Life is fleeting. Love is a gift.
In this coming of age novel set in the 1970s, Gene Hull is whitewashing the trunks of Arizona citrus trees when he spots a beautiful girl and falls instantly in love. The girl is vulnerable and shy. Though Gene breaks through her reserve, a date at a wave park turns into a near disaster, and Gene must call on the one person he can always rely on—his doctor father.
Although the girl survives and Gene wins her over, what will happen when they leave for college? Is she truly “the one,” or will distance drive them apart?
When a freak accident blows a hole in Gene’s freshman year, his grades tank, and he bobbles the ball with the love of his life. She’s gone forever. Not only that, but he’ll never get into med school on grades alone.
Hoping to improve his chances of admission, he spends the summer trailing a famous heart surgeon. But can Gene, determined to live up to his father’s legacy, turn his summer in the “Heart Room”—an operating theater of chilling cold, bone saws, and macabre humor—into an experience that would make his father proud? Will he ever love again?
If you like novels where family life is complicated, and parents’ expectations trickle down into their children’s lives, then you’ll love Gregory D. Williams’ roman à clef about life, love, and finding one’s own true path.
Buy Open Heart today for an inside look at a team of surgeons healing broken hearts and a young man trying desperately to heal his own.
Review
Thank you to the publisher Marylee MacDonald and Grand Canyon Press and Bookishfirst for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Gene, his father was an anesthesiologist always doing his best to save the lives of people in need. But on a family trip they drive by an ancient but even though Gene’s father tries his best he can’t save that little girl. That memory has always stuck in Gene’s mind and his fathers too. Now Gene with his father gone is in the shadow of his amazing father. When he spends his summer trailing a famous heart surgeon everyone in the hospital remembers his father and its big shoes to follow in. This novel explores Gene and his summer as he tried to get over the love of his life and as he untangles the multitude of lies his family has told him over the years.
I like how this story is set up. It starts off right away with that fatal ancient. This gets the readers heart attached to Gene as they feel the pain he feels and the sorrow he feels with all the people he loses in his life. In the beginning of the story it switches between different timelines giving the reader some needed background information but then it eventually stays in the year the story is taking place. This story is considered historical but it’s not really, the only way it is considered this is because it takes place in the 70s but that’s as far as it goes.
I really enjoyed this book. At first when reading the plot, I thought this book would be cheesy and just like every other book about a guy falling in love at first sight, but as the book went on you could see why they fell in love and could feel the chemistry to the very end. The writing style flows easy, so it is easy to understand and still very engaging to readers.
This story is in no way face paced. It is pretty slow. I still liked it because it was more of a slow pleasant read you don’t have to think hard about. The story is very detailed and is very well written, but it’s just not an action-packed thriller. And it doesn’t really have much of a conflict. There are of course some small things but the book itself doesn’t have a main plot. The story mainly just goes with the fly randomly throwing different side stories in, but those small side stories are still entertaining. And the ending wasn’t much of an ending because there was nothing really to resolve except maybe with his love life.
I did really enjoy reading the experiences inside the heart room and hospital. This was my favorite part. I loved hearing about the patients and how they develop a relationship with their patients. It was very realistic in how the medical staff interacts and the medical jargon really added so much to the book.
I was so sad to hear about the author, but it’s wonderful that his work gets to live on and we get to read it.