Report On My Heartbeat

My Heartbeat is romance/suspense a novel written by Garret Freymann-Weyr with a very pertinent introduction by Michael Cart.

The main character is Ellen. She is very tall and thin bus is in no need of a bra. She loves Link and James, her brother and his best friend, with whom she is totally madly in love. She would follow them to the moon. She has loved him as long as she can remember. She describes herself as a ‘’slob in constant search of a clean surface’’. She loves big dogs. James says her most interesting qualities are curious, careful, kind and intense.

Throughout the story, Ellen learns about love, family and "society's unwritten rules". At the beginning of the novel, she doesn’t quit realize that her brother and his best friend act and probably are a couple. But when she asks them, Link overacts. When talking with James about it, she then learns that there are unwritten rules in the society about gay people. Further in the novel she finds out her dad follows those unwritten rules about gay people, which makes it difficult for Link to admit his homosexuality, although he is ‘’not sure’’.

I think she does the right thing when she goes straight to Link and James, as her mom suggested her to do, to ask them if they are a couple. That question had been on her mind for a couple days so to see her face the situation is definitely something I think is right.

I can identify with her every time she talks about James, the boy she likes, and when she says she is totally madly in love because I am too.

The secondary characters are James and Link. Link and James look pretty much alike, except for the mouth. It’s mostly the mouth than can distinguish them.

Link can play on the piano virtually anything he hears. He is on the track team and runs seven miles every day. He skipped third grade because he could already do long divisions and fractions in his head. He thought himself to read. Hi is the smart one in the family. He keeps the truth about himself to himself. He always makes a bug drama out of removing himself from an argument. James, who is a gifted artist, has a face full of long eyelashes and hidden smiles. Ellen thinks he has the best face. Link’s face is neither mysterious nor beautiful. He can be difficult to talk to. Link and James are like a couple, something that has never occurred to Ellen, until a girl at her school mentioned it. James wants to be an artist and Link is his critic. James is a year older than Link. He admits being gay but he also likes girls for their interesting qualities. Link totally denies being gay, although he knows that he probably is. But gay or not, Link loves James. James has asthma but still smokes. They both have their own secrets. It is really unusual for one of them to go out without the other. They don’t believe in pranks. James is astonishingly good-looking and is very skinny, like Link.

The story takes place in Maine, New York. But the rest of the novel is in Manhattan in the 21th century. The setting has absolutely no importance in the story. This story could happen anywhere in the planet except for little details like private schools, etc.

The lesson to take from this book is to keep your mind open and not to follow the unwritten rules that exist in every society. The book teaches you to avoid being victims of those unwritten rules.

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