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FREE ANY HUMAN HEART PDF William Boyd | 512 pages | 06 Jan 2004 | Random House USA Inc | 9781400031009 | English | New York, United States Heart of the matter | William Boyd | The Guardian Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Want to Read saving…. Want to Read Currently Reading Read. Other editions. Enlarge cover. Error rating book. Refresh Any Human Heart try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Any Human Heart to Book Page. Any Human Heart by William Boyd. Logan Gonzago Mountstuart, writer, was born inand died of Any Human Heart heart attack on October 5,aged William Boyd's novel Any Human Heart is his disjointed autobiography, a massive tome chronicling "my personal rollercoaster"--or rather, "not so much a rollercoaster", but a yo-yo, "a jerking spinning toy in the hands of a maladroit child. Early and easy success is succeeded by a long half-century of mediocrity, disappointments and setbacks, both personal and professional, leading him to multiple failed marriages, internment, alcoholism, and abject poverty. Mountstuart's sorry tale is also the story of a British way Any Human Heart life in inexorable decline, as his journey takes in the Bloomsbury set, the General Strike, the Spanish Civil War, s Americans in Paris, wartime espionage, New York avant garde art, even the Baader-Meinhof gang--all with a stellar supporting cast. The most sustained and best moment comes mid-book, as Mountstuart gets caught up in one of Britain's murkier wartime secrets, in the company of the here truly despicable Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Elsewhere Boyd occasionally misplaces his tongue too obviously in his cheek--the Wall Street Crash is trailed with truly crashing inelegance--but overall Any Human Heart Human Heart is a witty, inventive and ultimately moving novel. Boyd succeeds in conjuring not only a compelling 20th century but also, in the hapless Logan Mountstuart, an anti-hero who achieves something approaching passive greatness. Get A Copy. Paperbackpages. Published January 6th by Vintage first published January 25th More Details Original Title. Logan Mountstuart. Other Editions Friend Reviews. To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Any Human Heartplease sign up. Have not read the book yet. Kate Rice McHugh :- laughing to see I'm not the only one. See all 5 questions about Any Human Heart…. Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 4. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Start Any Human Heart review of Any Human Heart. I have liked this book a great deal more than I wanted to admit. It flows easily, and the diary format, with short entries and some gossipy ingredients, makes it hard to break away. This was addictive reading. Several readers in GR have criticized that they do not like the main character. To me he comes across as an ordinary man, with weaknesses alcohol and womensome cowardly reactions, but showing also bouts of integrity and a fair amount of self-honesty to what extent does diary- writing in I have liked this book a great deal more than I wanted to admit. To me he comes Any Human Heart as an ordinary man, with weaknesses alcohol and womensome cowardly reactions, but showing also bouts of integrity and a fair amount of self-honesty to what extent does diary-writing invite to a truthful self-examination? As a sort of anti-hero, his story seems a twentieth century Education Sentimentale. But I wonder whether the main character and his development is the only center of the book. I think of him as a catheter-like mechanism that travels through the interstices Any Human Heart the Twentieth Century. He uses a typical trick found in historical novels and that can easily become a trap. He handles the edited diary form quite effectively. There are footnotes with data on real events and Any Human Heart, gaps are clarified through additional notes from the fictional editor, and finally a fake bibliography of the author No wonder readers at first thought that the main character had been a Any Human Heart in real life. View all 28 comments. Jul 27, Andrew Smith rated it really liked it. Once I got used to the style I found that I was quickly sucked into the life of the character through whose eyes the story is told. True, there are parts where the intermingling of significant world events, and particularly the way many famous names were dropped in, got a little tiresome and Any Human Heart me spoilt the flow of the story, but overall Any Human Heart is a superb read. I kept thinking about the book for days after I finished it. View all 9 comments. I enjoyed this tremendously, even though I watched the TV adaptation a few weeks Any Human Heart, so I already knew the characters and plot though there are some differences. Consequently, they Any Human Heart things as Any Human Heart were at the time, with candour and an absence of hindsight. It also means there are gaps and changes of style. The pretence is carried further by the presence of footnotes including "corrections" and even a reference to Boyd's own biography of an artistan index and other later editorial notes, including Logan's introduction, in which he explains, "We keep a journal to entrap the collection of selves that forms us". I think it is the different voices of Logan at different times in his life that make the book work so well: often he is not very likeable, but he has a certain charm, and his triumphs are balanced by tragedy. It is not a continuous narrative, but rather, broken down into journals covering significant periods in his life: school establishing his key friendships with Peter Scabius and Ben Leeping ; Oxford university; London as a writer and journalist marriage, then a coup de foudre ; naval intelligence in WW2; return to a changed London; NY art dealer ; Africa teaching ; London including links with the Baader Meinhof gang and finally, retirement in France. The framework of the book lends teenage Any Human Heart more poignancy, e. Every ambition thwarted, every Any Human Heart stillborn? At other times, Logan as an old man does insert a retrospective analysis, e. I am not an expert on any of them, but it rings true, and feels a natural element of the Any Human Heart. The only weak part for me is the Baader Meinhof episode, but I suppose that is meant to balance and contrast with his earlier work in naval intelligence. Later on, Logan remembers being told Any Human Heart "the only point of keeping a journal was to concentrate on the personal He can Any Human Heart guilt, though only his son arouses it in him. He coldy explains "need and opportunity - the ingredients of all betrayals" and "I absolutely need variety and surprise. I have to have the city in my life Yet he often feels a victim of circumstance, "A sense of my life being Any Human Heart out of my control - which is not the same as being out of control". The final question, and one Logan doesn't entirely resolve, is around the pain of having Any Human Heart true happiness - and lost it. One detail that no one else would notice was that there were TWO, albeit very minor, characters called Cecily: Cecily Brewer, at whose home he lodged, and another Cecily who was his mother's housemaid. Sep 30, J. Kent Messum rated it it was amazing Shelves: must-readgreat- readclassicmasterful-stuffhard-hittingwhat-writers-readmasterpiece. Thick, dense, and sprawling Exceptionally well written, William Boyd has a rare gift for effective and robust prose. It's a masterpiece in every sense of the word. The novel is the life story of Any Human Heart Englishman named Thick, dense, and sprawling The novel is the life story of an Englishman named Logan Mountstuart who was born at the turn of the 20th century and died close to the end of it. Told through journal entries from his early childhood all the way to his dying days, the book is deeply personal and heartfelt. Eighty-five years on this earth, Any Human Heart Logan experienced enough for several lifetimes. He was well-educated, well-traveled, and by the end of it well- versed in human Any Human Heart, conflict, and fallibility. His paths in life take him all over the world, to places both wondrous and dangerous. Along the way he has many relationships of many different kinds with an array of people. During his travels he comes into contact and rubs shoulders with some of the most famous and notorious names of the century, although he never becomes one himself. Regardless of what type of genres you typically enjoy, Any Human Heart highly recommend this tale of one man's life lived to the fullest. View all 8 comments. Apr 11, Vit Babenco rated it it was amazing. Can any single human heart take in all the history of the twentieth century? Any Human Any Human Heart is a story of one such heart which could hold within almost all the crucial events of this turbulent age. And the story is as sorrowful and rich as was the history of the century… But there is always hope. And suddenly I wonder: is it more of my bad luck to have Any Human Heart born when I was, at Any Human Heart beginning of this century and not be able to be young at its end? I look enviously at these kids and think about the Can any single human heart take in all the history of the twentieth century? I look enviously at these kids and think about the lives they are living — and will live — and posit a kind of future for them.