Carolyn Jourdan was climbing the ladder as an attorney for a US Senate committee when a call from home changes everything. Her mother had a heart attack, and she needed Carolyn to fill in for her for a few days as the receptionist/office manager of Carolyn's father's medical practice. A few days turned into a few weeks, then a few months, until Carolyn had to make a decision about her future.

Carolyn's father, Dr. Jourdan, was one of a rapidly disappearing breed of rural family medicine practitioners who owned their own practice, made hospital calls, etc. Her father didn't schedule appointments. His patients showed up at his office when they had a medical problem, and they sat in the waiting room until it was their turn. Dr. Jourdan sounded very much like my old family doctor, who ran a similar practice almost within spitting distance. They probably knew each other from local medical association meetings.

I knew this book was special from the first chapter, when the author described her first day of temping for her mother. The first patients that day were three ladies in their 90s. Carolyn thought it would be easier for them if she let them wait in one of the exam rooms instead of the waiting room, so she left them alone in a room with a hydraulic table. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

This book is perfect for readers who like James Herriot's veterinary stories or Patrick Taylor's Irish Country Doctor books. It might also be a good companion read for J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. ( )

If I were Christian, or even if only I believed in some higher power, I'd give this another star. ?áBut the Jourdan's faith does lead them to do (not just believe in) some things that make me feel turned off a bit, and so I just don't love this book. ?Ã¥Still, I do recommend it to interested readers.

And btw, though the prologue that explains the title seemed to portray Dad playing a joke on Carolyn, it's likely quite true. ?Ã¥Dextrocardia is believed to occur in approximately 1 in 12,000 people." acc. to wikipedia.

Oh, and the cover is irrelevant eye-candy. ?Ã¥Well, relevant in the sense it caught my eye, but otherwise not anything significant to the story, imo." ( )

This is one of the best books I've ever read. A true story of a high powered lawyer that comes home to help out in her dad's small town medical office when her mother becomes ill. Her storytelling is phenomenal. I laughed til I cried. Her struggles with what to do with her life are touching. Her characters so real you really feel for them and cheer for them and cry for them. I was constantly reading pieces to friends as I read. I couldn't get enough of it. I hope Ms Jourdan will write more. I have bought multiple copies to give to friends. It really has something for everyone. Real heart!

I might recommend Population 485 by Michael Perry. It is not as funny, but also has great heart.

quote from Heart in the Right Place: "It's hurting in a place I call my skull, between my arm and my neck, near the fingers, cause of my leg, over on the other side. It hurts. Ye might wanna jab a needle in it.... I need to get my feet and ankles xrayed. I took the flu, got diarrhea, and it went to my feet. It didn't help that I dropped a piece of wood on them either." ( )

Carolyn Jourdan is a Capitol Hill lawyer when she learns that her mother has had a heart attack. She rushes home and ends up in the mountains of Tennessee where her father is a country doctor. Struggling with staying where she is needed and making a direct difference in these people's lives and the life she led in Washington, she has to decide just how she wants to live her life. There are a few moments when her tale reminds me of the James Herriot novels only he, of course, was a vet. ( )

Carolyn Jourdan, forty two years old, was a U.S. Senate counsel, earning six figures a year, driving a Mercedes Benz, living an exciting, affluent life in Washington DC when she received a telephone call that her mother had possibly had heart attack and she was needed at home in rural Tennessee to help manage her father’s medical practice. The job was supposed to last for less than a week.
However, her seventy-two-year-old mother didn’t recuperate as quickly as she had anticipated and her seventy-two-year-old father had no one else who could perform the many duties necessary to run the office: complete the claim forms for insurance payments, greet the patients and answer the phones, order supplies, etc. The days expanded into weeks, then into months, then a year. During that time, she kept in touch with her DC job, planning to go back as soon as possible.
HEART IN THE RIGHT PLACE is a welll-written memoir of that year. She writes about her experiences going to see patients with her father as she was growing up. Living in a small, rural community, everyone knew everyone else. Her father was the only doctor around and treated many people who, in a city, would have gone to a specialist instead. (He does refer some patients to specialist after his initial consultation.) His patients (they are never treated as diseases or cases) suffer from a wide variety of illnesses and accidents. Many of them cannot afford to pay for their treatments. All are treated with compassion and respect.
While the patients’ medical situations provide the background for most of the book (the most explicit is Chapter 24 where she witnesses and describes a heart bypass operation. Read about what happens when someone smokes before surgery.), she makes the reader experience the lives of the community from her perspective with warmth, love, and humor.
Her father’s best friend, Fletcher teaches her what it’s like when a doctor can’t save a patient from: “The pitiful truth is that sometimes the best thing, the only thing, we can do for another person is just show up....And that takes guts.”
Among her areas of concentration in DC was nuclear science. When the US government was looking for a place for a nuclear warhead dump, the only place that wanted it was near her home. The single industry in town, a maximum security prison, had closed and the residents saw the dump as a source of revenue and jobs. When people for and against the dump sites from all over the country came to testify before Congress, the dressed in new clothes and brought their families to watch. Sadly, the media wasn’t interested and since there were no cameras present, the senators didn’t stay around either. She ended up running the meeting, giving the people the respect she thought they deserved. As well as showing what makes a politician respond, the chapter has a wonderful explanation of the etymology of the word “testimony” and why women couldn’t testify in court or have legal rights.
Carolyn wrestles about whether she should go back to the high life in DC or stay in Tennessee; what are the advantages and disadvantages of each way of life. Where will she find fulfillment. The woman at the end of the book is not the same person as the one at the beginning. ( )