Relationship Fiction Annotation -- Heart of the Matter by Emily Giffin

Author: Emily Giffin

Title: Heart of the Matter

Genre: Relationship Fiction

Publication Date: 2010

Number of Pages: 4466

Geographical Setting: Boston, Massachusetts 

Time Period: Modern-day (The author does not mention a specific date or time period).

Series: N/A

Plot Summary: Tessa is a stay-at-home mom to two young children, Ruby and Frank, and a wife to Nick, a plastic surgeon, whose long hours at work have begun to create friction in their marriage. Lawyer, sister to Jason, and single mom to Charlie, Valerie is lonely. She wishes she could make friends as an adult and meet a man who will become her son’s father, for the whereabouts of her ex-boyfriend, Charlie’s biological father, is known to her. Valerie and Nick’s paths cross one night when, after Valerie begrudgingly allows her son to sleepover at a friend’s house, where he sustains facial burns from falling into a bonfire, Charlie goes to the hospital, where Nick is the plastic surgeon in charge of his care. Although Valerie is not consciously seeking out her son’s surgeon as a potential partner, she feels an attraction to Nick, and Nick, unhappy in his marriage, begins to show interest in Valerie. This chemistry grows the longer he spends with Charlie and Valerie, inside and outside the hospital, culminating in an affair they fail to keep private from Charlie and Tessa.

Subject Headings:

• Stay-at-home mothers — Fiction.
• Single mothers — Fiction.
• Pediatric surgeons — Fiction.
• Life change events — Fiction.
• Triangles (Interpersonal relations) — Fiction.
• Love triangles
• Mother and child
• Physician and patient
• Women lawyers (NoveList, n.d., and Indianapolis Public Library, n.d.)

Relationship Fiction Appeals:

Storyline:

Wyatt and Saricks define relationship fiction as characterized by “high drama, inner conflict, and domestic disrepair played out on a small, intimate scale” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 196), all attributes Heart of the Matter contains. The circumstances of Charlie’s injury, his physical and psychological healing after getting burned, his having to undergo several surgeries, his slow recovery and eventual return to school, and the various obstacles he faces along the way all fit within the concept of “high drama” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 196), as does the mounting tension of how, when, and from whom Tessa will learn of her husband’s affair. In addition to the “inner conflict” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 196) that emerges from Tessa and Nick’s unhappy marriage and his affair with Valerie, which lays the foundation of the “domestic disrepair” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 196) in the novel, “inner conflict” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 196) also arises from Valerie’s wondering whether she is a good mother, Tessa questioning her identity as a wife, mother, daughter, and friend, and Charlie wishing he had a father.  

Frame/Setting: 

Giffin immerses the reader in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, not only naming but also describing real locations visitors can explore in the area, including Antonio’s Cucina Italiana, a small, quaint Italian restaurant where Valerie and Nick eat dinner, and Boston Common Frog Pond, “home to an ice skating rink” (The Boston Common Frog Pond, n.d.), help create “a community feeling within the story” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 197). Weaving these destinations into the plot also contributes to the romance between Valerie and Nick, as restaurants and ice-skating rinks tend to be date destinations in popular TV, film, and literature. 

Pacing:

Wyatt and Saricks explain that in relationship fiction, “the events of the novel tend to unfold leisurely” (Wyatt and Saricks, 2019, p. 199), a statement that aligns with the pacing of Heart of the Matter. Despite the heavy tension of the novel, which had the potential to slow down the storyline, the major plot points – Charlie’s recovery, Nick and Valerie’s burgeoning romance, and Tessa and Nick’s collapsing marriage – all overlap one another in quick succession, making for a fast-paced novel overall. 

