Book, 1995 by Billie Letts
Synopis:
A funny thing happens to Novalee Nation on her way to Bakersfield, California. Her ne'er-do-well boyfriend, Willie Jack Pickens, abandons her in an Oklahoma Wal-Mart and takes off on his own, leaving her with just 10 dollars and the clothes on her back. Not that hard luck is anything new to Novalee, who is "seventeen, seven months pregnant, thirty-seven pounds overweight--and superstitious about sevens.... For most people, sevens were lucky. But not for her," Billie Letts writes. "She'd had a bad history with them, starting with her seventh birthday, the day Momma Nell ran away with a baseball umpire named Fred..."Still, finding herself alone and penniless in Sequoyah, Oklahoma is enough to make even someone as inured to ill fortune as Novalee want to give up and die. Fortunately, the Wal-Mart parking lot is the Sequoyah equivalent of a town square, and within hours Novalee has met three people who will change her life: Sister Thelma Husband, a kindly eccentric; Benny Goodluck, a young Native American boy; and Moses Whitecotton, an elderly African American photographer. For the next two months, Novalee surreptitiously makes her home in the Wal-Mart, sleeping there at night, exploring the town by day. This is not a subtle book; there's never any doubt that our heroine will make a home for herself and her baby or that Willy Jack will get what he deserves for abandoning them. Still, Billie Letts has created several memorable characters, and there's always room for another novel that celebrates the life-affirming qualities of reading, the importance of education, and the power of love to change lives.
Movie, 2000 directed by Matt Williams
Features: Natalie Portman, Ashley Judd, Stockard Channing, Joan Cusack, Sally Field
Tagline: Laughter is harder... Friendship is stronger... Trust is deeper... When it comes from the heart.
Quote:
[Mama Lil]: You got a man?
[Novalee Nation]: No.
[Mama Lil]: Then where is the prick who put you in this mess?
[Novalee Nation]: California.
[Mama Lil]: That figures. All the pricks move to California. They oughta call it Prickafornia.
Have you read or seen Where the Heart Is? Did you read it back in 1998 when Oprah chose it for her book club?
