Where the Heart Is (novel)

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Title Where the Heart Is

First edition cover
Author	Billie Letts
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Novel
Publisher	Sceptre
Released	17 August 1995
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	368 p. (paperback edition)
ISBN	ISBN 0-340-64698-5 (paperback edition)

Where the Heart Is is a 1995 novel by Billie Letts. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club® selection in December of 1998.

[edit] Plot introduction

Where the Heart Is follows the lives of Novalee Nation, Willy Jack Pickens, and their daughter Americus Nation for a period of seven years in the 1980s and early 1990s.

[edit] Plot summary

The novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack, her then-boyfriend, traveling from Tennessee to California. At the time, Novalee is seventeen and seven months pregnant, and highly superstitious about the number seven. she also likes to eat cakes Novalee convinces Willy Jack to stop at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, so she can use the restroom and pick up a pair of sandals, as hers were lost when they fell through the floor of the beat up car in which they are traveling.

When Novalee comes out of the Wal-Mart, she realizes Willy Jack has left her with nothing more than her beach bag and $7.77, the change from her purchase.

With nowhere else to go, Novalee spends the afternoon at the Wal-Mart and meets three people who will play important roles in her life:

Sister Husband, a kind, spunky, woman who runs the towns "Welcome Wagon". Sister Husband has a deep faith, and hands out chapters of the Bible to people she meets. When they first meet, Sister Husband mistakes Novalee for a girl named Ruth Ann Mott, and gives Novalee a Welcome Wagon basket. Sister Husband also tells Novalee she's welcome to visit her house any time.

Moses Whitecotton, a photographer who shoots portraits at the Wal-Mart. Moses tells Novalee to give her baby a name "that will mean something", a name that will "withstand a lot of bad times", as well as a photo album.

Benny Goodluck, a Native American and the son of the owner of Goodluck Nursery. Benny gives Novalee a buckeye tree, as they are meant to bring good luck.

Novalee spends the night in Wal-Mart and soon establishes a routine that allows her to "live" in the store. She keeps track of anything she eats or wears in a log book, intent on paying Wal-Mart back when she has a job.

When the buckeye tree falls ill, Novalee heads to the library to find a book that will help her save the tree. There she meets Forney Hull. Forney is the brother of the librarian, Mary Elizabeth, and watches over the library because Mary Elizabeth is an alcoholic.

Novalee reconnects with Sister Husband, taking up the offer to visit her house. Novalee plants the buckeye tree in Sister Husband's yard and meets Mr. Sprock, Sister Husband's "gentleman".

Forney and Novalee become close friends, and he learns early on that she lives in the Wal-Mart when he follows her back to the store one night. When Novalee goes into labor in the store, Forney smashes the window and helps Novalee deliver Americus. Forney's heroic actions also turn the media spotlight on Novalee, who receives flowers, cards, money and letters from people throughout the country.

While recovering in the hospital, Novalee meets Lexie Coop, a nurse with four young children. Lexie becomes Novalee's first girlfriend in years. Lexie has terrible difficulties with men; they leave her when she becomes pregnant with the next baby. At one point, Lexie tells Novalee that girls like them don't get "the pick of the litter."

Novalee is also visited by Sam Walton, the owner of Wal-Mart, who forgives the debt she accumulated while living in the store and offers her a job as well as $500.

Novalee's mother, Mama Nell, also shows up after seeing Novalee on the news. Mama Nell left Novalee when Novalee was seven, and Novalee grew up in several foster homes. Mama Nell offers to help Novalee raise Americus, and Novalee gives Mama Nell the money she received from Sam Walton and others. Mama Nell takes the money and disappears.

Sister Husband shows up at the hospital and takes Novalee and Americus into her home. The relationship between Novalee and Sister Husband becomes symbolic of the mother-daughter relationship Novalee never had with Mama Nell, and Americus becomes a granddaughter to Sister Husband. While living with Sister Husband, several of the neighbors assist Novalee in raising Americus, and a family of friends is established.

Novalee's story is interwoven with Willy Jack's, who - after leaving Novalee at the Wal-Mart, ends up in jail. While serving time, he meets Claire, the prison librarian. Claire, thinking Willy Jack looks like her late son, takes a liking to him and helps him get a guitar, which he learns to play. Willy Jack also writes a song, "The Beat of a Heart." Willy Jack returns to Nashville and meets Ruth Meyers, an agent. For a brief period of time, Willy Jack has a successful music career as "Billy Shadow."

