Hello Beautiful

I don't get the hype for this book. It's a novel about the relations among four sisters, and has been described as an "homage" to "Little Women". Indeed, the sisters continually compare themselves to the March sisters (not the only repetitiveness in the book), but there really is no resemblance. It's an easy read, but the writing is pedestrian. Napolitano does a lot of "telling", rather than "showing". She doesn't sufficiently develop her characters, so that their behavior seems absurd and their motivations for their actions aren't clear or seem nonsensical.

On top of that, she obviously didn't do her research. The book is set primarily in Chicago and Evanston at very specific times (each chapter is headed with the dates in which it show more occurs). You can't just hop a bus from Pilsen to Northwestern University, and nobody in their right mind would walk from Northwestern to Pilsen, as she has one character do. There is no part of Chicago that is called "midtown". If you're going to set a book in a specific place and time, be accurate.

But her most egregious offense was to have one sister, Sylvie, work at the Lozano Branch of the Chicago Public Library, beginning in 1974. The Lozano Branch did not open until 1989. Napolitano says in her acknowledgements that she deliberately had it exist "a few years" before then (sorry, FIFTEEN years is not "a few"). This is absolutely infuriating. Rudy Lozano was a labor activist and community organizer who, in 1983, at the age of 31, was murdered because of his activism. The library is named in his honor and has a permanent exhibit celebrating his life. Napolitano erases that history, insulting his memory. I don't like it when authors play games with history, but I don't think I've ever been so angry about it as I am with Napolitano. She owes his family and the community an apology. show less

I just loved this one. Loosely inspired by Little Women, the Padavano sisters grow up in Chicago in a tight-knit household. The story follows them through the decades as love and loss create barriers in their lives. The author explores the idea that we are shaped by our family, both their presence and absence. The rotating POV (William, Julia, and Sylvie) gives us a chance to glimpse the same events through different eyes. It's hard to explain how deeply this one hit me. I missed the characters when I finished it. I can't wait to read Napolitano next work. Her gorgeous prose made me feel like I was wandering the aisles of Sylvie's library, glancing up at Cecelia's murals that dotted their Chicago neighborhood, and that I could pop into show more Emeline's home to say hello.

SPOILERS
With Charlie’s death, the Padavana women realize all of the intangible depth and understanding he added to their lives. It made me think about how our society struggles to value certain gifts that people have. We appreciate the tangible, but don’t always recognize other skills that are less concrete, like empathy and kindness.

“Charlie’s and Silvie’s deaths were now part of Julia’s topography; the losses ran like a river inside her.“
SPOILERS OVER

“When an old person dies,” Kent said, “even if that person is wonderful, he or she is still somewhat ready, and so are the people who loved them. They’re like old trees, whose roots have loosened in the ground. They fall gently. But when someone like your aunt Sylvie dies—before her time—her roots get pulled out and the ground is ripped up. Everyone nearby is in danger of being knocked over.”

“The fact that he had failed meant he had to continue to walk forward with his life history—his mistakes—slung over his shoulders like a heavy backpack. This fact exhausted him, but he was too tired to reject it.” show less

A beautifully written, character-driven novel that circles around a basketball player, William, whose life is subsumed by an early childhood trauma. Gradually the reader is introduced to William's first girlfriend, Julia Padavano, and her three younger sisters. Napolitano paints a detailed picture of the entanglements and complexities of life as young people try to figure out their identities and struggle with love, self-actualization, and ultimately forgiveness. The book spans a period of time covering the entire adult lives of William and the Padavanos using multiple points of view. The writing is very rich, and there are definite echoes of "Little Women" throughout with the four sisters loosely paralleling Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. My show more only criticism is the reader is rarely left any room to infer the thoughts and feelings of the characters; the book makes every character development very explicit. It's more about the ride than the finale, but overall, the result is a compelling story where you essentially wish you could step into the book and provide advice and love in equal measure to the various characters. show less

I saw a lot of reviews about this book mentioning that it wasn't worth the hype, and picked it up out of curiosity. Perhaps because this is the sort of genre that I enjoy (generational stories, historical fiction-esque), I ate it up. What I especially liked was how distinct William and each of the four Padavano sisters were. They had such unique personalities, and it felt like I really grew up with them until the end of the book.

