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Books: Liz Moore’s “Heft”

Sure, there’s thrillers, but for me the everyday is full of suspense: will the tremendously fat (educated, interesting) man leave his Brooklyn home? If so, how far will he get? Once out, will he be able to climb the stairs and return?

Liz Moore’s “Heft” takes us into the narrowed world of Arthur Opp, a 550 pound former college professor who has bound himself to his childhood home for the past ten years. The people and places that once brought him out in the world — his mother, his friend, his students — are gone.

Things change when Charlene, a former student, contacts Opp with news of her teenage son, Kel Keller, a star athlete who’s an indifferent student. A single mom, Charlene wants Opp and the boy to meet; maybe Opp can spark Kel’s interested in academics.

Charlene’s request sets this plot in motion: Opp is a slob, but he’s also a snob. Visitors? He’ll have to clean up.

Enter Yolanda, a pregnant Hispanic teenager who has taken up housecleaning to support herself; she’s been kicked out of her parent’s home.

Theirs is a sweet, funny, wrenching relationship: Opp shelters Yolanda, who reopens the world to him. Their walk to nearby Prospect Park is so fraught with danger for the obese Opp it reads like a polar expedition.

Meanwhile, Charlene overdoses, leaving Kel to search for his father. Is it Opp?

Much of this book concerns Kel: his social and athletic life at a Westchester prep school, his increasingly troubled home life in Yonkers with Charlene, low-rent parties with his neighborhood friends, lofty outings with his rich school friends.

Kel straddles two worlds, and in Moore’s hands, no one is a cartoon. This is equal opportunity satire, gentle and wise, closing on a hopeful note.

A satisfying read.

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