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Heartwood: A Novel, by Belva Plain
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Few authors have understood the tender intricacies of relationships better than the incomparable Belva Plain. In Heartwood, her final novel, she comes full circle with the themes she took up in her very first work, Evergreen, bringing us an unforgettable story of family and friendship, love and marriage, the challenges of life and the true secret of happiness.
Though Iris Stern considers herself a modern woman, with a successful career and a happy marriage, she still holds steadfast to her old-fashioned sensibilities. However, she often finds those sensibilities challenged by her children and the choices they have made. For Iris’s daughter, Laura, a fresh start in New York City may be the last chance to save her troubled marriage, but as Laura copes with an impending separation and its effect on Iris’s young granddaughter, Iris herself must come to grips with a long-held family secret. An emotional parting of another kind looms most prominently on Iris’s horizon—as neither her beloved husband nor her marriage is immune to the ravages of time. But like the inmost rings of a tree that abide through the generations, Iris will be as strong as heartwood.
- Sales Rank: #636760 in Books
- Brand: Bantam
- Published on: 2012-05-29
- Released on: 2012-05-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.87" h x 1.02" w x 4.14" l, .40 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 378 pages
- Great product!
Review
“Vintage Plain, as she again affectingly celebrates a family’s resilience and love.”—Richmond Times-Dispatch
“A fitting last tribute to a beloved writer who touched so many readers. Plain will be dearly missed, but her books will allow her memory to live on forever.”—Ventura County Star
About the Author
Belva Plain captured readers' hearts with her first novel, Evergreen, which Delacorte published more than 30 years ago. It topped the New York Times best-seller list for 41 weeks and aired as an NBC-TV miniseries. In total, more than 20 of her books have been New York Times best sellers.
Before becoming a novelist, Belva Plain wrote short stories for many major magazines, but taking care of a husband and three children did not give her the time to concentrate on the novel she had always wanted to write. When she looked back and said she didn't have the time, she felt as though she had been making excuses. In retrospect, she said, "I didn't make the time." But, she reminded us, during the era that she was raising her family, women were supposed to concentrate only on their children. Today 30 million copies of her books are in print.
A Barnard College graduate who majored in history, Belva Plain enjoyed a wonderful marriage of more than 40 years to Irving Plain, an ophthalmologist. Widowed for more than 25 years, Ms. Plain continued to reside in New Jersey, where she and her husband had raised their family and which was still home to her nearby children and grandchildren until her death in October 2010.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One
Iris Stern turned her car into the parking lot in front of the supermarket and sighed; there wasn't an empty place to be found. Of course not. It was three days before Thanksgiving! What was worse, she was going to be back here all over again tomorrow when she came to pick up the fresh turkey the supermarket was holding for her. She'd have to get up at the crack of dawn to make it ahead of the crowd.
A more organized woman would not have found herself in this predicament. For instance, Iris's daughter, Laura, would have been shopping and cooking and freezing side dishes for weeks. "You make the holiday so hard for yourself," Laura told her once, "doing it all at the last minute."
Iris had tried to explain that she couldn't make herself think about sweet potato casseroles and cranberry sauce when her mind was still full of the classes she was teaching at her college. She was a professor with a full course load, and she wanted to have all the exams graded, all the lectures given, and all the office appointments cleared from her calendar; then she could focus on sweet potatoes.
"But you need to learn to compartmentalize," Laura said. "It's simple." And for Laura it was.
It certainly had been for Iris's mother, Anna. Even today seven years after Mama's death--she'd died in 1972--Iris could still remember the ease with which Anna had run her home and family while devoting hours to her charities, and somehow always managing to look as if she'd just stepped out of a bandbox. There had been a time when Iris had compared herself to her mother and had felt woefully inadequate. And if she was honest about it, she still did a little, but not nearly as much as she once had, because she'd finally gathered up her courage and gone to graduate school to earn her PhD. Her degree was in special education--she'd always been a gifted teacher--and now she trained young people who were planning to go into the field themselves. To her surprise and delight, she'd become one of the most popular professors on her campus, and this success had made it easier to remember her mother's formidable skills as a cook and hostess. Skills that Laura, who looked exactly like Anna, had inherited.