3 Terms that Best Describe This Book:

1. Dramatic Irony
2. Realistic
3. Contemplative

Similar Authors and Works:

3 Relevant Non-Fiction Works and Authors:

Infidelity: Why Men and Women Cheat by Kenneth Paul Rosenberg, MD 

Throughout Heart of the Matter, Tessa wonders why her husband cheated on her; In Infidelity: Why Men and Women Cheat, Kenneth Paul Rosenberg offers an answer to this question, looking at “what the latest science tells us about the brain’s reward systems, love, and sex” (Goodreads, n.d.).

The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity by Esthel Perel

Perel’s book offers “real-life case stories with incisive psychological and cultural analysis” (Goodreads, n.d.) to help answer why individuals cheat. Why is a question both Tessa and Nick have about Nick’s infidelity in Heart of the Matter. Despite his burgeoning relationship with Valerie and strained marriage with Tessa, he cannot pinpoint what drew him to cheat on his wife with Valerie. The only answer he can give his wife is that he feels Tessa is no longer the same person he married. Perhaps Perel’s book could provide more information about what drives someone in an unhappy relationship to cheat rather than get a divorce. 

Anatomy of Love: A Natural History of Mating, Marriage, and Why We Stray by Helen E. Fisher

Similar to Perel’s work, Helen E. Fisher “has conducted pioneering brain research on lust, romantic love, and attachment” (Goodreads, n.d.), helping to provide a more scientific explanation for why unhappiness causes individuals like Nick in Heart of the Matter, to be unfaithful to their partners. 

3 Relevant Fiction Works and Authors:

Whatever It Takes by L. Maretta

In L. Maretta’s Whatever It Takes, after learning of her husband’s infidelity, Emma must decide whether to stay married to Gavin, despite him having an affair, or to get a divorce. Tessa, in Heart of the Matter, similarly struggles with not only whether to forgive her husband for his infidelity and continue raising their two young children together or whether to get a divorce but also the societal pressures of being a wife, mother, and woman in a world influenced by the patriarchy. 

Husband and Wife: A Novel by Leah Stewart 

The synopsis for Husband and Wife: A Novel reads in part, “a young mother [] finds her identity rocked to the core when her writer-husband reveals his next novel about infidelity isn’t entirely fiction” (Goodreads, n.d.). Tessa, in Heart of the Matter, also faces an identity crisis; she is struggling to be the type of mother both her children, who differ widely in temperament, will respond to, the woman her husband wants her to be, not the one she has become, and the daughter for which her mom approves.

 Love and Other Natural Disasters by Holly Shumas 

Shumas’ novel asks many of the same questions and considers many of the same themes as Heart of the Matter. In particular, when Tessa learns of her husband’s infidelity in Heart of the Matter, Nick tries to minimize his relationship with Valerie. In Love and Other Natural Disasters, Eve’s husband tries to maintain “his innocence” (Goodreads, n.d.), claiming he did not have “an affair [because that] involves physical intimacy” (Goodreads, n.d.); he only had “an intimate relationship” (Goodreads, n.d.) with a woman who is not his wife.

 

References:

 

The Boston Common Frog Pond. (n.d.). About. https://bostonfrogpond.com/about/

 

Fisher, H.E. (1992). Anatomy of love: a natural history of mating, marriage, and why we stray. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20707972-anatomy-of-love

 

Giffin. E. (2010). Heart of the matter. St. Martin’s Press. 

 

Indianapolis Public Library. (n.d.). Heart of the matter. https://indypl.bibliocommons.com/v2/record/S165C90639

 

Maretta, L. (2013). Whatever It takes. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/18044354

 

NoveList. (n.d.). Heart of the matter. 

 

Perel, E. (2017.). The state of affairs: Rethinking infidelity. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34017010-the-state-of-affairs

 

Shumas, H. (2008). Love and other natural disasters. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/4004558

 

Stewart, L. (2010). Husband and wife. Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7506174-husband-and-wife

 

Rosenberg, K.P. (2018). Infidelity: Why men and women cheat.

 

Goodreads. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/36204447

 

Wyatt, N. & Saricks, J.G. (2019). The reader’s advisory guide to genre nonfiction. (3rd ed.). ALA Editions.