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This is a story about two friends who could’ve been more, once upon a time in their past. One of them is Arthur Opp, an outcast professor who weighs over 500 pounds and hasn’t left his apartment in ten years. The other is Charlene, Arthur’s student almost twenty years ago; now mother to a seventeen-year-old that she has raised mostly on her own. Charlene was the girl whose dreams never took off. She medicates the pain of her lupus and the pain of her depression with alcohol. Heft is an amazingly apt title for Arthur feels not only the weight of his physical body but the heavy social isolation that enshrouds him as well. Charlene’s depression and her own version of an insular world devoid of friends and family, other than her son, Kel, carries its own weight.

This is such a beautiful story because, in spite of the depression and a thick pall of inertia, it is shot through with these beautiful glimmering threads of hope. Throughout the years Arthur and Charlene have kept up a pen pal relationship. Arthur occasionally sends gifts; both guard their respective letters like watchmen over a treasure trove. Then Carlene sends Arthur a letter asking if he will tutor Kel and sends him a picture of her son. “Isn’t he something?�� she writes. Arthur is bewildered and hurt when he realizes that Charlene married soon after he knew her. Charlene and her husband divorced when Kel was four. Arthur doesn’t go out anymore. Arthur doesn’t receive guests. His house is a mess.

Arthur takes a big step by calling ‘Happy Maids.�� Yolanda is the nineteen-year-old that they send. Arthur worries about eating in front of Yolanda. He hasn’t been around people in so long he’s forgotten what it’s like. Before he knows it, Yolanda has coaxed him outside. Then Arthur greets his neighbors. Neighbors that he has previously ignored. Yolanda teaches Arthur something else he’s forgotten; the value of friendship.

I listened to this as an audiobook from my digital library. Keith Szarabajka’s voice as Arthur has a tone with a deep chest richness that I loved. Kirby Heyborne as Kel’s voice sounds young and vibrant, and he does a good job of conveying emotions that are appropriate to the story (worry, anxiety). He is easy to follow. Arthur and Kel are the two POV characters in this novel. For those, like me, who have difficulty following a great many characters, this is the perfect audiobook. Arthur is my favorite character. He has a sensitivity that is beguiling. Arthur loves beautiful women and unbeautiful women. He sees something in them that perhaps others might not see. This was what happened when he met Charlene all those years ago.