If it hadn't been for Laura, Iris would not be racing back to the supermarket tomorrow for that fresh turkey. "We can't serve one that's been frozen, Mom!" Laura had protested, making it sound as if Iris had proposed feeding the family fast food from a hamburger place. Since Laura would be flying in from her home in Southern California the following evening and doing most of the cooking for the holiday meal, Iris had bowed to the voice of authority and ordered the unfrozen bird. Today she was shopping for the rest of the items on a list that Laura had dictated to her on the phone.
If she could ever manage to find a parking space! She'd already reached the end of the first row of parked cars with no luck. She made a careful turn around a blue station wagon that was sticking out slightly in the line of traffic and started down the next row at a snail's pace. Thank goodness she had plenty of time today.
Thanksgiving was Iris's favorite holiday; there was something so . . . undemanding about it. There were no presents to be bought and wrapped and then opened with false exclamations that this was exactly what you had wanted. There were no tiny candles to be blown out as you tried to smile about the creeping passage of time. And there were none of the more complicated feelings Iris sometimes had during the traditional Jewish holidays. Holidays that Iris's husband, Theo, refused to hold in their home. Theo had been born into a prominent Jewish family in Austria in the 1900s, and he had lost everyone, including his young wife and child, in the Holocaust. It had been more than three decades since those horrors, but he still could not forgive the God who had allowed such things to happen.
So it was Iris's second son, Jimmy, who, with his wife, Janet, did the honors for the Sterns on Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Hannuka and Passover. Theo did go with Iris to Jimmy and Janet's home to celebrate these holidays, as he had gone to her parents' house before Anna and Joseph died, and Iris had always told herself she was content with that; marriage was a series of compromises after all. And Janet did the holidays efficiently and smoothly, as she did everything. But lately Iris had started to feel . . . a little . . . well, "cheated" was probably the right word.
She remembered her mother on the holidays. Anna had presided over tables that groaned with the food she had cooked; the pot roasts with rich dark gravy, and crisp potato pancakes, the stuffed fish in silky jelly, carrots sweet with prunes, and apple strudels wrapped in crisp buttery crusts and running with cinnamon-flavored juices. On the holidays Mama's table had gleamed with the fine china, sparkling silverware, and crystal that had been bought for just such occasions. The grandest of grand occasions, because they were for the family.
Of course Iris would never manage that level of splendor, she knew that. But there were times when she thought perhaps she would like to create her own traditions. And perhaps her grandchildren would remember them fondly. She was in her fifties, with sixty looming, a middle-aged woman, although that was a misnomer because how many people lived to be a hundred and twenty? She had two grandchildren already, and hopefully there would be more. Suddenly it seemed very important that they have fond memories of her. Funny, how you woke up one day and wanted immortality when you never had it before.
But her feelings went deeper than that. Her religion, and the holidays that were such an integral part of it, had always been precious to her. She was like her father in that way. She could still see how his eyes would shine when he watched Mama bless the holiday candles on the first night of Passover. That moment was the best time of the year for him. It had been that way even during the Depression when they had to scrimp to get by--although Papa had been happier when Mama presided over their Seder table wearing the huge diamond ring he'd bought for her. He'd had to pawn it when they were broke, but when his fortunes had finally turned, the first thing he'd done was redeem it. When Passover came that year and the ring was once again sparkling on Mama's hand as she served food and poured wine, Iris knew that had been the proudest day of her father's life.
That was what the holidays were truly made of, little scraps of memory like that one. Some of them were purely joyful, some were more somber if there had been pain and loss during the year, but when you put them all together, over time they became the story of a family. And on the holy holidays your personal story was then added to the bigger one of your people that stretched back for four thousand years. It was a story that children absorbed without even knowing they were doing it, especially if it was told with humor and love over food cooked from old family recipes. Sometimes Iris felt that Janet's efficient gatherings, catered and served by professionals, were rather bloodless. Or maybe she was jealous.
