One Heart: A Novel

by Jane McCafferty

From the award-winning author of the acclaimed short story collection Director of the World comes this charmingly poignant tale of two sisters whose experiences often separate them but whose love for eachother is deepened over a lifetime. Bonded by their affection and shared loneliness, Gladys and Ivy remain divided by a wall of silence that prevents Gladys from accepting the solace Ivy desperately wants to give. But their quiet lives are upended when a young woman with a mysterious past arrives on their doorstep and whisks Gladys away on a journey of discovery. Ultimately Gladys's experience transforms both sisters, teaching them the importance of emotional honesty and the value of family. In the tradition of Anne Tyler and Louise Erdrich, One Heart is a moving tale of friendship, forgiveness, and redemption-a remarkable achievement from an exquisitely talented writer.

Genres: Fiction

304 pages, Paperback

First published September 8, 1999

About the author

Jane McCafferty is the author of the novel One Heart and two collections of stories, Thank You for the Music and Director of the World and Other Stories, which won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize. She is the recipient of an NEA award, the Great Lakes Colleges Association’s New Writers Award, and two Pushcart Prizes. She lives and works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[Sharon Al · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book just after it was first published. I revisited it as I began to use the extra time afforded by the pandemic to read subsequent works by authors whose earlier writings I had enjoyed.

In One Heart, I was touched by the psychological layers that emerged within these two sisters, individually and in their relationship with each other, both in response to clear trauma and in response to the everyday challenges of life events and their own developmental changes across the lifespan. This is one of those books that I increasingly thought about at different times over the years. Some books are a good read in the moment, others leave an enduring impression. One Heart offers both.

[Jaycee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written story about the complicated relationship between two very different sisters..

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

Captured be with the characters and darkness of their lives. Made me sad for their desperate need to open up to each other and yet understood why they couldn't.

[Anilou · Rating 5 out of 5]

A pair of sisters, Gladys and Ivy, cook for a summer camp/ private "winter school" in a rural setting. The two rely on superficial conversations to try to know and understand the other at a deeper level but end up unable to do much more than guess at the inner workings of the other.

The reader has the edge because of the author's viewpoints of each character. Others in the lives of the protagonists contribute to an understanding of the main characters and of themselves.

Throughout, weather plays its part in the lives of those who people this extraordinary novel. The imagery is brilliant.

In this current time of covid, it is good to go back to other times and places with their own sets of complications.

One Heart is an apt title for this revealing yet mysterious novel.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

One Heart is a story about the lifelong relationship between two sisters. The story alternates between Gladys and Ivy as they share their story. They each have different ways of dealing with the loneliness that is woven into the fabric of their lives. Ivy expresses hersthoughts more willingly than Gladys, but in the end you learn so much about each of them. As they attempt to make sense of their lives I felt I was sitting beside each of them as two country women sat on their porch and shared their stories with me. Many of us find a time that we look back at our lives and wonder "Did I do it right?" and Gladys and Ivy are no different.

[Donna Halloran · Rating 2 out of 5]

There were some great points to this book. Overall, it was just too much of a downer for me. I found myself forcing myself to finish. That said, I am very glad I finished. It ended in a way that I did not predict and found... healing may be the best word

[Rafaela Morillas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Predictably normal

A story like so many lives lived. Real people, real issues and lots of sorrow. This book makes one realize most lives are filled with wondering how influential relationships shape our journey...in large and small ways.

[Librat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of 2 sisters and how their relationship is affected by life events and by the few deep relationships they form with other people

[Drew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully quiet character study of simple, complicated bonds.

[Lori Bamber · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps as close as I'll ever come to understanding a life. Clear, heartbreaking and beautiful.

[Debbie Gorham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read. Enjoyed it very much.

