Unfortunately, I didn't have time to finish this book, and cannot provide substantial feedback. What I read was fun!

I have no idea how to rate this book. Pepper Harding is obviously a competent writer, things move along, characters are established, things are quirky, philosophy is expounded. But I basically skimmed the whole thing. The questions it raised for me are not the questions about love or beauty or God that the book expresses. My questions are things like: do people really live their lives like this? Is adultery really that common? Is everyone really this self-absorbed?

I am not sure what to say about this book. The other reviewers and ratings are all over the place and I understand why. This book takes place over one day, however a lot of the story is made up of remembrances so it seems like there was a lot of time and a lot more happening than there really was. The story is told by three narrators, Henry Quantum, his wife Margaret and his ex-lover Daisy. It is about relationships, life in general and making decisions. It was not very exciting and there were a few times I almost put it down. I enjoyed parts of the story, especially Daisy. She was really the only character I liked. I found Margaret selfish and self-centered and Henry was way too much of a pushover who got into the position he was in because he was afraid to let anyone down and make the decisions necessary. It was an okay read and the ending did bring everything together in a satisfactory way, which is the only reason I rated it 3 stars.

The Heart of Henry Quantum
By Pepper Harding

This book was compared with A Man Called Ove and Love, Actually, a book and a film the blurb refers to as beloved. And that is a big reason I chose this book on NetGalley — because I did love both of them.

Unlike Ove, this story does not feature a loveable character; in fact, only one of the three main characters, featured in different parts, was one I would consider compelling. I think this has a lot to do with the fact that the story revolves around a couple who has, for the most part, given up on love, where Ove's story was one of a love lost and mourned. This is a more cynical story, with an edge to it; Ove is a curmudgeon where Henry, despite being described as socially-awkward, has managed to have an affair that inspired a woman to leave her marriage. In Henry's long day's journey into shopping for his wife's Christmas present, I was reminded of Harold Fry, (in a good way) but at the same time I wanted to scream at him to just buy the damn perfume and get back to work. I understand the point wasn't the perfume, but still, it was aggravating given that the premise involved such an easily accomplished task as opposed to a complex journey.

I saw in some reviews outrage that the story contains offensive, inappropriate language regarding mental health, among other things, and I agree — there were several cringe-worthy statements made by the main characters. This is not a matter of being true to a character, the statements were gratuitous and would have been better left unexpressed.

I would guess that the relatively small number of reviews I've seen has as much to do with that last point as it does the poor comparisons in the blurb — perhaps aligning with something like Shopgirl or Little Children, both of which sprang to my mind while reading, would have helped. Aside from the poor choice of certain lines of dialogue, the book still would have appealed to me, but my expectations would have been very different.




For Goodreads:

Why I picked it — because of the comparisons made in the book's blurb
Reminded me of… Steve Martin or Tom Perotta novels
For my full review — click here

Unfortunately, I couldn't muster the energy to read this book. Henry Quantum may suffer from attention deficit. I didn't read far enough to find out because trying to follow his meandering thought process was so aggravating, The only other book I have found annoying (albeit far less than with this book) was The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I wish I could provide more insight but this one left me cold.

I was a bit put off by the comparisons to "A Man Called Ove"--I thought that meant it was a book about old people, for older readers. Imagine my surprise when I realized Henry is younger than I am (I'm 48). This time of year fits perfectly with this book's message. Not just the "looking for a Christmas present" motif, but the self-evaluation that everyone goes through at New Year's. Henry is charming!

Henry plans to buy his wife perfume for Christmas. And he plans to do it today. This book is about all the things that happen as he tries to get this simple errand done.

This was such an enjoyable, sweet book. I loved the characters--well except for that b**** Margaret but she was still fun to read about. This is the perfect choice If you want just a simple pleasant, engrossing story in which to escape for a few hours and that'll leave you smiling.

"The Heart of Henry Quantum" is a delightful story of one significant day in Henry's life. Henry is a philosopher at heart. His philosophising causes him to see amazing links between the myriad of emotions and coincidental events which occur on this one eventful day. Henry's thoughts frequently veer away from his purpose - to buy his wife some perfume for Christmas - and follow unexpected, tangential pathways. The same day is also traversed by Margaret, Henry's wife, and Daisy, a past lover. This single day is experienced in parallel by Henry, Margaret and Daisy, with some interesting convergences along the way either via musings about the past or actual encounters. I really enjoyed this book. Highly recommended. Thanks to Gallery Books and NetGalley for the ARC.