The Wet Engine: Exploring Mad Wild Miracle of Heart by Brian Doyle

The Wet Engine: Exploring Mad Wild Miracle of Heart Reviews

• 
  Left Coast Justin

  This was an odd little tome. Most reviewers loved it, so apparently there is an audience for works of this sort, but for me it missed the bullseye.
  
  The single most transformative event in my life was the birth of my twins, one of whom had a nonfunctional heart. The author had this exact same experience. In my case, the first years of my kids' lives were a mixture of deep fear, profound helplessness and, to be honest, an enormously stimulating intellectual environment in which I learned more about biology in a shorter time than one could ever expect to find anywhere outside of enrolling in medical school. Not to mention the normal joys and stresses of having little munchkins underfoot.
  
  Each of these topics was touched on in this book, and in many cases quite effectively. Doyle has a unique voice that can be a joy to read -- and just as often, irritatingly glib. After his child survived a difficult open-heart surgery:
  

  But Liam didn't die. He spent the year after the first stage of his surgery guzzling milk from his mama and belching like a barge and learning to sit up and developing a face as round as a planet and developing a ferocious yen for Cheerios and pears and learning to stand up and walk around the room holding onto couches and chairs and tables and people and then learning to sail off on his own waddling and shuffling and then walking and then running here and there and occasionally smacking his face on something or other and occasionally smacking his twin brother and once or twice his older sister although he quickly proved his intelligence by grokking the fact that she was stronger and meaner and quicker when it came to blows rained down upon the boys who were suddenly crowding her existence which heretofore had been filled with fawning parents and now appeared to be filled with Chaos and Hubbub, which is what her father called her brothers so often that occasionally visitors were the under the temporary impression that indeed such vaguely Hebraic names had been inflicted upon the squirming boychiks.

  
  Clap, clap, clap. Look, everybody, Mr. Boyle is a Writer! But: Do you realize who the interesting people in this story are, Mr. Boyle? My suggestion is you get your linguistically-brilliant self out of the way and instead tell us more about the doctors who cared for your child, the scientists whose learning supported those doctors, the nurses who maintained your child's postsurgical health and tended to his pain management. But just when I was ready to fling this story away, the very next sentence was:
  

  That was a good time, what I remember of it. I remember changing a lot of diapers and laughing a lot and not sleeping very much. That was a good time.

  
  Perfect.
  
  This book only took about three hours to read, and would have been even shorter without the baffling asides about Japanese internment camps during WWII, wooden boxes, 4th-century Egyptian scrolls and the like. Or asides such as, "the default cultural concept of love as romance is a willful cultural addiction to microcosm. Romance is a small sea in a vast ocean. The heart leaps in so many directions at once." Each of these topics was explored in an interesting fashion, but it's unclear to me why their inclusion in this book was considered necessary.
  
  But when he writes well and with relevance, this book is gripping. What I'll remember is this, this awful scene that I could have written myself:
  

  Then when he was about eighteen months old he had another open-heart surgery, and what I remember most from that time is his grinning face receding down the hallway as he was carried towards the bone shears by a sweet quiet doctor. I'll always remember that. His face was so round. His face bounced up and down a little on the doctor's thin shoulder. He smiled at me at the very end of the corridor, just before he and the doctor turned the corner, and I thought maybe that was going to the be the last time I ever saw that big fat face smiling at me, and that was when I saw pain and death leering at me closer than I ever saw them before. That was a cold moment. I'll always remember that.
• 
  Melody

  I love Brian Doyle more with every book of his I read. This book's genesis was his own baby son's malformed heart and subsequent heart surgeries, which gives even more vulnerability than usual to the writing. And with Doyle, that's saying a lot, because he writes with his skin off normally.
  
  I love his style, which is not quite stream of consciousness but certainly packs more words per sentence than the average. None of the words are superfluous or gratuitous and the sentences tend to pile emotion upon emotion till one is gasping and a little more filled with wonder than one was prior to traversing the long slope of Doyle's words.
  
  His writing is informed by his spirituality and his deep connection with his Catholic faith. Interestingly, though I'm a dyed-in-the-wool unbeliever, this sincere and glowing religion serves to make me love Doyle all the more- again because he's so purely present, so achingly open and so triumphantly, blessedly human.
  
  4.5 stars.
• 
  Kara Belden

  First book of 2018, and I'm off to a strong start! The book, written by author Brian Doyle, is all about the "mad wild miracle of the heart" and is inspired by the fact that his son was born with one that was damaged. This little collection of stories is difficult to describe, as it is part celebration, part science, part poetry, part fact, part meditation, part prayer. The best word I can come up with to represent this book is lovely. It is so lovely.
  
  "One time my son asked me if my prayers were answered. I said that prayers were not questions to be answered. It is a mysterious thing what prayers are. It is an interesting thing to me that everybody has prayers even if they don't have religions. That is a VERY interesting thing."
  
