Christina Reviews *One True Thing* by Anna Quindlen

“Empathy is the one thing I never really learned,”  I said softly.  “You never taught me empathy.” 
                                                 Ellen Gulden, P. 108

         Ellen Gulden is the most fearsome kind of woman you can imagine.  In college writing workshops, her classmates were afraid of her.  They were afraid of what she would say about their work.

        To put it simply, she doesn’t have much of a heart.  Or at the very least, she was never taught to listen to it.  She is an ambitious, workaholic, made that way by her ultra-intelligent professor father, George Gulden.

        When Ellen learns that her homemaker mother Kate is dying of cancer, she is guilt-tripped into taking care of her by her father.  Her father can’t be bothered with a sick wife. 

        She is bitter at first, but soon discovers just how little she knew about her mother and just how much she was missing in her pursuit of success. 

         I really enjoyed the novel, and found it to be a moving story of a mother and a daughter.  I also felt really intelligent after reading all of the literary conversations Ellen had with her father, and even her mother.  This book spoiled the ending of Anna Karenina for me, but that's OK.  I don't mind spoilers.

        I didn't like the movie so much.  I felt that Ellen was transformed from a cold-hearted intellectual into a whiny, spoiled brat.