Where the Heart Is

Content Warning: This Chapter Summaries and Analyses section contains references to substance addiction and sexual assault, which are discussed in Where the Heart Is.

Novalee Nation is traveling from Tellico Plains, Tennessee to Bakersfield, California, where her boyfriend Willy Jack Pickens hopes to get a job with the railroad. His plan is to lose a finger in a work accident to receive a cash settlement like his cousin. Novalee is 17 years old and seven months pregnant. She feels superstitious about the number seven for numerous reasons. For example, her mother left her when she was seven years old; in seventh grade, her best friend was arrested; and as a young adult, she was assaulted by a customer at a diner where she worked, resulting in 77 stitches.

Novalee must stop to use a bathroom quite often, a fact that upsets Willy Jack. Willy Jack is largely annoyed with the fact that Novalee is pregnant. At one point, she asks him to place her hand on her stomach, but he insists he cannot feel the baby’s heartbeat.

Novalee lost her shoes through a hole in the floorboard of the car. Willy Jack reluctantly pulls into the parking lot of a