Book review: Where My Heart Used To Beat
Less cinematic than his biggest hitters to date, Birdsong and Charlotte Grey, he writes on: memory, war, identity, psychology — and continues on what seems to be a personal quest to write down every facet of trench life, lost love, broken remembrances and a century smeared in mud and blood.
Of course, at this he is a master (he’s had a lot of practise), so the life of Robert Hendricks, a doctor and World War II veteran searching for meaning since his father’s death, materialises almost effortlessly.
From the sloshing trenches of Italy to the arms of a nurse, Luisa, and a remote island off the south of France where his life story unspools thanks to the prodding of a dying physician, the book spans decades, leaving you quite worn out.
However vivid the writing, however tangible the protagonist and his failings, the plot meanders at times, losing pace as Faulks gets bogged down.
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