And if you are, that's just plain foolish, she told herself sternly. Theo has made his wishes clear and you won't go against him. That's the marriage you have. Stop wasting your time thinking about all of this.
Besides, the holiday ahead of her was not Rosh Hashanah, or Passover. It was Thanksgiving. Cozy Thanksgiving, when the weather was just cold enough and the days were just dark enough to make it a pleasure to be indoors. Thanksgiving, that most American--and neutral--of all holidays. Theo loved it even more than Iris did and happily celebrated it in his home each year. And this year they were going to be even happier than usual because all of their children would be together under their roof for the first time in years. Given how busy and scattered the kids were it was nothing short of a miracle.
Iris spotted a parking place at the far end of the lot, and headed toward it. But at the last second, a white van slipped into it ahead of her. She resisted the temptation to pound on her horn and continued her slow round of the parking lot.
Of course Janet and Jimmy were coming for Thanksgiving; they lived in Manhattan, which was a forty-five-minute car ride away from Iris and Theo's home in the suburbs, and they and their little daughter, Rebecca Ruth, always celebrated Thanksgiving with Nannie and Grampy. Iris shook her head. Could there be a worse nickname for regal, old-world Theo? When Jimmy's wife had first suggested that Rachel call him Grampy, he had actually winced. But Janet hadn't noticed. Janet was the salt of the earth; not only was she a successful doctor--an anesthesiologist--she was a fine mother and a conscientious daughter-in-law. But Iris couldn't help feeling that she was a little . . . stolid.
"What does Janet laugh at?" Iris had once asked Laura. She and her daughter talked on the phone every week, and Iris enjoyed the calls thoroughly. "I don't think she has much of a sense of humor. Otherwise she'd understand how funny it is to watch poor Theo trying to answer to 'Grampy.'"
"I know," Laura had said. "But Jimmy doesn't have a sense of humor either. So they're well matched."
"Do you really think so? Because sometimes I wonder, you know. Janet is so certain about everything, and Jimmy has never been a fighter . . ."
"What on earth would he have to fight about? He and Janet are practically the same person." In her mind's eye, Iris could see Laura on the other end of the phone ticking off her points on her fingers. "They're both doctors, and they love to talk shop. They both agree they only want one child. They both adore living in Manhattan, and they're both passionate about the opera. They're perfect for each other. Even you can't worry about them."
After that Iris hadn't--at least, she hadn't worried as much. Laura could always do that for her.
A large delivery truck cut in front of Iris, forcing her to stop. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw that she couldn't back up because the cars were lined behind her. There was nothing to do but wait for the men, sweating in the cold, to unload their cargo onto the loading dock of the supermarket.
Once again, Iris went back to her thoughts. I wish just for a moment I could get inside my children's minds. So I'd be sure that they are all right. But do we ever know that about anyone we love? Especially our children. Those little creatures we held and rocked and fed, grow up to be full of surprises.
That was certainly true of her oldest son, Steven, arguably the most brilliant of her children. Throughout his teens and early twenties, he had been a rebel, sullen, and bearded, with long hair that was seldom clean--the uniform of his time, although he would have been furious at anyone who suggested that. He had been passionately opposed to the Vietnam War, which Iris had thought was understandable and perhaps even laudable, although it had infuriated Theo.
But then Steven had taken his politics too far, even for Iris. He'd dropped out of college and joined a radical group that "protested" in ways that were downright terrifying. Iris shuddered, remembering the torment of those years when she'd been afraid to look at the evening news, because the young face suffused with rage and screaming obscenities as its owner was taken off to jail might be her son's. Eventually Steven had been arrested, nearly breaking his father's heart and causing a schism in his parents' marriage. Or, to be more honest, he had widened one that had already been there. This had led to an accident that had cost Theo, a plastic surgeon, the use of his hand, and his career, and . . . Iris stopped herself. She never let herself think about the days and months after Theo's accident.
It had been a dark, bleak time, but they had weathered it. With an amazing effort of courage and will, Theo had retrained himself in a new medical discipline, and become an oncologist. And she had become Professor Iris Stern. Together they had discovered the gift of forgiveness and their marriage had endured. Enough said.
