Order THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK here
My interview with Fred Venturini
''The minute I blew my load - which is an honest moment, man - I knew I fucked up.''
In Quebec only, we have this mandatory two years of what we call ''college of general and professional education,'' after high school. It's widely perceived as useless by the majority of people, but I have to say that these were two of the most important years in my life. One of the very symbolic things I've done is read FIGHT CLUB, by Chuck Palahniuk, which changed my life. That doesn't make me necessarily special, because I'm also convinced it changed how men read, write and perceive literature as a whole.
I don't think there would be a Fred Venturini today without Palahniuk, as least not the Venturini we know. It would've been a loss, because we wouldn't have had THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK, a fresh, original and disarming literary UFO that landed in the quiet corn fields of establishment and tradition a couple weeks ago.You gotta love it when it happens.
Dale Sampson was always the smart, yet quiet and shy type in high school. He rode the coattails of his best friend Mack Tucker, a loud and boisterous athlete with major league baseball dreams. Dale's in love with Regina Carpenter, who doesn't want anything to do with him one day, but who seem intrigued by his earnesty the other. When tragedy strikes and Regina is ripped away from him, Dale discovers he has a strange power of regeneration. His limbs and organs can grow back. After high school, Dale spends a couple of years moping, prey to PTSD, until he meets Regina's quieter twin sister Raeanna by chance in a Wal-Mart. She's evasive, sporting a black eye, so of course Dale does what any sensible young adult male would do: figure a way to make a hero of himself to get the girl *.
I have a bone to pick with high school novels. I believe the vast majority of them have been written by bitter assholes trying to get square with their past. Fred Venturini is, from memory, the first one to get it right with THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK. High school only represent the first 65 pages of the novel or so, but it's a super important variable, because the experiences Dale went through there dictate his actions during the rest of the novel.
Venturini's depicts high school as silly, dramatic and with a powerful earnesty that'll grip any young man reading this novel. You'll laugh and feel for Dale on the same page. There was one scene where Dale gets rejected by Regina at the very beginning that made me want to hug the kid. Provoking such powerful emotions in readers is not something you can teach. You either have it or you don't. Venturini's got a gift for no-bullshit writing that go straight to your heart. I'm not sure if any women will be moved by these early passages, but I think every male reader will feel profound sympathy for Dale.
When you get to a moment you've waited so long for, sometimes you can't enjoy it. Sometimes you realize you wasted so much valuable time waiting, wishing away hunks of your life, imagining the goals and moments and successes and dreams. After a while, life shifts from thing in front of you to this hazy, distant thing behind you, but in that moment, we wouldn't care because the wait was worth it.
That said, I grew somewhat of an adversarial relationship to Dale as I progressed through THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK. I thought he was soft and that he could only define himself through the women he's trying to save. I mean, get a hobby dude. One that doesn't involved amputation and organ donation if possible. The slightly growing confusion and frustration I've packed reading THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK all evaporated at the end though. That's the power of a great ending. It aligns everything, gives perspective that eluded you throughout the book.. This one got me kicking my shoes and standing on a couch at work yelling like a pro wrestling announcer ''OH MY GOOOOD [Spoilers] I CAN'T CAN'T BELIEVE THAT [Spoilers]. OH MY [Expletive] GOD, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT.''
I'll just leave that here, but the lesson here is : if you ever feel frustrated reading THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK, just trust Fred Venturini. The man's got a mean narrative curveball.
THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK was surprising, eclectic and several other qualifiers that usually don't fit books, because it's a thoroughly unique, unclassifiable piece of literature. The highlights are Venturini's powerful, slightly Palahniuk-esque voice and the powerful sense of earnesty that transpires through the narrative. Also, I'm officially calling THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK the most honest novel about high school ever written. How about them apples, YA authors? This is the new standard. I wouldn't call THE HEART DOES NOT GROW BACK YA literature though. I'd call it a supernatural coming of age. Who doesn't want to read a coming of age novel about super powers, right? If that narrative possibility eluded you all your life, you're going to feel the need after reading this novel.
* Unbelievably enough, I've spoiled nothing. That's how off-the-beaten-path this novel is.
