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The Boyhood of Harvey
‘Our planet's for big thinkers. That’s why I feel so at home on it’ Harvey Smith, an eighteen year old bilateral leg amputee, lives in East London with his sister, Jackie. It’s an arrangement that is doomed to end when her new boyfriend, Alfonso Barrera, announces they are moving to Spain. Yet Harvey's concerns for his future are soon forgotten after reading the Arctic adventures of Simon Draper, a double leg amputee himself, who experienced phantom limb sensations so real he believed he could stand and run. Harvey is driven to replicate this experience and makes plans for his own journey. Yet he soon begins to question his motives and the demands he places on others. Can his desire for physical and mental rehabilitation be so easily resolved? Set against a backdrop of nineteen eighties political unrest, the story follows Harvey’s trackless path towards independent adulthood, as he confronts not only his own disability but the unerring nature of life itself.
266 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 2014
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February 15, 2017
Harvey is such a fantastic character - I loved his 'tank', his bluntness, his humour and how his narrative is peppered with such profound thoughts and ideas. The characters of Bernard and Alfonso, and his relationships and exchanges with them, are wonderfully real and relatable, especially in the way they evolve throughout the novel.
I really liked the overall 'feel' of the book: the 1980s with all its cold war paranoia and Protect and Survive leaflets; his nan's house with its redundant anderson shelter and flaky paint on the front door - little details that give the book a certain atmosphere and charm. The prose is clean and tight and interspersed with lovely imagery that makes it a joy to read.
It's easy to think that Harvey's resolution will be purely focused on his missing limbs. but as the story progresses it becomes about more than that - it's about him trying to find his place in the vastness of the world, not just as an amputee but as an 18 year old lad from East London.
This was different from anything else I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I really liked the overall 'feel' of the book: the 1980s with all its cold war paranoia and Protect and Survive leaflets; his nan's house with its redundant anderson shelter and flaky paint on the front door - little details that give the book a certain atmosphere and charm. The prose is clean and tight and interspersed with lovely imagery that makes it a joy to read.
It's easy to think that Harvey's resolution will be purely focused on his missing limbs. but as the story progresses it becomes about more than that - it's about him trying to find his place in the vastness of the world, not just as an amputee but as an 18 year old lad from East London.
This was different from anything else I've read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review