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Tim O'Brien

1029. William Boyd - Any Human Heart


I have read this before; it is very good.

A journey through the 20th century, centred on Logan Mountstuart, a half English/half Uruguayan man born in the late 19th century, when his father worked in Uruguay, importing beef to England.

Returning home, Morgan is sent to boarding school where he meets his lifelong friends, then Oxford, and becomes a minor literary figure after graduating. Then to London where he meets everyone, marriage to a minor aristocrat, adultery and divorce. Then to Paris, briefly to the Spanish Civil War, and then via MI5 and Ian Fleming to the Bahamas, where he is supposed to keep an eye on the abdicated ex king. So a busy life.

Then Switzerland on a spying mission where he is imprisoned for more than a year. Next New York from which he is ejected after (I think) remarrying, divorce or separation, followed by an affair with a 16 year old.

Back to London, a brief spell teaching in Nigeria, and finally to France where he dies. This is a rather trivialising summary; it is very good if you are of the right generation and social class, which I am not but perhaps aspire to be, maybe like the author.


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