[Dana Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed her writing style. Captivating and engaging.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know that I can articulate why I enjoyed this book so much. The book had little plot - it was primarily a study of human relationships. Interesting quotes: "Why, when children are gone from you, do you so often call up not the recent memory but the memory of when they were smaller, needier?" "A baby's notion that if only the right men got in power, there wouldn't be war." "People can free you up. They see you a certain way and you suddenly buy that vision...You get to be someone else for a while...you can stand yourself a little." "I didn't want anyone's tears falling around me. Maybe because I kept my own damned up inside and expected others to have the common courtesy to do the same." "...the kind of calm that's on the other side of screaming." "The lie floated like a black balloon in the air between us....I was tempted the throw a dart that way, but I didn't." "It was a new way of missing him, and I was both weary that I'd discovered it and surprised that it had taken me that long." "...a kind of optimism that I can't help but feel when I'm on the road in a car, as if all the motion, which has always seemed to me like an illustration of how time flies, all that knowledge of the shortness of our time on earth just weeks out everything complicated...weeds a man's soul until what's left is something simple and good. Because time was short, I drove with hope...even as I knew that the source of that hope would disappear when I stopped the car..." On how it feels when a romantic relationship cools: "He wasn't really in his hand anymore when he touched me. It was like he somehow found a way to keep himself out of his hands..." "...we're not really one age at all. We're all the ages we've ever been." "The old woman I see now, she looks like me. Almost exactly. That young thing, she was the stranger." "..sad when you see someone and don't know you're seeing them...they can't protect themselves...dress themselves up in their personality. They look naked and alone, and you're sorry you're seeing them that way."

[Rachel Rofe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just didn't love this book. There was nothing that captivated me or engrossed me in it, which is usually not the case.

Also, maybe this is just me wanting the story to be tied up nicely, but it felt like there was no point to the book, no finish that left me feeling something. I walked away feeling pretty flat.

I get life can be like that, but I guess the whole time, I just kept reading on thinking that something big was going to happen.

There were pieces of big, like Ivy/James and the backstory, but... meh.

Also, I didn't like the book alternating between so many people as narrators. The past few books I've read have been like that. Is this a trend or coincidence? I can see alternating between even 2 people, but throwing in Raelene and James just seemed excessive and "fatty" to me.

I did read the whole thing. The author sprinkled in many life philosophies inside, and some were really poignant and I highlighted them on my Kindle.

[Anderse · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up because I took a class from Jane McCafferty at Allegheny College once. It was there I was taught I cannot write fiction. So much for the great american novel I was going to write.

This is the story of two sisters and alternating chapters are told from each of their voices. I do wish the tone had been more distinctive in each as I would sometimes lose sight of who was the voice.
Overall a nice story with some fun details about two women who lived full, simultaneously unique and boring, lives.

[Marj · Rating 3 out of 5]

This isn't really my kind of book. Read it for book group. It is a "slow" book. Not much action. Mainly a character study. I didn't really like it at first but it grew on me. She is a very good writer. I just didn't care enough about the characters at first but they did grow on me. I'm the only one in our group that didn't love the book.

[Debbie Shoulders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes a story is told quietly. McCafferty's words spin softly telling of the complex relationship between two sisters. Both hold onto to a lonely world, one angered and the other with forced happiness. Each trying to make it through the day.

This is a character study, each character finely drawn and within them the reader learns a little something about themselves.

[Gerry Durisin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two sisters, one never married and one long separated from her husband, make a life for themselves working at a boarding school and camp, reluctantly providing companionship and a sense of family to one another amidst grief and loss. Their relationship reaches a crisis, however, when Gladys’s ex-husband returns while she is traveling across the county, and Ivy falls in love with him.

[Jenwatson · Rating 3 out of 5]

My mom had me read this book because it got mixed reviews in her book club. I actually didn't enjoy reading this book because one of the main characters was so negative, but I gave it three stars instead of 2 because I've thought a lot about this book.

[Donnajo]

Decided to pass on this one. Couldn't get into it and there is too many books out there to read.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice, slow, literary character study of two sisters and their relationship as well as other people who influence their sisterhood.

[Ashley Danay Lacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A long read

I found myself skimming through the text because it was VERY descriptive on unnecessary parts but it was quite enjoyable though!the ending really tore me up though .

[Therese B · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story of two sisters who love each other but have a problem with loving the same man....even after one has divorced him. Well written story of adventure, love and loyalty.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm hating everything lately. This moves at a glacial pace and is about 90% inner monologue.