Sweet Nostalgia

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At 398 pages I thought the story might take a long time to read through, but it flowed from page to page making the time spent reading it very pleasurable.
I loved the setting of the late 60's and early 70's, there were enough of mentions from the era to take you back to that time without being overly nostalgic. While I am not from this era, I can easily imagine the time from the writer's inclusion of popular culture or bits of songs woven into the story.
The very first time jump between the first and second chapters left me a little confused because it's not until much later in the story that we hear more about the family's feelings from the first chapter's accident. The rest of the time jumps made sense and were easier to differentiate.
I thought the heart operating room setting might be gory, but it wasn't; sometimes it got a little technical, but I think it helped to establish the relationships between the staff in the room and Gene. And it was not so technical that it was hard to understand, I actually learned a lot from the surgical room scenes.
Overall, I liked all the characters in the book. Whether it was Gene and the hospital staff, Gene and his girlfriends, or Gene interacting with patients, they were all relatable situations.
I was saddened to see in the author's profile that he had passed away this year, I think he had a really promising career in writing and I would have liked to seen more of his work. Open Heart was a great first novel and I would recommend it to any fiction lover.