Book description
Former academic Arthur Opp weighs 550 pounds and hasn't left his rambling Brooklyn home in a decade. Twenty miles away, in Yonkers, seventeen-year-old Kel Keller navigates life as the poor kid in a rich school and pins his hopes on what seems like a promising baseball career-if he can untangle…
Why read it?
1 author picked Heft as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Unlike the other recommendations, the plus-sized protagonist in this book is a man. Arthur Opp is a lonely shut-in who has lost his career, his friend, and his family of origin. His main solace is his correspondence with a former student, who, one day, asks him for help in guiding her son, Kel.
From that point forward, the story is told from the alternating perspectives of Arthur and Kel. Both are plagued by isolation and tragedy. Though Arthur views himself as part of the shared soul of the lonely, he nonetheless begins to welcome people back into his life again…
From Barbara's list on plus-sized protagonists.
If you love Heft...
The Jane Goodall of Goats
Goats fight. Claire Jaynes discovers this when she inherits a goat farm, and she starts teaching workshops on mammalian behavior. Protestors suddenly block her driveway. Why would anyone protest a backyard biology class?
Clues point to the nosy neighbor and the pompous professor, but as the protests spread, Claire suspects…
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