  "Stories are prayers."
  
  This book was a gift to me - both literally and figuratively - and I will enthusiastically continue to pass it along.
  
  I'd love to have students analyze Doyle's writing. He can use words and break "rules" like few authors I've ever read!
• 
  David

  5.0+
  
  Amazing, complex, beautiful, one of a kind and life giving. The Wet Engine, the stories contained within, the poetic writing, the love and the heart it describes are quiet remarkable and moving. This is one of my all time favorite books and is the type of writing I absolutely crave.
• 
  Noah

  Wow. This book is incredible. I love Doyle's writing here: stream of consciousness, but everything is so beautifully connected, except when it isn't. I love his descriptions of the heart as an organ, I love the history of cardiology, I love his stories of his son, I love all the other random stories tucked in here -- the way that they are connected to his understanding of the heart, or they're not, but that's what makes them connected -- because they're about people, and compassion, and experience, and that's what matters. And I love his lists.
  
  This is great. Read it.
• 
  Jonathan Hiskes

  "I rub the peachfuzzcrewcutted head of my boy when he wanders past me in the kitchen, and I hold him in my arms when we sit on the couch in the dark marveling at ogres and orcs, and I rub his back at night, cupping his round face in my hand, whispering Gaelic in his ears, holding his hand when we cross streets, rubbing his legs and feet when he cries at night from growing pains, feeling his bicep when he flexes to show me he is more powerful than his many heroes, because there is always a jolt of joy in the touch, even when I am furious at him; because when I touch him there he is, and somehow my body never forgets the fear of the loss of his body. There's some kind of electric magnetic thing at play — an electric love in his heart and mine.
  
  " 'Without touch, God is a monologue, an idea, a philosophy,' wrote the late great American mystic Andre Dubus. 'He must touch and be touched . . . in the instant of the touch there is no place for thinking, for talking; the silent touch affirms all that, and goes deeper: it affirms the mysteries of love and mortality.'
  
  "To which I say amen and then amen and then again amen."
• 
  Catherine Theriault

  This book found me after a year of sadness, joy, and gratitude around matters of the heart. Since November 16, 2012 my son has braved six, yes 6, heart surgeries. He is still in recovery and continues to get stronger and heartier every day. Throughout this entire journey he has exposed every facet of his heart, from its capacity to shut down and rev up again with new valves, to his capacity to exude love and grace in the midst of crushing pain. I admire him immensely and love him more than I thought possible. Brian Doyle sings poetry to our family's foray into the country of heart trauma.
• 
  dirt

  You cannot help but be amazed by the smallest details of life when you see them through Brian Doyle's eyes, which much have been the rosiest tint possible. Read this book to put some pep back in your step if you are having a cruddy day.
• 
  Suzy

  My brother gave me this book many years ago after the death of my infant daughter during a procedure to correct a congenital heart defect. I loved it, it felt like Brian Doyle was talking to me.
  
  
• 
  Jill

  Brian Doyle is a treasure. The human heart is a fucking miracle of electricity and human goo. Pediatric medical teams are angels on earth. This book is the perfect marriage of all three.
• 
  Mike

  This slim book is pretty much a love letter to the cardiologist that saved the life of Doyle's infant son, and to all the cardiologists in the past who invented the surgeries that are as miraculous as they are commonplace, saving lives every day. 119 pages over-flowing with stories and love. Thinking of you, Kate and Toby!
• 
  Deb Stone

  This book changed the way I think about the human heart. Doyle starts out talking about his infant son looking like a fat cucumber, and the next thing you know, he’s telling the reader how sick his son is, how their family’s world is suddenly filled with specialists who are going to hold their child’s heart in their hands. This tiny book packs a wallop, and mostly because Doyle adeptly leads you places you don’t expect to go. He starts out talking about his sick baby, and suddenly you’re learning about your own heart: It’s the first organ in the fetus to form. It starts out the size of a comma and ends up the size of a fist. It weighs eleven ounces. It feeds 60,000 miles of arteries and veins.Just when you think you know what comes next, he tells you a story about two men digging for fertilizer in Egypt, about another man who hopped across a border at dusk carrying a crutch to escape the war, about six kids in a tenement building in Russia that all had heart lesions. He takes the particular of his son’s story, and it blossoms into something universal. It’s a small book. It won’t weigh you down despite the heavy subject. Brian Doyle makes you believe in the awesome engineering that makes a heart beat, and the miraculous work of men and women who strive to repair what goes wrong. Read this one in the hammock, or at the pool, or curled up beside someone whose beating heart you love.
• 
  Bobby