I have to say, I hated Julie so much! She was selfish and bitchy, up until the end. That woman really lacked empathy and just wanted to control everyone, which is probably why she missed out on experiencing real love and couldn't bond with Alice (her daughter) after she started growing up and developed a show more conscience of her own. She clearly could only bond with the baby version of her child, as it's easier to control them. Jus' sayin'! show less

I will be honest: I would not have picked up this book had the publisher not pre-approved me for it on NetGalley. I will be honest: some publishers know me better than I know myself. I couldn’t put this book down, and I even shed a few tears.

Hello Beautiful is the story of four sisters, from their idyllic childhood when they argue over which is Jo and which is Beth, to the messy lives they make that split them apart, to the tragedy that reunites them.

Caught in the middle is a man, Willian; the eldest sister determined to mold him into the perfect husband, and when she learns he his weaknesses, she rejects him. They divorce, she moves across country, and tells their child that her father is dead. The next oldest sister feels seen by show more him, and he knows she sees him for who he really is–confused and lost. Theirs is a true love. That leaves the twin sisters with a choice that will alienated from one sister or another.

To confuse things even more, one of the twins is a teenage mother and the other comes out as gay. And their father, a loving but flawed man, has died, and their mother casts off all the daughters and moves away. The perfect family that William first encountered has splintered. His own family was shut against him after the loss of his older sister, eager to disassociate from him.

The chapters are divided by character and time. The book is deeply internal, revelatory, showing the characters pain and their growth.

This is Little Woman gone awry. Marmee become judgmental and controlling, Jo trying to will Laurie to fill her expectations, Meg split into two who are never apart, Amy happily married to her sister’s cast-off, but also Beth with her tragedy.

The trauma is intergenerational; their mother Rose was pregnant before marriage and rejected by her parents. She determined that her girls would not make her mistakes, they would go to college and would be strong and in control and independent. She could not accept that their lives veered from her plans. Rose’s ideal of independence, and disappointment that her husband didn’t achieve the great things she had wanted, shaped Julia’s drive for control and success, and led to her rejection of William. Whereas, the younger sister, rejected by Rose for her pregnancy out of wedlock, didn’t want to be resentful like her mother, and forgives her mother for her harshness.

No one had loved him unconditionally, William realizes. Julia had been strong enough for both of them, leading the way, and he gratefully went along, happy someone cared. When he failed to become the man she wanted him to be, he believed that his daughter and wife were better off without him.

I felt that the arc of the characters’ inner life was probable. The complicated family drama had me hooked. There is so much wisdom to be found in this novel. The mistakes of our youth, embracing our truth and showing it to the world, love and forgiveness, its all here.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased. show less

I admit to being prone to hyperbole but - this is one of the best books I've ever read. It's just damn perfect. Its pacing, character development, the way the switching of narrative voices adds texture and layers to an already beautiful story - just wow. It made me examine my own truths about life and family, and I was legitimately sobbing through several moments at the end. The really wonderful part is that I was crying for multiple reasons: about what was happening to the characters in the book, what I was feeling about my own history, and the fact that I would have to stop reading this book.

The Padavano sisters – Julia, Sylvie, and twins Emeline and Cecelia – are part of a close-knit Chicago family. Despite their parents’ unhappy marriage, the sisters are loved and nurtured, especially by their father Charlie. Their personalities are quite different, but they support one another through thick and thin.

In college Julia meets William, who hides the scars from a completely different upbringing. William is immediately accepted by the Padavanos, and he happily immerses himself in their love. Julia, a take-charge sort of person, sets about molding William and their relationship to fit her ideal. It would appear they are heading for the classic happy ending … until they aren’t. Their conflict has ripple effects through show more the entire family, and redirects the course of their lives over the next 25 years.

My favorite parts of this novel were Charlie, whose presence was palpable even when he was “off-screen,” and the relationship between the sisters prior to the central conflict. As time progressed there were certain elements of the story that seemed less believable to me, and the ending was perhaps a bit too tidy. But if you like a good family saga (and I do), you’ll enjoy this one. show less