Any Human Heart is a very entertaining read and an ambitious book. The story follows the life of Logan Mountstuart, whose life spans most of the 20th century. As a novelist, and later and art dealer, as a character he has access to many of the important literary and art figures and movements of the 20th century. He lives at times in London, at times in Paris and for a while in New York.
This character and structure allows Boyd to use the book as an exploration of some of the major artistic movements of the 20th century as well as some of the changes in social conditions in England in particular, as well as in the U.S. (there are some hilarious scenes with Logan as a senior living in poverty in Thatcher's England). Mix in politics and the various wars of the 20th century, and you have a sprawling book.
It is not academic - I suspect Boyd chose to include his own favourite figures and artistic movements rather than go for an encyclopaedic approach. Fortunately we have similar tastes.
Everything Boyd writes is both entertaining and dense.
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