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Everything Here Is Beautiful

by Mira T. Lee

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5693841,496 (3.91)29
"Two sisters--Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She moves her new family from the States to Ecuador and back again, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth. Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again--but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans--but what does it take to break them? Told in alternating points of view, Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, the story of a young woman's quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it's also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone--and when loyalty to one's self must prevail over all"--… (more)
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» See also 29 mentions

Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)
I almost bailed on this once I realized how sad it might become, part of me wishes I did. It was good, but not great for me, multiple narrators kept me going but I didn't 'love' any of the characters and I don't think I'll ever be 'thinking back to them' ( )
  hellokirsti | Jan 3, 2024 |
Miranda and Lucia are Chinese American women who are sisters. Miranda has always watched over Lucia, as Lucia has a form of mental illness. They live their separate lives, but there is that bond that is ever present. Miranda is in Switzerland, but it only takes a phone call from Lucia's friends, and she is always there to protect her sister.

This was a little hard to get into at first, but you are so charmed by Lucia that the reading is a pleasure. ( )
  JReynolds1959 | Oct 28, 2023 |
Exquisitely empathetic, and yet unflinchingly honest, this is one of the best novels I've read about the toll living with mental illness takes on the family members who choose to support their loved one through crisis after crisis. There were times I felt viscerally the fear and uncertainty and anger and lonliness. A beautiful story of family bonds, and of choosing to stay through the hardest times. Highly recommended. ( )
  NeedMoreShelves | Jun 23, 2023 |
This is, first and foremost, the story of two sisters, one of whom suffers from mental illness. It's also the story of immigrants -- both documented and undocumented -- making their way in America. Miranda can remember coming to America from China with her mother, after her father's death. Lucia is younger, a free spirit whose mind eventually becomes unmoored from reality. Miranda is ever the protective older sibling -- too protective, perhaps?

The story explores painful questions. How do you help someone get well when that person doesn't recognize that she is sick? How does mental illness affect all those close to the person who is ill? Why are societal attitudes toward mental illness so different from attitudes toward physical illness? Can you always determine the boundary between the personality and actions of the person who is ill and actual manifestations of mental illness? (Is every reckless act the result of the illness?)

I just finished this, and it has left me feeling a bit melancholy. ( )
  tymfos | May 21, 2023 |
This was a heartbreaking read. ( )
  ninagl | Jan 7, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 38 (next | show all)
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For the families
Empathy: because the commonality among human beings is emotion, and the only way we can bridge our vast discrepancies in experience is through what we feel. Let us be humbled in the knowledge that one may never fully understand the interior lives of others--but let us continue to care.
First words
A summer day in New Jersey.
Quotations
There's a word for this in Portuguese: saudade. It's not exactly nostalgia, there's more of a longing in it, for a feeling or way of life that may be impossible to recapture--that may or may not have even existed in the first place. "An indolent dreaming wistfulness" is how I've seen one writer describe it. Now that's a great word.
In the density of the city, she feels alone. In the open space of the campo, she feels constricted, the eyes of the family ever upon her.
There is a word for this, a beautiful word that unfurls from the tongue: velleity. The weakest form of volition. A mere wish, unaccompanied by an effort to obtain it.
But now, like this, I think love is just romantic way of explaining selflessness.
This was a brief encounter, tender, yet strained. They would part knowing what they'd always known: that they had each loved Lucia. And this was enough, for now, neither was ready for more. In grief, the future seems impossible.
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"Two sisters--Miranda, the older, responsible one, always her younger sister's protector; Lucia, the headstrong, unpredictable one, whose impulses are huge and, often, life changing. When their mother dies and Lucia starts hearing voices, it is Miranda who must find a way to reach her sister. But Lucia impetuously plows ahead, marrying a bighearted, older man only to leave him, suddenly, to have a baby with a young Latino immigrant. She moves her new family from the States to Ecuador and back again, but the bitter constant is that she is, in fact, mentally ill. Lucia lives life on a grand scale, until, inevitably, she crashes to earth. Miranda leaves her own self-contained life in Switzerland to rescue her sister again--but only Lucia can decide whether she wants to be saved. The bonds of sisterly devotion stretch across oceans--but what does it take to break them? Told in alternating points of view, Everything Here Is Beautiful is, at its heart, the story of a young woman's quest to find fulfillment and a life unconstrained by her illness. But it's also an unforgettable, gut-wrenching story of the sacrifices we make to truly love someone--and when loyalty to one's self must prevail over all"--

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