Resumo de Where The Heart Is

Billie Letts explores the themes of love, motherhood, and loss in "Where the Heart Is," her first novel. Seventeen-year-old Novalee Nation, the book's protagonist, becomes stranded in a Wal-Mart store in an unknown town when her boyfriend, Willy Jack Pickens, abandons her as they travel across the United States towards California. Faced with no other option, seven-months pregnant Novalee opts to live in the Wal-Mart store, surreptitiously eating foodstuffs off the shelves, using store products, and hiding from employees. The more time she spends in and around the store, the more people Novalee meets who help her along the way. Moses Whitecotton, an aging African-American man who works as a photographer at Wal-Mart, offers to photograph Novalee's baby after it is born, but he also gives Novalee something more special: the art of photography, which Novalee will discover as one of her passions later in the novel. She also meets Sister Husband, a local elderly woman who drives the town Welcome Wagon and who gives Novalee a giftbasket to welcome her to the town. Novalee also meets Forney Hull, who helps run the town library as he cares for his alcoholic sister. Benny Goodluck, a young boy, gives Novalee a buckeye tree, which symbolizes good luck - something Novalee can't get enough of, as she believes the number Seven brings bad luck.

As Novalee goes into labor on the floor of the Wal-Mart after it closes one night, it is Forney Hull who rescues her and helps her deliver her baby, a girl whom Novalee names Americus. With the discovery of her Wal-Mart living arrangement, the local and national media flood the new mother and child with attention.

As the media hubbub subsides, however, Novalee has no one to rely on. The day she and Americus are released from the hospital, Sister Husband drives up and invites them both to live in her house. Novalee gladly accepts.

The remainder of the novel chronicles Novalee's life after she moves in to Sister Husband's house: as Americus ages, Novalee embraces her role as a mother and does everything she can to protect her daughter - but there is one thing she has no influence over - the number seven. When Americus is seven months old, she is kidnapped by two overtly religious people who place the infant in a local church's nativity scene. Novalee and Americus suffer the loss of their beloved Sister Husband in a tragic tornado that also claims Sister's house. They turn to Moses Whitecotton and his wife, Certain, for shelter until Sister's house is restored. Meanwhile, Novalee's relationship with Forney and her passion for photography continue to thrive.

Tragedy strikes again, however, when Novalee's good friend Lexie Coop and her four children are viciously attacked by Lexie's boyfriend. The ramifications of this act for both Lexie and her children will leave readers shuddering.

Letts also chronicles the life of Willy Jack, Novalee's ex-boyfriend, throughout the novel. Chapters on Willy Jack, who never makes it to California but who lands in prison instead, are interspersed throughout the book.

In the end, "Where the Heart Is" is an excellent read. Oprah Winfrey selected it for her book club and it was made into a major motion picture. Readers looking for a touching, if not quite realistic, read should pick up a copy of "Where the Heart Is."

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