  This book is a LOVE story. A love story for Doyle's son Liam and for the remarkable Dr. Dave. Brian Doyle lays his own heart bare, sharing stories about his infant son ( now teen), and the miraculous and ordinary events that encompass their lives. Dr. Dave is central throughout, a pediatric cardiologist who has devoted his live to saving lives. Before or after reading this book, be sure to tell your own kid how remarkable he or she is : give them a hug and kiss and relish their healthy body. This is a book that must be read NOW. Run, don't walk to your local, independent book store, and request The Wet Engine.
• 
  Holly

  What an interesting little book! Given my life over the past two years, I have also wondered at the miracle that is the heart, and I've noticed how much we use the word every day. This book put words to some of my feelings, and it was really neat!
• 
  Kristine

  I loved this book. Doyle is an essayist and in this little book he writes about his son who was born missing
  one of the chambers of his heart. Doyle is brilliant will touch your heart with his stories.
• 
  Sarah

  The love and passion these doctors have for what they do was inspiring. Brian Doyle described the heart beautifully. The gratitude and awe he has for these people who saved his son shines through.
• 
  Matt JL

  3.7 stars?
  
  would have been 2 or 3… i didn’t really like the writing style of this book. it felt college level amateur. he leaned heavily on poetic devices where we needed more information, and used a lot of cliches.. i nearly quit the book 3 or 4 times.. but it took a turn toward the end.
  
  it became clear that the book was an act of undying love for his son, the doctor who saved him and God. This book was never about writing style.. (whatever he was trying to do there was secondary.. lol)
  
  Having had a brother pass away young from illness, the last two chapters choked me up quite a bit. I thought I knew how I felt about this book.. and it wasn’t great.. but now I’m gonna lend it to my dad..
• 
  Ernest Thomas

  Finally found the time to finish this gem. This was a book that I was meant to read for a college class until the prof dropped it for time but I read it anyway. This is a heart warming book about a father’s love for his son that has 3 chamber heart when we are meant to have 4. This book is his love letter to his son and families that have gone through the similar heart issues with family members. He hears and shares stories from his son’s cardiologist specialist Dr. Dave and how much of a blessing it is to live in a time where doctors can save lives of children and adults with heart issues. This is a short book but a must read for those looking to reflect on how amazing our wet engine is.
• 
  Ariel

  A quirky collection of essays about the heart. And not in the “love and romance” way - about the bloody, red, “wet engine” that keeps us ticking. For those familiar with Doyle’s work, you may have run across several of these essays before in his other collections. The way he writes about his sons, and science, and his faith makes me weepy. Many of the essays here are about his son’s pediatric cardiologist, and of his fascination with and lionization of the man (deserved). I’m a pretty “both feet in” Doyle fan, but if you’re not obsessed with his writing, this particular collection may leave something wanting for you - mostly due to its very, singular focus.
• 
  Hannah

  For the past year or so Brian Doyle has dug his way into the innermost recesses of my heart with his contemplative, thoughtful, poetic writing and I haven't been able to rid myself of these truths and the Truth he's uncovered in this wonderful collection of essays. I have yet to decide if I want to keep it and reread it or force it into the hands of every person I know who can read. Thank you for sharing your beautiful mind, Doyle. And so: amen.
• 
  Andrew Wadsworth

  Doyle is perhaps my favorite author working today. He visited my university while I was a student and read a handful of his essays. I was touched deeply by his writing. This book is perhaps his best. The words vibrant with life and feeling. The Wet Engine will always have a prominent space on my shelf and I will revisit its poetic pages often.
• 
  Melissa Winder

  Fantastic, real, insightful, humbling look at all aspects of the heart...the physiology, the spiritual, the pop culture, the emotion, etc. I loved it. I’m sure more so because of my career in the pediatric cardiac icu. But I couldn’t put it down (and not just because it was essentially one long run-on sentence :)
• 
  Marianne Gambaro

  Classic Brian Doyle--packed with facts, information, and anecdotes. Jumping off from his personal experience with his son's heart condition and told through his cardiologist, he presents so much research jammed into one small book told in a very readable, conversational style. I love Doyle's work and have been trying to read everything he wrote in his (too short) life.
• 
  Vysak

  Part poem, part prose, part science, part history, part happy, part sorrow, part beauty, part poignant, and a whole book of amazing wonderful words. We're blessed to have Brian Doyle born in this world and that he could write these words and we could read them.
• 
  Akanksha Mehla

  Take home message:
  “The moral life is conducted far more in mundane moments rather than momentous movements. But ofcourse no moment is mundane, and we make moral choices all day long, with only ourselves as witness”
• 
  Anna

  Hard to rate this one after pausing 3/4 of the way thru (would recommend reading in 1-2 sittings— it reads like a long essay that way!). Doyle has a lot of beautiful and profound questions that lead him to stories that matter about real people, which he relays with gentle honesty.
• 
  krystal

  absolutely stunning.