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Crooked Heart A Novel Lissa Evans 9780062364838 Books

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Crooked Heart A Novel Lissa Evans 9780062364838 Books

LOVED IT! I devoured it in two days. Fast for me. I literally laughed out loud at times and guffawed at others. It was a wonderful story. Heart warming, interesting, fun. It was totally different from any other WWII novel I've ever read. Fascinating details about how people adjusted to the trials going on around them while they lived their day-to-day lives. I've been referring it to everyone I know who likes to read.


Tags : Crooked Heart: A Novel [Lissa Evans] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <em>Paper Moon</em> meets the Blitz in this original black comedy, set in World War II England, chronicling an unlikely alliance between a small time con artist and a young orphan evacuee. When Noel Bostock—aged ten,Lissa Evans,Crooked Heart: A Novel,Harper,0062364839,Historical,Historical fiction,London (England) - History - 1800-1950,Orphans,Orphans;Fiction.,Swindlers and swindling,Swindlers and swindling;Fiction.,Widows,Widows;Fiction.,World War, 1939-1945 - England - London,1800-1950,20th century,ENGLISH HISTORICAL FICTION,England,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Humorous Black Humor,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction - General,Fiction-Literary,FictionHistorical - General,FictionHumorous - Black Humor,GENERAL,General Adult,Historical - General,History,Humorous - Black Humor,Literary,London (England),Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945),United States

Crooked Heart A Novel Lissa Evans 9780062364838 Books Reviews

When I found myself really missing Vee and Noel, the two main characters, after finishing the last page of Crooked Heart, I knew I had to write a review. Although set in England during World War II, this book is in no way bleak despite bombs dropping, deprivation, and rationing. All of the characters are fully human, meaning they are flawed, which makes this book such a delight. I don't suppose it would be likely that Lissa Evans would write a sequel, since the plot doesn't lend itself to that happening, but perhaps someone from the film industry will read it--it would make a terrific movie.
Of all the novels I've read in my life, this, THIS, is the one I wish I'd written. Lissa Evans is a phenomenally talented and accomplished writer who draws the reader into a story that's threaded through with excitement, tension, tenderness and delicious humour. I felt I knew the characters personally, recognised some from my childhood in the late 1950s/early 1960s in a Sussex village, and I cared deeply about what happened to Vee and Noel and Mrs Gifford. I wanted their stories to continue. Like Mrs Connell, a character who appears briefly, I wanted to say to Lissa Evans, "Go on, it's very good so far." But 'very good' doesn't really cover it. This is a miraculous book and I can't wait to read everything else by this author.
Wartime is a time of "make-do". Mend and reuse older clothes, plant that Victory Garden to get vegetables, scam your neighbors, donate scrap to be used to make airplanes, etc. Hold it, "scam your neighbors"? How does THAT make the list? Well, read Lissa Evans' charming novel, "Crooked Heart", and you'll find out.

London in the summer of 1939 was a dizzy place. The population was getting ready for the start of war, even before war was declared on September 3rd. The government was passing out gas masks and getting bomb shelters ready in Underground stations and making sure that night-time blackouts were observed, all in reaction to possible/probable bombings by the Germans. Evacuation of children from the city to "safer" areas was also being done. Whole school classes of children were evacuated to the countryside and one of the cities being used was St Albans, in suburban Hertfordshire. And it is to St Albans that a 10 year old already-orphaned Noel Bostock finds himself in 1940.

Noel is the son of sort of unknown parents who has been raised by his aging great-aunt, suffragette Mattie. Mattie is suffering from dementia but has given Noel a wonderful upbringing despite her increasingly wandering mind. He is a brilliant, precocious boy, given to silence and a seeming abhorrence of other children. Noel is not someone who suffers fools gladly and he has met his match when he meets Vera ("Vee") Sedge, a local St Albans woman into whose care he's literally dumped by the evacuation department. Vee has never met a money-making scheme she didn't like, even if it was morally-questionable and some-what illegal.

If Noel, after Mattie's death, has very few relatives, Vee has quite a few. Her 18 year old son, Donald, cannot fight because of a recently discovered heart murmur. Her mother, Flora, who has been verbally silent since an accident years earlier, spends her time listening to the radio with headphones, and writing long letters to government officials, commenting on and criticising the war effort. Vee and Donald have their own money-making schemes, but as they don't work together, Vee begins to use young Noel. And it is these schemes that both Vee and Noel use to deal with war time London.

Lissa Evans has created some of the most remarkable characters I've ever read. None are caricatures; all are people you might know and love yourself, just transposed to WW2 London. Not only are Evans' characters adeptly drawn, she also gives her readers a look at London in war time. But the best part of "Crooked Heart" is the relationships Noel Bostock has with the people in his life, both past and current. A small part of the reader's heart will be left with the suffragette medal given new love in Noel's charitable hands. This is a wonderful, unforgettable read.
Other reviewers tell the tale in brief. My two cents is that I found this book a unique look at life during the Blitz in the south of England. The story places you then and there...dealing with shortages, hastening to a shelter, awakening to find your neighborhood half obliterated. Wardens hustled you to the tube stations, then hustled to your bombed-out house to grab some goodies. The interplay between Vee and Noel was great, the 10-year-old being the wiser of the two in many ways. Read and enjoy.
Having just enjoyed Their Finest (also by the author) in the cinema, I came here to find other books by her. This is a joy. The period detail is immensely satisfying, the plot becomes more compelling as the book goes on (many of its turns take full advantage of the WW2 setting), and the dialogue, crisply capturing both the argot of the era and the way people actually talk, is amongst the best I've ever read. Most of all, for me, this is a book about people, and what they become and what they do when ground down by events and circumstances - particularly poverty. Evans is very brave to present this face of people during a war which almost certainly created opportunities for those with innate spiv tendencies to thrive, but also forced people to do things they perhaps wouldn't normally do, purely so they could survive. At the start, you may not like the central characters, but as the book unfolds, you certainly understand them. In the end, you may very well love them, as I did.
The best book I've read in ages. The characters hearts may be "crooked" but still they have plenty of heart. The story is set in England during WWII. The main characters are a middle-aged woman scraping by collecting for bogus charities, her adult son who gets by failing the physical for reluctant recruits, a dotty mother who spends her time writing long letters of advice to England's leaders, and a 10-year old evacuee wise beyond his years. Imperfect people surviving in difficult times with slightly askew, if not crooked, hearts.
LOVED IT! I devoured it in two days. Fast for me. I literally laughed out loud at times and guffawed at others. It was a wonderful story. Heart warming, interesting, fun. It was totally different from any other WWII novel I've ever read. Fascinating details about how people adjusted to the trials going on around them while they lived their day-to-day lives. I've been referring it to everyone I know who likes to read.