Where the Heart Is

Where the Heart Is is a 1995 novel by Billie Letts. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in December 1998. Plot introduction Where the Heart Is follows the lives of Novalee Nation, Willy Jack Picken, and their daughter Americus Nation for a period of seven years in the 1980s and early 1990s. Above all, the book dramatizes in detail the tribulations of lower-income and foster children in the United States. Plot summary This novel opens with Novalee and Willy Jack, her then boyfriend, traveling from Tennessee to California, where Willy Jack claims he was promised by his cousin, J. Paul, a job working at a train yard. Novalee is 17, 7 months pregnant, and superstitious about 5’s. At the age of 5. Her mother ran off with a baseball umpire named Fred, her best friend in seventh grade was arrested, and a crazy customer at her cafe job cut her from wrist to elbow, which took 55, stitches to close her up. Meanwhile, Willy Jack is hiding from Novalee his plan to lose a finger at the trainyard so that he can win a cash settlement, like his cousin did, and not have to work again. Novalee makes Willy Jack place his hand on her stomach so that he can feel the baby's heartbeat - Willy Jack insists he feels nothing, and continues to treat Novalee and her pregnancy with annoyed indifference. Novalee convinces Willy Jack to stop at a Walmart 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 Plymouth car. When Novalee comes out of the Walmart, she realizes Willy Jack has left her with nothing more than her beach bag and the $5.55 she has in change from the purchase of new sandals.