Heart: Stories of Learning to Love Again Book

Heart traces the arc from heartbreak to wholeness, with powerfully insightful selections drawn from such masters as Marcel Proust, Thomas Hardy, and Vladimir Nabokov, as well as contemporary luminaries ranging from Anne Tyler to Banana Yoshimoto. Readers can shed the incredible weight that a broken heart leaves behind via a selection from Alain de Botton’s wittily perceptive On Love, and then go on to Anita Brookner’s delightful revelations about love and loss, Alice Munro’s quietly uplifting portrait of a rejected woman finding new strength on a seaside holiday, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s depiction of the unexpected liberation of a tortured young lover in Paris.

KLIATT

Recovering from a broken heart, learning to love again after the sudden death of a boyfriend, reflecting on love from exile in Stalin's Russia; this eclectic collection of short stories and excerpts from novels runs the gamut of broken hearts, with pieces by a diverse group of writers including Nabo kov, Proust, Banana Yoshimoto and Anne Tyler. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's story "Bridal Party," we meet Michael Curly, a young man who moved across an ocean to forget his first love, Caroline. Then Caroline travels to France for her wedding, and Michael is forced to confront his feelings all over again. Thomas Hardy looks at the effects of unforeseen events on the lives of young lovers, as they learn 17 years too late of a tragedy that would have changed their lives forever. While the cover of this book will initially appeal to readers of Lurlene McDaniel, the stories within are much fuller and more challenging. Adults will truly appreciate this collection of stories, while teenagers who are searching for more substance in their reading will also be enchanted with these stories. Perhaps by sampling a work by one of these authors, a reader will become intrigued and search out more that he or she has written, thereby discovering some of our true literary classics. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2000, Publishers Group West/Avalon/Marlowe & Co, 295p, 20cm, 00-048189, $13.95. Ages 16 to adult. Reviewer: Lynn Evarts; Lib. Media Spec., Sauk Prairie H.S., Prairie du Sac, WI, May 2001 (Vol. 35 No. 3)