The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast: New and Selected Stories

by John L'Heureux

John L'Heureux spent his long, prolific career exploring questions of morality and faith in stories that entertain, surprise, and sometimes disturb; and The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast compiles the enduring stories of a distinctive American writer.

A sweeping posthumous collection wrestles with faith, irony, and the redemptive nature of love.
― Kirkus

A nun crashes her car; an unborn child sings to its mother; a troubled priest is in the market for a London apartment. In The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast , John L’Heureux explores head-on life’s biggest questions, and the moments―of joy, doubt, transcendence―that alter the course of life. Compiled as he neared the end of his life, and conceived as the legacy of a life’s work, The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast brims with elegance, humor, and compassion, welcoming both the ordinary and the rapturous. L’Heureux is a writer of astonishing vision―a master of storytelling and the sentence.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

456 pages, Hardcover

First published May 2, 2016

About the author

John L'Heureux served on both sides of the writing desk: as staff editor and contributing editor for The Atlantic and as the author of sixteen books of poetry and fiction. His stories appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Harper's, The New Yorker, and have frequently been anthologized in Best American Stories and Prize Stories: The O. Henry Awards. His experiences as editor and writer informed and direct his teaching of writing. Starting in 1973, he taught fiction writing, the short story, and dramatic literature at Stanford. In 1981, he received the Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching, and again in 1998. His recent publications include a collection of stories, Comedians, and the novels, The Handmaid of Desire (1996), Having Everything (1999), and The Miracle (2002).

http://alumni.stanford.edu/get/page/m...

Reviews

[Renée · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really love this collection of short stories by John L'Heureux's: "The Heart is a Full-Wild Beast." I'm embarrassed that I didn't know about L'Heureux previously, which seems an unforgivable gap in my education, and I'm excited to know of him now. He's so deserving of this fabulous collection. Reading these stories about faith and folly--with unexpected and pleasing twists--reminds me of why I fell in love with the art of storytelling so many years ago. Another way to put this is that L'Heureux's collection takes me back to the foundations of stories and reminds me why I love to read and how I strive to become a better writer. It's wonderful, and I highly recommend it.

[Erin Ure · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a difficult book for me to review (I finished it about 2 months ago), mostly because I typically try to distance myself from my review text - which doesn't feel right in this case. I think there is some value to communicating my personal views here.

"The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast" is a book about relationships, typically romantic or spiritual, in the form of a compilation of short stories. Each story has a narrative arc and most are generally well written and engaging - if a occasionally bit repetitive in theme. I consider some of these themes to be problematic (see below). Several tales are quite good and genuinely moving.

There are a number of stories that include adults having sexual encounters with minors. In many cases this is framed as semi or fully consensual. It could be argued that discussing this subject is not a problem, but it did not feel to me that the full ramifications and morality of these situations were examined well enough to warrant the discussion that we got.

A significant number of the pieces also contain homosexual characters or references to homosexuality. These characters were consistently portrayed in a negative light. In a book with stories depicting almost 30 relationships, none focus on a healthy same-sex relationship. To me the combination of these two facts is problematic. The stories were written over a long span of time, but collected and chosen to be re-published in 2019.

Perhaps the book just made me uncomfortable and the intent is to create unease for the reader to stir discussion. Perhaps not. It's dangerous to read too far into authorial intent. The writing could make this a 4 start book, but the recurring themes above could make it a 0 star book. I've averaged it out to a 2 star rating - but frankly - there are plenty of other well written books out there that address relationships without these pitfalls.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful collection of short stories surrounding questions of faith and community, and it's great to see a writer so obviously deserving be given such a sturdy Selected Edition like this. APS does great work.

[Sidik Fofana · Rating 5 out of 5]

SIX WORD REVIEW: Very Catholic--priests are human, too.

[Emma Lange · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was a DNF. Weird themes of pedophilia and incest. Very odd and deeply uncomfortable

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the worst reaction you can have to someone’s art is to be bored and have no reaction to it. This story bored me. I don’t think it’s bad, but it’s not very focused and can’t seem to settle on what it wants to deal with.

We start when the narrator is in elementary school - I wasn’t sure if it was a boy or a girl narrator, though that’s my own prejudices since for some reason I thought it was a girl - and we learn a little about death through a few characters. We also learn the character likes to follow the rules and is a smarty-pants: likes to be smarter than everyone, but also wants to fit in.

I liked this first bit.

The middle part I didn’t get. Jesus showed up, offered to help him with his novel, the narrator refused help but gave Jesus $10 and then regretted not asking for help. We learn the narrator is obsessed with writing about Jesus and guilt and we’re given a few clues in the first part about this (he prays that Beverly will die, and she does), but because the story is written in these short bursts that I don’t believe the narrator has earned us believing anything about them no matter how much the author tells us we should.

The final part is a little better, but the narrator is so glib about death and paints his wife as a saint that there’s no character growth here. There’s no growth at all, really. No emotions are earned, the jokes i the hospital are bland, and I feel nothing when the narrator dies. There’s no emotional core here, no character to empathize with because the narrator is too busy being judgemental. And since we learn more about other characters (unreliability) then nothing here rings true because we’re not given enough of the narrator to really know him.

This started off well, but it falls apart pretty bad. I didn’t hate it, but I was bored to tears, too. And this story seems to follow a trend (at least as published in the New Yorker) of stories that are unfocused, with no real point, but have a few very well written lines sprinkled throughout: "Saints are not the easiest companions.", and "I was working on my novel - don't even ask..."

