Heart in the Right Place
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Edition: Reprint
- Author: Carolyn Jourdan
- Publisher: Algonquin Books
- Release Date: August 2008
- ISBN-10: 1565126130
- ISBN-13: 9781565126138
- List Price: $14.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryCarolyn Jourdan, an attorney on Capitol Hill, thought she had it made. But when her mother has a heart attack, she returns home—to the Tennessee mountains, where her father is a country doctor and her mother works as his receptionist. Jourdan offers to fill in for her mother until she gets better. But days turn into weeks as she trades her suits for scrubs and finds herself following hazmat regulations for cleaning up bodily fluids; maintaining composure when confronted with a splinter the size of a steak knife; and tending to the loquacious Miss Hiawatha, whose daily doctor visits are never billed. Most important, though, she comes to understand what her caring and patient father means to her close-knit community. |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Comparing Jourdan to Herriott and White
Rating:
I would compare Jourdan's wonderful memoir to Bailey White's Mama Makes Up Her Mind. They are both anecdotal accounts of the big hearts of country/small-town people and the random events that bind their communities together. As my Texas mother says, "We know people like this!" And what a joy that we do! Jourdan's memoir also reminds me of the James Herriot books, the adventures of a rural British veterinarian and the people and animals he loves. Heart in the Right Place made my bout with pneumonia bearable; it was a breath of fresh air in my day. Hope she writes a sequel, don't you!
Heart in the Right Place
Rating:
Very prompt service. Brand new volume, trade paperback. Had a remainder mark on bottom, but just fine for local reading club! Would buy from again!
All foibles - great and small
Rating: 
If you want to reminisce about life in rural America, read this book.
If you want to learn about everyday people, read this book.
If you enjoy sappy stories in women's magazines, read this book.
If you want to learn what it's like to be a small-town doctor, read this book.
My opinion? The book is an easy-to-read page turner. That is because the writer's style is conversational and engaging. We all know people like this no matter where we live. There are humorous moments and predictably sad ones as well. What's missing, in my opinion, is real deeper meaning and a clearer understanding of what motivates the author. We get a peek into her spiritual journey which is obviously meant to explain her choices, but it is so basic and trite that it left me with many more questions than answers.
What about the mother? How does she fit into this story? Other than knowing she had a heart attack and reading about her immediate recovery - the mother is nearly absent from this memoir.
Would the author have made the same choice if she had a family of her own? Would her parents have asked the same thing of a son, as they ask of their only child, a daughter? Did the culture of Washington, create the lack of social connection the author intimates? Or, does the author have issues with integrating into society? Why is a grown, supposedly successful lawyer, so haunted by the traumas of growing up we all face?
Heart in the Right Place
Rating:
A second copy for a friend. Very well written book about human nature and kindness. I highly recommend it.
Heart in the Right Place
Rating:
A story of an adult daughter coming home to help out during her mother's illness and to discover that home is a place that fills her heart and soul.
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