Book Review: John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies Is LGBT History
It seems like a given; those that judge others are probably hiding what they judge of themselves. Yet, that does not take away the damage they can do. John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies shows how people’s inability to accept themselves blocks others from doing it, as well.
When we first meet Cyril Avery, it is 1945, and he is a literal baby getting stomped by a priest. If that is not an entrance into this world and a book, then I do not know what is! Yet, it sets up Boyne’s central arguments that he repeats as he scopes Cyril’s life; how religion and socio-politics inhibit a life from its grandeur. It is what makes Boyne’s book a modern, Greek tragedy, and makes you understand why equality and acceptance is so important. Cyril Avery is gay, and you watch him grow from a boy, rejected by his adopted family, into a man rejecting himself. Suddenly, it makes sense why loving children grow into self-loathing adults ; society teaches open hearts to grow in shame.If it were not for Boyne’s barked wit and and lavish language, you would personally want to time-travel to Cyril’s life in Ireland, and save this noble, humble, and kind being from oppression.
Nobody can avoid suffering, but can we avoid oppression? Is that not the argument of every activist; that there can be such a world where suffering is not systemic, but merely a side effect of being human. When you course through the life of Cyril Avery, up until 70, you watch a life that learns to smile amongst those eager to make it cry. Yet, you cannot help but wonder what would have been of that life had no one tried to cause it more tears then laughs. Sure, he has his loves, like the fresh, liberating Dutch doctor Bastiaan, but their romance exists in a world that considers their being a disease (1980’s AIDS epidemic). Moreover, from Amsterdam to New York, being gay has its international intolerance.
John Boyne’s The Heart’s Invisible Furies is like a literary capsule. You learn about the history of Ireland through the eyes of an Irishman rejected by it. One of the must illustrious reads of our times, Boyne has achieved the ripe balance of making a book that activates your heart and mind. You have an opportunity to feel for Cyril, while analyzing the society/ world he lives in that is not far off, at all, from the one we live in now. To Buy John Boyne’s The Hearts Invisible Furies Click Here.