But really, “don’t even ask”. There’s nothing here.

[Billie · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely beautiful short story - it made me laugh...it almost made me cry (sadly, very few stories make me cry...). I loved the beginning, the middle, and the end. Especially the end. Take a couple minutes and give this a read...it's a short moment in time very well spent.

[Melki · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most perfect short stories I've ever read - sad and funny, and a brilliant reminder of how brief our lives can be . . . whether we die in childhood OR in our eighties.

[Nancy Branton]

This was a beautiful short story. It was full of a great deal of emotion, love, insight and an overall delight to read. This was my 1st read by John L' Heureaux.

[Mimi]

"And then, as we draw one last breath together, I snatch your hand. And hold it. Holding it, and holding it, and still holding it, I breathe out.


Still, I’ll miss you when I’m dead. "

[Danielle C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The short story format is vastly underrated and undervalued and it is no better shown than in this collection of short stories. They are inspirational, puzzling, breathtaking, horrifying, and comforting in turns. Truly a master author. Given L’Heureux’s background (ex-catholic priest) there is a fair amount of catholic imagery and reference but for someone who attended Catholic school, it made the stories all the more enjoyable and impactful. Highly recommended to anyone. I cannot praise this collection enough, but if there is one quibble: the first 3/4 of the book are definitely higher quality than the last 1/4.

[Norman Birnbach · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were all well written but I didn’t like the collection as much as I had wanted. All stories dealt with faith in some way, which was somewhat interesting and the reason I picked up the book. I liked some of the latter stories best, and those were clearly the most autobiographical or most connected to L’Heureux’s life, which may have given them more of a sense of urgency. I read an interview with him in which he said that he wasn’t comfortable with autobiography-as-fiction but he was trying as he got older. I did think there was something about those stories that I liked more. Glad to have finished the book.

[Carol Painter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just discovered Mr. L'Heureux after reading his short story in a recent New Yorker.
This is is last collection of works (he died in April 2019).
How to say this: I LOVED, truly loved most, and, at least twice, HATED his stories. His depth of emotional attachment to his characters is probably unmatched. I personally feel that his 17 years as a Jesuit priest were the very reason he was such a man of depth and wisdom. He is/was someone I feel I could trust to speak truth, and that, to me is priceless. We have lost one of the very great ones.

[Tom McNeal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought I'd read most of L'H's short fiction but this volume was eye-opening. Especially in the early stories here, there's a predilection toward cruelty, either administered or received, that surprised me, and not necessarily in a good way. But as you work through the stories, a more expansive and forgiving element emerges. The final stories, written in the last year or two of L'H's life, are as powerful and beautiful as anything you can find.

[Victoria Kline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Character of these stories are conflicted Catholics observed with a detached and wickedly honest sense of humor.

[Alison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful writing and interesting often odd stories. Many focused on God Jesus and death.

[Manisha Patel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Storie characters have dark side, did not continue after first two stories

[Brady Hammes · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning collection. Exactly what I needed to read right now.

[Adriel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full of interesting and mostly well-written tales.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heart Is a Full-Wild Beast is a mostly good to excellent collection of short stories, mostly dwelling on faith and self-esteem. As a whole, they are very well-written. L'Heureux is quite good at just writing compelling sentences and characters which is a lot harder than it seems. Occasionally he falters when he either tries to an ill-advised story idea to it's natural conclusion or tries to shoehorn an ending that is supposed to fit metaphorically into an otherwise well-crafted story. In other words, occasionally, L'Hereaux tries to hard.

But when he is on, there are few better: Take Mutti, about a shy young man who will eventually become a master sculpture. It's an honest portrayal of what the childhood of a tortured artist might be like. Or The Long Black Line, about a young man who finds he's not fit to be a Jesuit priest and finds out why. Or Sins of Thought Sins of Desire, about the guilt multiple people in an abbey feel about the death of a nun who no one really liked, for good reason.

L'Heareux, a former Jesuit priest, has his finger on the pulse of what makes a person long for the spiritual, or simply an answer of some source, and with utmost sympathy, he mostly manages us to bring us into the suffering of his characters, and hopefully bring us to the light.

[Baelor · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'Heureux's piece in the New Yorker started off promising and the faltered. The beginning moment was poignant and required the reader to consider the emotional state of the narrator as a child. Its content was straightforward but its psychology underpinnings complex.

The subsequent episodes were well-written, preserving the narrative voice. They did not, however really offer much improvement on the initial episode. The middle section in particular is brief and would benefit from further context; the first story (that of a child who understands only absolutist morality) and the third story (that of a dying man) are more thematically universal than the second (a writer wracked with guilt over a childhood incident), so the second needed more development. The third was a solid if conventional end-of-life retrospective.

Overall, a fine read.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection by Catholic writer John L'Heureux, as I didn't know him before this collection. As a former Catholic priest L'Heureux writes a lot about priests and other religious, so the settings across the particular stories blurred a bit with similarity. However, not all the stories about about priests and nuns ("The Comedian" about a female comedian who has to decide whether or not to have an abortion) but some of the most successful were: inc. "The Long Black Line"--a title and story I'll remember for a long time. Certainly this author is required reading for Catholic writers and fans of Alice McDermott and other Catholic contemporary writers (but I do believe L'Heureux has passed away).

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short story's broken into three short vignettes about belonging, faith, and death. The first one reminded me of a story George Saunders told during a commencement speech. The other two also seemed familiar.

Here's an interview with the author: http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-t...

[barbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

I said I'll miss you when I'm dead.

[Clayton · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good read.