"Weight of the Human Heart' is Heavy on the Eyelids

Australian author Ryan O’Neil’s new book “Weight of the Human Heart,” released in July barely warrants a one star rating.

The only reason I gave the novel “Weight of the Human Heart” even one star was because the first two short stories were OK at best. The rest of the stories in the book where borage of boring words thrust onto paper with no comprehensible purpose.

The first story, the title of the book, “Weight of the Human Heart” was actually a pleasant read, complete with excellent character development, conflict and an excellent conclusion.

Barbara, the daughter of an unloving mother who is a moderately successful writer narrates the entire story. I almost cried when Barbara wrote a story for her mother when she was five-years-old and her mother littered her story with corrections and basically told her to give up writing. Then kindergartener Barbra cried herself to sleep that night. The story is a simple tale of a single mom and only child with no laughter or affection toward each other. 

The second story, the title I forgot is about a Tutsi girl from Rwanda, a place in east Africa. The young girl flees from a Rwandan genocide. I’ll give the ending away in in this story; If you don’t want to know the ending, don’t read the next sentence. The girl does escape but she has to exit Rwanda in a black river filled with dead bodies in the pitch black of the darkest of nights.

The other six or seven stories in “Weight of the Human Heart” were an absolute debacle of disarray. “A Short Story,” one of the last works in the book was 1, 798 words O’ Neil said. It was 1,798 words too much. “A Short Story” was a lame account of how to write a story which was about as useful and intriguing as discarded nail clippings. 

“Weight of the Human Heart” is only 240 pages, but this afternoon read transformed into a month long read due to the constant breaks I needed to stay awake for the tedious and weary read.