Book Review: Old Heart
Old Heart. Peter Ferry. Unbridled Books, June 9, 2015, Trade Paperback and Kindle, 256 pages.
Reviewed by Ed Marohn.
Old Heart, Peter Ferry’s second novel, is plotted around the character of Tom Johnson and his efforts to reconnect with an old Dutch sweetheart, Sarah. Tom had a brief love affair with Sarah while serving in the U.S. Army in the last year of World War II. The lovers had an argument and were unwilling to resolve their differences; when the war ended, Tom returned to the States alone.
Now Tom is 85, a widower, and a father from his years spent in an unhappy marriage to an American girl after the war. Tom, who realizes that Sarah was his real love, decides that he needs to find her before he dies.
He returns to The Netherlands without telling his children, and immerses himself in Dutch life while seeking Sarah. Tom’s two remaining adult children, surprised and distressed by their father’s behavior, pose legal challenges that Tom must battle in order to remain in Holland. As the legal process unfolds, Tom finally finds a resentful Sarah. She has secrets of her own, and greets him with rejection rather than warmth. The Dutch immigration hearings proceed and Tom is close to being denied the right to remain in Holland, when at last Sarah allows him to claim that he is the father of her daughter. Because of this, Dutch Immigration grants Tom the legal status to remain. The reader now must discover the outcome of the reunion of Sarah and Tom. These two old people, former lovers, progress to an interesting conclusion.
The plot, narrated by Tom’s granddaughter, unfolds well. The flashbacks to World War II and how Sarah and Tom met establish that this was far from a simple war romance. Readers understand and sympathize with the characters’ confusion over the separation that forces both to lead different lives, and which contributes to their sadness, as they grow old. The author has done his homework, thoroughly exploring the Dutch customs and language Tom encounters when he moves to Holland to be near Sarah.
This is a good read. It is a story of maturity, life experience, and how people deal with change. As in Edith Wharton’s novel Age of Innocence, Old Heart considers the degree to which everyone is controlled by life's variables, which dictate not only the path we choose but also whom we choose to be with.