Any Human Heart

Simon Vance delivers the fictional intimate journals of Logan Mountstuart (LMS). Vance's extraordinary reading takes LMS from age 17, in 1923, to his death in 1991. High points include his experiences in the Spanish Civil War; his brief encounters with luminaries, including Picasso, Hemingway, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor; and his involvement with a cell of the Baader-Meinhof gang. Vance's youthful LMS is enthusiastic, energetic, and foolish. As the callow youth turns into a less-than-appealing adult, Vance manages to keep the listener wondering how LMS will blunder through each revealing, often unflattering episode. Vance's performance shines as the older LMS struggles to understand his place in the larger world and deal with the harsh realities of old age. S.J.H. (c) AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

November 28, 2011
Some nine years after its original publication, Boyd’s classic novel finds its way to audio, with Simon Vance narrating the lifetime of diary entries that tell the story of shambling hero and Englishman Logan Mountstuart. Spanning many decades, the book follows Mountstuart as he navigates boarding school, the 1929 Wall Street crash, WWII, and a very long life—all while meeting a host of famous artists and writers along the way. Vance narrates at a brisk clip, almost faster than the prose demands—but by doing so, he captures the essential Mountstuart: a man unsure about the meaning of a life that is speeding along. And for Boyd’s comic, overstuffed, heartbreaking gem of a novel, this is just right. A Viking paperback.