‘All is grace’ were the last words of pioneering theologian Karl Rahner before he died, but they also thread their way through Brian Doyle’s latest book, The Wet Engine: Exploring the mad wild miracle of the heart. One of the joys of my reading this year has been the discovery of this editor of Portland magazine. In this book and his earlier work, Leaping, he is clearly a spiritual writer of the first order, someone who uncovers grace and its first cousin, love, in every aspect of life. Because writing for him is a form of contemplation and prayer, he sees this ‘skinny book’ as ‘a sort of prayer of thanks that my son is alive and stubborn as stone’, and ‘that there are such complicated and graceful people as Doctor Dave …’
Liam Doyle was born without a ventricle in his heart and Doctor Dave McIrvin is the cardiologist who cares for, and perhaps saves him. After learning from Dave the many complicated operations facing his son, Brian Doyle ‘hid himself in the thicket of facts and diagrams’ and read everything he could find to immerse himself in the mysterious ways of the heart. This ‘thin, intense, odd little book’ is an invitation by the author to ‘wander into the wet engine’ and study its mystery with him.
The second chapter, ‘Heartchitecture’, is ample evidence that Doyle has been a meticulous researcher. He takes us on a fascinating journey through the workings of this 11 ounce unit that feeds a vascular system comprising ‘sixty thousand miles of veins and arteries and capillaries’. After considering the intricate engineering of the heart, Doyle reflects on all those outstanding students of the heart, brilliant surgeons like Christiaan Barnard, ‘all over the world, for thousands of years, men and women exploring and healing the wet engine’.
When he names Brian Barratt-Boyes of New Zealand in this part of the globe, I looked in vain for mention of our own great heart doctors Harry Windsor and Victor Chang. We must be satisfied with a passing reference to an Australian doctor, Doyle’s companion while watching a heart operation, who speaks ‘Australian, a smiling sunny language which takes me a minute to get the pace and rhythm of ...’
This book, however, is much more than a cardiovascular travelogue. We meet some wonderful people on this journey—bravehearts like Hope, Doctor Dave’s mother, who was imprisoned during the