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A review by octavia_cade
Where the Heart is by Billie Letts
emotional
medium-paced
3.5
This is very sweet, and I enjoyed it - I realised, as I read it, that I'd seen the subsequent film many years ago. Which explains why parts of it seemed vaguely familiar! Now, as then, I enjoyed the fundamental kindness of the story: a pregnant 17 year old girl is abandoned at a Wal-Mart, and lives there until members of the rural town she's found herself in reach out and support her to make a life for herself.
The characterisation's very good, and Novalee is immensely sympathetic. Her feckless abandoner and father of her child, Willy Jack, is less so, and I admit I could not bring myself to care about his storyline at all. They're only in the same space at the very beginning and end of the book, and Letts could have edited out his part entirely and I feel as if I wouldn't have missed it. Apart from that, though, the book's warm and enjoyable, if sprinkled with what can seem like unbelievable amounts of drama.
The characterisation's very good, and Novalee is immensely sympathetic. Her feckless abandoner and father of her child, Willy Jack, is less so, and I admit I could not bring myself to care about his storyline at all. They're only in the same space at the very beginning and end of the book, and Letts could have edited out his part entirely and I feel as if I wouldn't have missed it. Apart from that, though, the book's warm and enjoyable, if sprinkled with what can seem like unbelievable amounts of drama.