I don't really know how to describe this book. On the one hand, it wasn't so good that I'm going to wax poetic about the brilliant prose and narrative. On the other hand, it wasn't so terrible I'm ready to rip it to shreds. It isn't even a Goldilocks kind of mediocre where I feel like I can list off some pros and cons and then talk about how it was a good effort but that it's ultimately going to be forgettable. This book is just...confusing.
I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters or engrossed in the story, but every time I felt like I could put the book down, I had a compulsion to keep reading until I got to the end--and it wasn't a "I need to get this over with" or "I need to find out what happens" kind. There was something compelling about Open Heart but I can't figure out what it is.
The book opens jumping back and forth between the past and present in alternating chapters. I don't think it was strictly necessary and, honestly, kind of threw me off a bit. It's a coming of age story and has a bit of a historical fiction vibe (it's set in the 70s.) Gene is a young man dealing with loss and regret but never managed to evoke much empathy from me. It seems like Williams took the advice to "write what you know" pretty seriously because both he and Gene love baseball, whitewashed citrus trees in the summer, and were sons of anesthesiologists, so I feel bad for saying this about a what is probably a deeply personal book and now touted as "his legacy," but I never really connected with this book. That being said, I spent my day off reading the whole thing in one sitting, so there was obviously something compelling about it. Maybe it was the (very minor) Everything I Never Told You vibes? The found (dysfunctional) family? But the medical aspect is probably what hooked me. I don't know if I would go so far to call this a medical drama, but it's certainly medical fiction that is very true to life. Williams was a retired anesthesiologist who writes about the medical field with precision and clarity that can be appreciated by health care and lay readers alike. The one flaw I can actually identify is a pretty quick fix: there were some major misses in terms of copy editing.
This is a sizable book, but if you like realistic medical stories or if you don't have weird compulsions about not finishing books, this is worth checking out.
I wasn't particularly attached to any of the characters or engrossed in the story, but every time I felt like I could put the book down, I had a compulsion to keep reading until I got to the end--and it wasn't a "I need to get this over with" or "I need to find out what happens" kind. There was something compelling about Open Heart but I can't figure out what it is.
The book opens jumping back and forth between the past and present in alternating chapters. I don't think it was strictly necessary and, honestly, kind of threw me off a bit. It's a coming of age story and has a bit of a historical fiction vibe (it's set in the 70s.) Gene is a young man dealing with loss and regret but never managed to evoke much empathy from me. It seems like Williams took the advice to "write what you know" pretty seriously because both he and Gene love baseball, whitewashed citrus trees in the summer, and were sons of anesthesiologists, so I feel bad for saying this about a what is probably a deeply personal book and now touted as "his legacy," but I never really connected with this book. That being said, I spent my day off reading the whole thing in one sitting, so there was obviously something compelling about it. Maybe it was the (very minor) Everything I Never Told You vibes? The found (dysfunctional) family? But the medical aspect is probably what hooked me. I don't know if I would go so far to call this a medical drama, but it's certainly medical fiction that is very true to life. Williams was a retired anesthesiologist who writes about the medical field with precision and clarity that can be appreciated by health care and lay readers alike. The one flaw I can actually identify is a pretty quick fix: there were some major misses in terms of copy editing.
This is a sizable book, but if you like realistic medical stories or if you don't have weird compulsions about not finishing books, this is worth checking out.