Heft by Liz Moore

The first of two dueling narratives found in Liz Moore’s beautiful and poignant 2012 novel, Heft, is of Arthur Opp, a former English professor who after losing his job goes into a kind of self-imposed exile by becoming a recluse and walling himself inside his childhood home. The second story is of Kel Kellor, a rising star high-school athlete and son of a former student and longtime friend to Arthur Opp.

These two protagonists couldn’t be more different in age and appearance. Arthur Opp has gained so much weight, isolated as he is in his inherited Brooklyn home, that he now weighs over 500 pounds. A shy and aging and heartbreakingly lonely man who communicates with people by phone or text or the occasional letter, Arthur hasn’t ventured farther than his front porch in well over a decade. The only people he now regularly sees are the delivery drivers who bring him his groceries and takeout and whatever else he may need—all the while never letting them in the house and waiting until they have deposited their deliveries and left before he even opens his front door. Kel on the other hand is a wildly popular kid at his new school—a preppy private school—far from the small apartment in Yonkers he shares with his mom. He is the star of two sports. He has attracted the attention of one of the more beautiful girls at his school as well as the attention from a scout from his favorite baseball team.

However, once the novel progresses and the two stories start to intertwine we begin to see the similarities of both characters. Both are suffering with similar feelings of isolation and loneliness. Both suffer from grief and regret. Yet, they are not the only outsiders in the book. Indeed, the novel is filled with lonesome, yearning characters, each of them dealing with their own tales of sorrow.

Written in alternating chapters of simple, beautiful prose that is honest and clear, devoid of any ostentatious language that attempts to draw attention to itself, Moore lets her characters shine. She writes characters who feel real, characters readers will both grieve with and root for. It is, of course, a cliché to say that any book will leave you “in tears" or “sad to see it end.” Yet, I can’t help but repeat these worn expressions. I didn’t want this book to end and was saddened once it finally did reach its hard-earned conclusion.

—WL