Heart of the Matter

Tessa Russo is a stay-at-home mother of two young children and the wife of a renowned pediatric surgeon. Valerie Anderson is an attorney and single mother to six-year-old Charlie—a boy who has never known his father. Although both women live in the same Boston suburb, they are strangers to one another and have little in common, aside from a fierce love for their children. But one night, a tragic accident causes their lives to converge in ways no one could have imagined.

This is the moving, luminous story of good people caught in untenable circumstances. Each being tested in ways they never thought possible. Each questioning everything they once believed. And each ultimately discovering what truly matters most.


I loved this book. It has a touchy subject matter: cheating. A lot of people have very specific black and white feelings on adultery. I do not. I think every situation is different and what works or doesn't work for one person is a different story entirely from the next person. I don't think anything in a cheating situation, especially in a long-term marriage, is simple or black and white. I don't think one person can shoulder all the blame. I don't have a lot of ideas and beliefs about the whole situation honestly. It's one of those parts of life. You just never know what's going on behind someone else's closed doors.

Regardless, it's easy to blame the mistress or the wandering eye of the husband. And it happens a lot in movies and books. Giffin presents the situation in a different way though. You don't just get the wife's story, you get both women's stories. You connect and feel for both of them, then get confronted with this terrible triangle. I felt compassion for the husband too, even though he doesn't narrate in the novel.

Through showing all the complicated and very gray sides of the situation, Giffin forces you to confront any stereotypes or judgments you've already made about adultery. It was really interesting reading this. I kept wanting to place the blame in someone's camp, but not being able to. Although the situation is wrong and both Valerie and Nick know that, it's hard not to see how the pieces fall into place and commiserate with the strong emotions. Even though I felt like I should be writing Valerie off as a whore or something equally degrading, the way Giffin presents her character makes that impossible. At least for me. And the marriage between Tessa and Nick is anything but simple. I think Giffin did a fantastic job showing the complexity and progression of a marriage, from Tessa's memories of their first dates and first years of marriage to the way they run from day to day in the novel. And their marriage isn't the only one under the microscope. Tessa's brother, Dex, (Dex and Rachel from Something Borrowed!), Tessa's parents, Nick's parents, and Tessa's friends all get the same treatment. Giffin explores what glues their marriage together or what made it come crashing down. It's really interesting to see all the variations. Like I said, I think her portrayal of marriages is realistically complex and complicated. No marriage is perfect, except for maybe Dex and Rachel.

This is a novel you have to have an open mind about. If you come into it ready to hate Valerie for becoming interested in Nick or judge Tessa for thinking before she tears apart her marriage, the book is going to be terrible. I think it's meant to be taken as an exploration of these situations and decisions which are anything but black and white and simple. And I think she did a fantastic job exploring.

I think Something Borrowed is still my favorite book of Giffin's, but this is definitely number two.



Sharing this quote, because I absolutely love it.

It occurs to me that she is not unique--that all women compare lives. We are aware of whose husband works more, who helps more around the house, who makes more money, who is having more sex. We compare our children, taking note of who is sleeping through the night, eating their vegetables, minding their manners, getting into the right schools. We know who keeps the best house, throws the best parties, cooks the best meals, has the best tennis game. We know who among us is the smartest, has the fewest lines around her eyes, has the best figure--whether naturally or artificially. We are aware of who works full-time, who stays at home with the kids, who manages to do it all and make it look easy, who shops and lunches while the nanny does it all. We digest it all and then discuss it with our friends. Comparing and then confiding; it is what women do. The difference, I think, lies in why we do it. Are we doing it to gauge our own life and reassure ourselves that we fall within the realm of normal? Or are we being competitive, relishing others' shortcomings so that we can win, if only by default?