Why we chose Sunil Yapa’s Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist
Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist had been on Ash’s shelf for awhile. She had purchased it on the strong recommendation of a close friend. When I asked her what book she would like to do for Family Reads, she told me she was about to start reading this one. It was also on my TBR (I had seen some good reviews from other bloggers), so our interests converged nicely.
On a rainy, cold day in November, young Victor–a boyish, scrappy world traveler who’s run away from home–sets out to sell marijuana to the 50,000 anti-globalization protestors gathered in the streets. It quickly becomes clear that the throng determined to shut the city down–from environmentalists to teamsters to anarchists–are testing the patience of the police, and what started as a peaceful protest is threatening to erupt into violence.
Over the course of one life-altering afternoon, the lives of seven people will change forever: foremost among them police chief Bishop, the estranged father Victor hasn’t seen in three years, two protestors struggling to stay true to their non-violent principles as the day descends into chaos, two police officers in the street, and the coolly elegant financial minister from Sri Lanka whose life, as well as his country’s fate, hinges on getting through the angry crowd, out of jail, and to his meeting with the president of the United States.
Our Discussion
You’ll get more out of this discussion if you’ve already read the book (minor spoilers ahead).
We both gave this book ★★★★. Ash commented that she felt it wasn’t often I gave a book she picked four stars. (Though when we looked back at the five previous Family Reads we had done, we realized Annihilation, House of Leaves and A Monster Calls were all stand out reads for both of us. Ash had picked all of those books.)
We were pleasantly surprised to find the story told from multiple viewpoints, as we weren’t expecting that. We had thought the story was going to primarily be about reconciliation between Victor and his father via the protests. That was not at all where the story went. The narration through many different perspectives made the story more interesting than we had anticipated.
We both liked the narrative style. From the very first page, the prose keeps a nice rhythm which kept us turning the pages. There were a lot of lines in the book that felt very descriptive – one line ‘zingers’, things you wouldn’t normally say to describe a person but that work nicely in a novel. For example, this line about one of the police officers – “The last time Park hugged someone was at a funeral” – gives you a clue into his personality. That was when I started to think something might be off about this guy. The line that got Ash thinking something wasn’t right with Park was when he was estimating how many cops would die that day. I found the police officer characters pretty infuriating. Even Julia seemed a little weird, not in the ideal mindset for a police officer.
Our discussion evolved from the police officers to the rest of the cast of characters. We concluded that everyone was kind of strange except Victor. They all had some sort of skeleton in their closet. Bishop was a somewhat complicated character. There was a bit about how he stood in a grocery store for hours that made me think “This is a guy who needs some help”, a guy who probably shouldn’t be Chief of Police. We couldn’t decided if he actually liked his son. Charles was a favourite character of ours. He thought he could make a difference for his country but he gets trapped by everyone’s opinions. Charles’ story added another layer to the book. It wasn’t just about some kid and his dad, not just about why people protest, but also about globalization and the grand picture. We felt there are two aspects to this book: the personal story of the characters and the bigger story of globalization.
Regarding the ending – it was pretty ambiguous?? We weren’t too sure. I tend to read endings too quickly. Ash thought that Victor had a near death experience. I don’t generally like ambiguous conclusions; I’m too plain and straightforward for that sort of thing. We also didn’t find the epilogue very satisfying. Ash wondered how separate epilogues are from the main story. I feel they’re like a PS, a bonus to the main story line.
Finally, we both liked the cover and found it highly appealing – that swirly motion, the bright colours, the strong font. We also liked the hardcover design, but we discovered that neither of us likes yellow on a book cover.
Final Thoughts
This book is the first literary/fiction novel Ash and I have read for Family Reads. We both enjoyed it more than we expected, despite our loose familiarity with protest movements and our uncertain grasp of the conclusion. Have you read Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of A Fist? What did you think of it?
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