The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart.

Malzieu, Mathias. The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart.
Alfred Knopf see Random House 2010 172p 22.95 college
978-0-307-27168-6 adult VG-BN
Armed only with his cuckoo-clock heart and his determination to win over traveling singer, Miss Acacia, Jack tries, but loses her when she finds the reality of love with Jack to be too difficult. Despite receiving a new heart, he learns, too late, one of life’s truths. We cannot protect ourselves from love’s painful side. The characters of this book are prostitutes, animals, circus performers and clockmakers, and the style and tone are undoubtedly French! Malzieu sets a new reality in this book, his first to be translated to English. Malzieu’s style is poetic, expressed in narrative text. More an example of magical realism than of fantasy, The Boy with the Cuckoo-Clock Heart takes place in a real-life setting and depicts a timeless theme with “magical” characters and plot. The story begins with a magical element when baby Jack is delivered on a cold day in April with a frozen heart. Jack’s mother delivers him at a sort of halfway house for people with injuries of all kinds, the midwife adopts him, gives him a cuckoo-clock heart to keep him “alive,” and nurtures him, keeping him close. She admonishes him, warning him not to fall in love, for love will be too much for his repaired heart to bear. When Jack sees the love of his life for the first time, he must have her. He endures a beating by a local bully who is also in love with Miss Acacia, but he dishes out more punishment than he gets back. Trying to find Miss Acacia, Jack leaves his home, meets the quirky Mr. Melies, and the two of them board their skateboards for a trip from France to Spain where Jack finds his love again and develops the relationship. However, he never truly wins her because she believes that Jack has unjustly won her over. In replacing Jack’s frozen heart with a cuckoo clock heart, Malzieu has used symbolism to show the theme which is about the devastating loss we can feel when we expose our true emotions by opening our hearts to another human being. The book is thought-provoking, and the imagery and writing style make this novel a unique interpretation of a common theme. Unfortunately, the use of the word, “cunnilingus,” as a name for a pet as well as other sexual content make this a novel for the more mature audience of college students or adults. Squaresky, Martha