And Steven? Iris felt a smile creep over her face. Her son, the rebel, who had once wanted to tear up the Constitution, was now . . . a lawyer. "We have to change the system from within," he'd told his bemused parents. He'd had this epiphany after the worst of his rebellion was ended and he was working as a researcher for a liberal think tank in Washington, DC. Finding the ivory tower atmosphere too limiting, he'd gotten his law degree--in record time, Iris thought proudly--and he'd gone to work for a not-for-profit legal firm called People's Prosperity. They only represented clients who were desperate and unable to pay for their services, so Steve still hadn't sold out to The Man, but--as his sister, Laura, pointed out--he was wearing a shirt and tie every day. And he seemed happy with his life at last.
"At least, I hope he's happy," Iris had said to Laura six months earlier during their weekly phone call.
"I think he's lonely," Laura had said.
"There's plenty of time for him to meet someone. There's no hurry about that."
There had been a pause on the other end of the line. "Actually he has met someone, Mom," Laura said. "Her name is Christina. He told me about her."
And not for the first time, Iris had been aware of how much everyone in the family confided in Laura. Laura never judged, and she never gave her opinion unless asked, but her advice was usually sound. Anna had been like that. In the worst of times she could get through to the Stern kids when their frantic parents couldn't. Lucky Mama, who had been not only beautiful and charming, but wise. Lucky Laura, who was so like her.
"Steve never said a word to us," Iris had said, trying not to sound hurt.
"I know. He asked me to smooth the way for him first. Bringing a girl home to meet his parents isn't easy for a son."
From the Hardcover edition.
Most helpful customer reviews
49 of 53 people found the following review helpful.
profound look at the Stern family
By A Customer
Family matriarch Iris Stern feels she has had a happy marriage and a great late career as a college professor. When her husband Theo suffers a massive heart attack, Iris knows she loves her spouse and her adult children, but the needs of her kids are not hers and their decisions are definitely not hers.
In California Robby McAllister loses his college teaching job due to cutbacks. He and his wife Laura, Iris' daughter returns to New York to be near her family. As he fails to land a position, she thrives with a fixer upper Victorian and a catering business. An upset Robby flees to his family home and store in Ohio, but Laura remains in New York with their daughter and meets Nick. Iris has her own issues with an ethical question of what is right in accordance with her deep Jewish faith vs. what Theo desires as well as how to handle a secret he concealed from her.
The late Belva Plain takes her readers back to where it all began with Evergreen as she provides a profound look at the Stern family. The cast is strong, but remains true to their personalities yet the character driven story line can stand alone. Ms. Plain, who died in October, pays homage to herself with a depth few authors ever achieve.
Harriet Klausner
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful.
Belva Plain's moving final novel
By Bookreporter
Belva Plain's final novel, HEARTWOOD, is a moving story layered in psychological reflection, which has more depth than any simple drama or ordinary work of fiction. This is a book that delves deeply into the psychology of older parents and their adult children, presenting a striking image of one mother's deep-seated need for perfection and impulse to manage her family long past the time when she should stop. This seems a common psychology for many mothers, who support it using the rationale that "it's only because I want them to be happy and successful." We've all known mothers who approach their grown families in this way, and Iris Stern is certainly one who is susceptible to this kind of thinking. She ultimately faces coming to terms with the unpredictability of life's choices and the eventuality of having to accept who her loved ones really are.
HEARTWOOD begins with a decades-long account of the lives of Iris and Theo Stern and their family. They are a Jewish American couple who present a classic picture of the American Dream --- an aging, affluent pair who will soon enter their golden years, having enjoyed separate career paths and feeling fulfilled in having raised their four children well. Iris is a successful college professor, while Theo runs a private practice as a physician. Everyone looks up to them, and together they make ideal parents. They are educated and supportive, enjoy their children's company, and both consistently put a great degree of effort into each and every member of their family.