However, Willy Jack's vices - drinking, drugs, and women - drag his career down, and Claire files suit against Willy Jack. Ruth Meyers drops Willy Jack, and he's left with next to nothing.

At the same time Willy Jack is involved with music, Novalee takes up a pastime of her own. Inspired by Moses Whitecotton, Novalee takes an interest in photography and becomes a skilled artist. She wins the Kodak Greater Southwest award for one of her photographs (a picture of Benny Goodluck running) and travels to New Mexico with Forney, who has developed strong feelings for Novalee.

When a tornado hits the town, Novalee loses not only the Wal-Mart and her home, but Sister Husband. When she learns the Wal-Mart is being rebuilt in a town 50 miles away, Novalee prepares to move, to the dismay of the Whitecottons, Lexie, and Forney. Novalee then learns Sister Husband made her the benefactor and inheritor of her estate, and Novalee uses the money to build a house on the land where Sister Husband's trailer stood. One of the driving factors for Novalee in making this choice is that Americus finds that her mother's buckeye tree is still standing on the otherwise barren plot.

Lexie's difficulties with men - and Novalee's support of Lexie - continue throughout the novel. When Novalee first meets Lexie, Lexie has four children - Brummett ("Brownie"), Pauline ("Praline") and twins nicknamed Baby Ruth and Cherry. Shortly after Novalee begins working at Wal-Mart, Lexie begins dating a man who says he can't have children because a case of childhood mumps left him sterile. This man leaves Lexie when she becomes pregnant with her fifth child, a boy, who is nicknamed Peanut.

After Peanut is born, Lexie meets a man named Roger Briscoe, who treats her and the kids to dinner and seems to be the stable, financially-sound man Lexie is looking for. However, tragedy strikes when Lexie walks in on Roger abusing Brummett and Pauline. Lexie attacks Roger, who beats Lexie badly, leaving her scarred and broken. The attack has a strong impact on Brummett, who becomes moody, angry, and sullen.

Novalee moves Lexie and her children into her house and helps care for the children while Lexie recovers. When Lexie returns to work, she meets a nurse named Leon Yoder, a single father with two children - Carol Ann and Cody. Hesitant at first, Lexie begins seeing Leon, who provides the strong male support and role model that Lexie and her children - especially Brummett - need. When Lexie learns that Carol Ann is not Leon's biological daughter - and that he traded a car for the girl, whose mother was not a good parent - Lexie realizes Leon is the "pick of the litter" and the two are married in the hospital chapel.

The relationship between Forney and Novalee changes after Forney's sister dies in a fire that also destroys the library. When Forney doesn't show up for the funeral Novalee goes to the hotel where he's staying, a run down place that houses many elderly men. When she comforts a tearful Forney, Novalee kisses him and they spend the night together. Forney confesses his love for Novalee, who doesn't say anything in return.

When Forney later asks Novalee if she loves him, Novalee says no because she doesn't want to hold Forney back. In her mind, he is finally free to focus on his own life and finish college as planned years ago before he was forced to drop out and take care of his alcoholic sister.

Forney is heartbroken and leaves town. Novalee and Americus are also heartbroken. Americus has come to see Forney as a father-figure. Forney writes to Americus about her schooling, adding Latin to her curriculum and that he loves and misses her; always ending each letter with, "Tell your mother I send my best wishes."

In the end of the book, Novalee reads a newspaper article that informs her that Willy Jack, Americus' biological father was run over by a train and has no legs. She goes to the hospital to see him and he is shocked that she is there. She is frightened he is going to try to take Americus from her at first. In the end, Willy Jack redeems himself. He asks Novalee if she remembers asking him to feel the baby and if he could feel its heart. She had placed his hand on her swollen abdomen and asked, "Can you feel that little bomp, bomp, bomp?" He tried to pull his hand away and replied, "No." She said, "That's where the heart is."

Novalee tells him she remembers and he tells her that he lied to her about that. He felt his baby's heart and it was the worse lie he has ever told and has haunted him for years.

The book ends with a tearful Novalee with Willy Jack in her car, whom she has forgiven for abandoning her years earlier, as she prepares to take him home to his family. Before she leaves, she hurries to a pay phone and calls Forney, who she tracked down earlier and found working in a Chicago bookstore. She attempted to call him previously, but every time he would answer the phone she would hang up.

Forney says hello and Novalee finally answers and breaks down in tears, asking him if it was too late for them. She says she made a mistake and lied to him when she told him she didn't love him, and that she thought he deserved "something better." Forney expresses astonishment that she feels this way and he tells her there is "nothing better", and it is not too late for them.