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‘Heft’ by Liz Moore

BOOK REVIEW

THIS STORY APPEARED IN

February 10, 2012|By Karen Campbell

Liz Moore.

Arthur Opp is, by his own admission, “colossally fat,’’ weighing between 500 and 600 pounds. He hasn’t been out of his “cocoon of a house’’ in Brooklyn, N.Y., for roughly a decade, feeling winded after he takes more than six or seven steps. A former college professor, he hasn’t worked for 18 years, and he has lost touch with his family, a disconnect that further fuels his solitude.

Arthur is the intriguing and personable protagonist and narrator of Liz Moore’s new novel, “Heft,’’ a quiet, absorbing tale of the redemptive quality of connection. Despite having let himself go after losing his job because of false accusations of a relationship with a student, Arthur settled over the years into a relatively comfortable routine, ordering everything he needs online and waiting patiently for the delivery of food, books, household supplies. “My home sometimes feels like a shipping center; every day, sometimes twice a day, somebody brings something to me. The FedEx man, the UPS man. So you see I am not entirely a shut-in because I must sign for these things.’’

But despite the brief encounters and casual conversations with various delivery people, Arthur is, at his core, deeply lonely. For almost two decades, one tenuous emotional lifeline has been Charlene Keller, a former student who was unknowingly at the center of the rumors that ended his career. Twenty years his junior, she is the only woman Arthur has ever loved. Though she lives just miles away in Yonkers, she communicates with Arthur only through occasional letters, allowing her reclusive former teacher to hide the radical changes in his personal and professional life. Their correspondence brings Arthur a sense of meaning and continuity. He writes in a confessional letter he never has the courage to send, “ . . . [Y]ou have been my anchor in the world. You & your letters & your very existence have provided me more comfort that I can explain.’’

Then one day, out of the blue, Charlene calls Arthur to ask for a favor. As it turns out, she has a 17-year-old son. Kel Keller is a rising sports star with limited prospects for college, yet college is Charlene’s most fervent dream for him. Believing Arthur to be still connected in the academic world, she asks him to help the unfocused, baseball obsessed Kel with his college applications.