thing with minor characters. They just disappear between pages while the main characters keep getting paragraphs and chapters dedicated to their lives.