| Where the Heart Is | |
|---|---|
| Author(s) | Billie Letts |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Sceptre |
| Publication date | 17 August 1995 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 368 p. (paperback edition) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-340-64698-5 (paperback edition) |
| OCLC Number | 34544702 |
Where the Heart Is is a 1995 novel by Billie Letts. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in December 1998. A 2000 film of the same name was directed by Matt Williams, starring Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd and Stockard Channing.
Contents |
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. Above all, the book is detailing of the tribulations of lower income and foster children in the United States.
A Natrona County (Wyo.) School District committee decided that Where The Heart Is be removed from the shelves of the middle and high school libraries.[1] Complainant Mark Westby, the father of a 7th-grader, had challenged its graphic violence, obscene language, and depictions of drug use. “As our kids are being bombarded with these things, they are influenced by them,” Westby wrote to the district. The book was never banned though.
This novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack, her then boyfriend, traveling from Tennessee to California. At the time, Novalee is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight, and superstitious about sevens." Letts describes Novalee's relationships with the number seven: "For most people, sevens are lucky, but not for Novalee; at the age of seven her mother ran off with a baseball umpire named Fred."
Novalee convinces Willy Jack to stop at a Wal-Mart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma, so she can use the restroom and purchase a pair of sandals, as hers fell through the floor of their beat up car. When Novalee comes out of the Wal-Mart, she realizes Willy Jack has left her with nothing more than her beach bag and the $7.77 she has in change from the purchase of new sandals.
With nowhere else to go, Novalee spends the afternoon at the Wal-Mart and meets "Sister Husband", a kind and spunky woman who runs the town's "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. She also meets Moses Whitecotton, a photographer who shoots portraits at the Wal-Mart. Moses tells Novalee to give her baby a name "that will mean something" and "withstand a lot of bad times", as well as a photo album. He later becomes Novalee's mentor as she becomes more invested in photography. In addition, she also meets Benny Goodluck, a Native American, who gives Novalee a buckeye tree for good luck.
As Novalee lives in Walmart, she watches as the buckeye tree becomes sick. She takes a walk to the library where she meets Forney Hull who helps her find books about the buckeye. Forney is from a well-bred family but had to drop out of college to take care of his alcoholic sister. He appears "crazy" and shouts facts he has read from books at Novalee.
Novalee takes a walk to Sister Husband's home, who had told Novalee in Walmart she was welcome to visit her house any time, to ask Sister Husband if she could plant her buckeye on her property.
Novalee Nation is forced to have her baby in the Wal-Mart, but Forney, the local librarian's brother, breaks a window and helps her out.
At the hospital she makes a good friend and finds out that her baby and she are famous and in the news.
The story rotates from Novalee and Willy Jack.