I love this book. I have read it four times now. It's a great story about love, life and strength. The characters are great and, I feel, well-rounded. You really fall in love with them all.

Here are some thoughts & favorite quotations that I've collected over the years & readings. :) Compare/contrast of the film are also included.

The writing is so detailed and vivid, I have clear, crisp pictures in my mind of the characters and settings in the story. The characters are so real to me. I think that the love story between Forney and Novalee is the most honest and realistic love story I've ever read.

Although...it is a bit pervy, isn't it? Forney was about 29 and Novalee was 17. Sure, she turned 18 soon after they met, but he was already crazy about her by then. Somehow 25 and 36 doesn't sound as weird as 17 and 29. :) But...I just love reading the little snippets about Forney's feelings for Novalee. It makes me wish I had someone that feels that way about me. I wish they hadn't cut out the party Forney gave Novalee for her 18th birthday, though. I really wanted to see that.

Also, I'm kinda sad they cut out Benny's character, but I understand why. I would have liked to see the prom scene, though. But I guess they didn't want her award winning picture to be of a naked 12 year old boy.

I also wonder why they made Lexie skinny? I guess the fact that she was overweight wasn't such a huge thing for her character. I also think that they didn't explain well enough what happened to Bummett and Pauline. I guess they didn't want to be too explicit.

Below are two of my favorite passages from the book. The first one was not in the movie, but the second one was.

"I don't know nothing about love."

"I'll bet you do."

"No. I've thought about it, but I just can't figure it out."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, sometimes love is easy. Like...it's easy to love rain...and hawks. And it's easy to love wild plums...and the moon. But with people, seems like love's a hard thing to know. It gets all mixed up. I mean, you can love one person in one way and another person in another way. But how do you know you love the right one in every way?"

"I'm not sure, but I think you'll know. I think if it's the right person, it'll be better than rain and hawks and wild plums. Even better than the moon. I think it'll be better than all that put together."

"Novalee, do you...I mean, are you..."

"What?"

"Are you in love with someone?"

Noveale was so still that for a moment Benny though she hadn't heard him. But then she moved...tilted her face to catch a slender shaft of sunlight...shifted her gaze to something the boy couldn't yet see.

"I think I am, Benny," she said. "I think I am."

(Lexie has just told Novalee what her "boyfriend," Roger Briscoe did to her and her children.)

"But Novalee, what am I going to say to Brummett and Pauline when they ask me why this happened to them? What will I say?"

"Tell them that our lives can change with every breath we take. Lord, we both know that. Tell them to let go of what's gone because men like Roger Briscoe never win. And tell them to hold on like hell to what they've got -- each other, and a mother who would die for them, and almost did."

Novalee went to the kitchen window and pushed the curtain aside.

"Then tell them we've all got meanness in us..."

She could see Brummett asleep on his cot, one arm dangling over the side, his face dappled by moonlight shining through the buckeye tree.

"But tell them that we have some good in us, too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. That's why we've got to make sure we pass it on."

Read:
- 05/00
- 05/11/02
- 02/24/04
- 12/1/09

Where the Heart Is - Likewise Book Reviews

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