Heartwood

Heartwood – Belva Plain

Laura, the one daughter among three brothers, manages to keep everything together. She solves all the problems, settles all the disputes, and manages to bring everyone together, especially when it matters most. Above all, she has a precocious daughter, loving husband, and thriving self-started catering business. Unfortunately, this is the late 1970s and not everyone, especially her husband, is thrilled with her ability to be the breadwinner and juggle family and work responsibilities. Her mother watches from the sidelines, comparing her daughter to herself, and the both of them to her own mother, whom she has always idolized for her perfect marriage. As Laura loses patience trying to buoy her husband’s ego while growing her own business, the image of perfection begins to shatter. Laura finds support from another man, her mother discovers the affair, and generations of family secrets threaten to tear everything apart. Through their own personal journeys, Laura and her mother discover that the ability to love and forgive form the foundation of any solid relationship.

”Heartwood” is an easy read. It’s simply written, the language is understandable, and the characters feel relatable. It’s fairly engaging right from the beginning, and although it feels predictable at points, it keeps you reading until the end. And it doesn’t tell you everything – some family secrets are still a secret by the end of the book, although you can probably guess what they involve. It’s told from a third person perspective, so we get varied coverage of the main characters, but I got confused by this a few times. While most of the story centers on Laura, it does change to other characters every once in a while and I was a little slow to catch up when this happened. The timeline also isn’t consistent, so occasionally we jump to long reminiscences or short memories, then jump back to the present. Those are only small things, though. Above all, this book is readable and relatable, delving into personal, interpersonal, and family relationships, and how to weigh the responsibilities of duty against the desire and need to make decisions and mistakes.

I would call this book pop lit, and I’m not always a fan of pop lit because sometimes it feels boring because it’s overdone and superficial because it’s cliché. However, pop lit is also a guilty pleasure for me when I find something I like, and I did quite enjoy “Heartwood.” I liked that the family was Jewish, the main character was a woman struggling with claiming independence in the “post-feminist” era, and occasionally I like to get caught up in the swept-away-by-love thing. It had some great lines giving insight into how to fully live, how to love and forgive, and how to relate to others and yourself. This was a fairly substantial pop lit book because I found things in the story that made me stop and think a bit, and any book that does that it worth reading.