The Sterns' life story details the many fine and fading years of their devoted marriage and presents the unique challenges that sometimes come with enjoying success. While Iris and Theo have had their problems, these experiences have made them grateful and more able to appreciate one another. This is not to imply that they haven't had concerns about their children over the years. Their sons have cost them many hours of sleep and years of worry, but their daughter has been "the rock," the one who they've all depended on. Laura is the golden child, a young woman with good judgment and a steady heart. She is rational, motivated, happy and loyal to the core. So when she chooses to marry her boyfriend right after high school, neither Iris nor Theo questions it or loses any sleep.
Jumping forward to the present, Laura and Robby are struggling thirty-somethings, and Robby has had ongoing career issues. He's an aspiring archaeologist who's attempting to finish his doctorate degree while working in various jobs. Laura was initially confident that he'd eventually succeed, but now has her doubts and notices a diminishment in the potency of their love. Robby seems to lack both motivation and judgment, and it's becoming disturbing to Laura to recognize that he uses psychological obstacles to create real ones for them all. He works in a competitive and sometimes demoralizing academic atmosphere at a major university, but eventually shows poor judgment with his students, landing the final death blow to his already shaky career.
Recognizing in her husband a tendency toward laziness and flakiness, Laura reacts to these stresses by becoming determined to support her family alone, if need be. She moves them from California to New York City, buys a home and ventures into the catering business, and her family in Manhattan loans her the money that enables the takeoff of her lifelong dream. In no time, she's successful and enjoying a very nice living, but while she and her daughter Katie love the city and appreciate her burgeoning new success, her husband never does and repeatedly chooses separation --- but never divorce. Robby flees to his hometown in Ohio while Laura is left alone in New York for long stretches, devoting her own efforts entirely to catering and pursuing publicity for her growing business.
In pursuing her own career, Laura faces a new obstacle when she meets an attractive and very alluring young photographer who quickly captures her heart. She was raised traditionally and so feels unable to walk out on Robby, or equally to face a lifetime devoid of love. Torn between duty and entitlement, Laura is stuck, yet she knows that her family would never approve of her leaving Robby and would become even more condemning if they discovered she had engaged in an affair.
HEARTWOOD marks the end of Belva Plain's remarkable career as a successful writer with more than 20 novels that have been New York Times bestsellers. This fine author passed away in October 2010, and her final drama is a testament to her extraordinary talent and an experience readers of fiction and romance should heartily enjoy.
--- Reviewed by Melanie Smith
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful.
BELVA PLAIN WAS A "GIANT" IN HER GENRE
By magstat
The late, great Belva Plain passed away in October, 2010 at the age of 95. I initially discovered her in the late 1970's with her first novel, EVERGREEN, an historical family saga that immediately drew its readers into the story line and the unforgettable characters. This first Belva Plain novel was such a strong, well-written saga, in fact, that none who had loved it, as I did, would want to miss the opportunity to read Ms. Plain's last novel, HEARTWOOD, which brings the story of the Stern family full-circle.
Although I have read every novel that Belva Plain has ever written, none of them--including HEARTWOOD--has ever reached the heights that she achieved with EVERGREEN. HEARTWOOD is a much shorter book than EVERGREEN and, thus, cannot include the depth of detail found in that first immortal novel. Very few generational sagas deserve to stand alongside EVERGREEN. Exceptions might be THE THORNBIRDS (an Australian saga), A WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE (a British saga), MILLIONAIRE'S ROW (an Irish saga), and a very limited number of other books of that genre.
HEARTWOOD, to be fair, must be judged with an eye to the author's circumstances. Her career as a novelist began when Belva Plain was about 60 years old--late in comparison to most authors. She consistently provided her loyal readers with an engrossing novel every year or two thereafter--each of them very enjoyable. HEARTWOOD, released about four months after her death, may be somewhat less "layered" than her earlier works but, then again, it is only fair to keep in mind that she was in her nineties at the time of its writing and, she was probably more concerned in completing the circle of the Stern family before her death. Let's give her a break, readers! She produced a good and readable novel at her advanced age and, although it cannot compare to its famous predecessor, EVERGREEN, it is still engrossing, still worth reading, and is just one more example of the moxie and determination of it wonderful author, Belva Plain. Long may she live in the hearts of her many loyal readers.
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