a difficult story. may i never have to face what the main charachter did.

This was a great book--very, very sad but I could not put it down . A must read

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
One True Thing is a film starring Meryl Streep as the cancer-stricken homemaker mother, Renee Zellweger as the daughter who quits her top-dog job to care for her, and William Hurt as the chilly professor who lets the women in the family do the heavy emotional lifting dying requires. But the real star of the project remains former New York Times everyday-life columnist Anna Quindlen, who quit her top-dog job to write novels (and who took time off from college to nurse her own dying mother).

Quindlen hit a nerve with One True Thing, which captures an experience seldom dealt with in popular culture. (One exception: the sensitive 1996 film with Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio of the play Marvin's Room.) Though the heroine of One True Thing, Ellen Gulden, is a golden girl with two brothers who'll lose her career the instant she steps off the fast track, society concurs with her dad, who says, "It seems to me another woman is what's wanted here."

The book is a mother-daughter tale that should please fans of, say, The Joy Luck Club. It's not flashy, but it has a deep feel for the way children often discover, just before it's too late, who their parents really are. "Our parents are never people to us," Ellen writes, "they're always character traits.... There is only room in the lifeboat of your life for one, and you always choose yourself, and turn your parents into whatever it takes to keep you afloat." The mercy-killing subplot isn't gripping, but the palpable sense of deepening family intimacy certainly is.

From Publishers Weekly
Quindlen's story of a woman accused of helping her mortally ill mother die spent seven weeks on PW's bestseller list

Wonderful book about the reconnecting of a daughter as she cares for her dying mother. Funny, sad and impossible to put down.

Wonderful story about a family coping with a mother's illness.

Very good reading, even the second time when I know the plot.

Okay. A little depressing.

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What a great book ! I so felt for Ellen. She tried to do what was best in a tough situation and pulled it off with great grace and skill. This book really digs into what families are like and how people react in the face of adversity and what it takes to just do what needs to be done. Two thumbs up !!

Is this what life is really like, think about it.

A young woman returns home to care for her dying mother and ends up being tried for her murder.

Another great raed from Anna Quindlen. Compelling and emotional.

very good read

Very moving and can relate to anyone that has taken care of and suffered the loss of a loved one. It's very true, doesn't sugar coat the family life of someone that's terminally ill. A great read and actually very inspiring.

pretty interesting book; deals with cancer and mother/daughter relationships as well as parents relating with adult children. sad story

Overall, a decent book that makes you think. The writing is shakey at times.

A story about a family dealing with terminal illness.

It catches your attention with the love that exists between mother and daughter. I've reread it twice.

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