Deep in the Heart

By Sharon Oard Warner

Book Overview

"Deep in the Heartis a stunning novel. Sharon Oard Warner accomplishes the magical act of making each mundane life significant, each small pain or pleasure alarmingly real, each sentence a marvelous... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 038532006X
• ISBN13: 9780385320061
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: The Dial Press
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.8" x 1.5" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

For me - a truly amazing book

Ms. Warner has done a masterful job of crafting a great story. One that is engaging and interesting, however this is not the main reason I think this is a great work.Most of the time these types of books are obviously an effort to put forth a personal view, and usually adopting one side of a controversial subject. This is a perfect example of an author really delving into the guts of the issue and presenting the question, rather than the answer. Congratulations Ms. Warner!

abortion battle explores meaning of love, family and memory

Aptly-titled, "Deep in the Heart" is a compelling, sensitive and provocative debut novel which thoroughly engages the reader in a powerful narrative driven by sensitive-rendered and completely believable characters. The author, Sharon Oard Warner, uses the vehicle of a contested abortion to treat, with skill and sensitivity, the themes of family secrets and fragility, the loss and possibility of love in and around marriage, and the enormous impact conscience has in driving our everyday actions. This large and fast-paced novel is the product of an author who genuinely cares about her readers; Ms. Warner always rises above cliche and takes great risks in emphasizing the humanity of her charcters, all of whom are deeply involved in one of the pivotal political struggles of our day, abortion.Quite late in the book, Dr. Hannah Solace realizes that her husband, Carl, devloped his love for her not from her beauty, but from her sadness. This understanding symbolizes the wholeness of the novel and encapsulates the underlying emotion felt by the reader. For "Heart" is a profoundly sad novel, although by book's end, the enduring qualities of hope, love and faith genuinely resolve themselves with an opitimistic view of the future. Each character is washed in hues of loneliness, despair and abandonment. Hannah, who is an admirable, articulate modern woman, suffers terribly from the memory of the childhood death of her mother; the resulting pressures and fear create an adult removed from her feelings and ultimately, her husband. Carl, an artist whose adult life swims in unfulfilled dreams of art and a responsive partner, yearns for a child to give a sense of animation and purpose to his life. One of the book's central ironies is the dissolution of a marriage after an abortion rather than because of one. The virginal Penny, who at the age of 23 seems resigned to a life outside the perameters of love, discovers complexity and multi-dimensional perspectives in the midst of an attempted romance with an intolerant, charismatic evangelical minister, whose own life abounds with internal conflict. Ms. Oard presents a simply brilliant collage of motherhood. Hannah's sister, Helen, initially seems to be the model of stay-at-home contentment. As the novel progresses, turmoil and betrayal erode her confidence (the author often comments about the terrible state of her fingernails). Penny's mother, Delia, is swathed in secrets and Penny, herself, is suffused with a sense of abandonment. Penny's grandmother, Mattie, who ignores her own past and her daughter's torment, tries to serve as a mother-figure for Penny but is limited by her own guilt and restricted by her adherence to a faith which promises life but deals with its own prejudices and death-obsessions.Ms. Warner informs us that she spent seven years and went through seven drafts before completing her novel. I can assure you that it was well worth her time and worth our wait. "Deep in the Heart" resonat

High Praise

This is the type of book that you don't want to end because the characters capture and hold you. The subject matter is difficult but handled with such a fabulous grace and humanity. Thank you Sharon for putting personal faces on all sides of the debate to help us remember that most choices we face are not black and white but offer many shades of gray in which it is easy to get lost and overwhelmed.

An excellent read

I woke up every morning looking forward to my coffee and this book. The characters held me, especially how they were interconnected. The prose was also poetic and just a delight to read. At times I was angry with the main character, Hannah, however, you still felt a certain empathy towards her, especially in the end. Warner's a fine writer, and I look forward to her future works.

Expect the Unexpected

Warner possesses the distinction of being not only a great storyteller, but a craftsperson as well. On the surface, this masterfully constructed novel focuses on the abortion issue. Underneath, however, the novel explores the realm of the deeply personal -- the decisions we make, the unexpected things we do. Warner has a flair for toppling the readers expectations. Like the characters in her short story collection, Learning to Dance, every character in Warner's first novel can't help but surprise the reader as they perform the complicated and not-always-graceful dance of life.