One True Thing

One True Thing is a novel by Anna Quindlen, published in 1994. Quindlen uses an extended flashback to tell a story mainly concerned with the emotional bond between a mother and daughter that subtly shifts into a low-stakes mystery.

The story begins with the narrator, Ellen Gulden, speaking from jail. She describes the difference between jail and prison, then sequels into a general impression of her family and childhood. Ellen goes back in time to begin her story properly, flashing back to when she was a twenty-four year old working as an editor and living in New York City. She is very happy with her life: Her professional life keeps improving, she has a boyfriend she enjoys very much, even if she is with him for the wrong reasons, and the sort of apartment that people kill for in a city like New York.

Ellen credits her drive to her father, George, with whom she had a very close relationship growing up. George is a literature professor and head of the English Department at a college near the town where Ellen grew up, and always pushed Ellen to seek perfection and achievement. The intellectual bond she enjoyed with George made Ellen look down somewhat on her mother, Kate. Kate is a homemaker and very happy to be, striving to be the perfect hostess and housekeeper. Ellen believes her mother to be devoid of any higher ambitions.



George contacts Ellen and informs her that Kate has been diagnosed with cancer, and asks her to move back home to help him care for Kate. Ellen views George’s pressure on her as a form of blackmail, and resents having to quit her job and leave her life in New York. Despite her anger, Ellen cannot say no to her father and so moves home. Kate is initially resistant to the idea, but eventually acquiesces.

As Ellen helps her dying mother, the family dynamic begins to shift. Kate had always been aware of Ellen’s preference for George, and chose not to interfere with this. Now, however, Ellen finds herself still angry with George over his manipulation, and this anger is fanned by the fact that George makes no effort to care for his wife, and seems to have asked Ellen to step in so that he can be completely absent from her death. George continues with a full workload and uses his work as an excuse not to attend any doctor visits or other medical events. He is also very cold to Kate.

These observations make Ellen reevaluate her attitude towards both Kate and George, elevating Kate to the role of strong, reliable parent and George to the unrealistic, weak one. At the same time, her conversations with Kate and evidence she discovers around the house convince her that George has engaged in several extramarital affairs, which upsets her.



Kate’s condition worsens. Her pain becomes so intense she relies on large quantities of morphine pills to tolerate it. She loses control of her bowels and bladder and must wear diapers. She eventually cannot leave her bed. One evening, Kate tearfully begs Ellen to help her commit suicide. Ellen is horrified at the thought, and rejects it. Ellen is then filled with self-loathing over what she sees as her weakness and inability to spare her mother pain by carrying out her wishes.

Kate passes away. Ellen is initially relieved that her mother’s misery is over, but the coroner’s report lists the cause of death as an overdose of morphine. Ellen is arrested for Kate’s murder, and she finds herself replaying her last memories of Kate in her mind. Ellen remembers the final meal that Kate had, rice pudding fed to her by George. Ellen remembers the look on her mother’s face as she consumed each bite fed to her by her husband, and she realizes that it was in fact George who gave Kate the overdose of pills.

Ellen decides that it is her responsibility to protect George. She denies the charges levied against her, but refuses to offer any alternative explanation for fear of implicating her father. Ellen endures a trial, and although she is acquitted due to a lack of compelling evidence, it is clear that everyone in town believes she is guilty, although most people profess to view it as an act of mercy.



Ellen leaves and returns to New York. She is unable to bring herself to speak with George, and eight years pass. Ellen changes careers and pursues psychiatry in an overt break from her father’s influence, and leaves her boyfriend for someone she actually loves. One evening at the theater, she inadvertently meets her father, and they speak for the first time since the trial. George tells her he did not give the pills to Kate—Kate prepared the overdose herself, and committed suicide.