Hello Beautiful - Ann Napolitano - 3.5*** (rounded up)

[Book Concierge]

Hello Beautiful – Ann Napolitano
Book on CD read by Maura Tierney
3.5*** (rounded up)

A contemporary family saga spanning decades.

William Waters had a lonely childhood lacking in love and affection. He meets Julia Padovano his freshman year of college and is embraced by her family. Julia and her three sisters are very close, and William seems to enjoy the loving chaos of the loud and boisterous family. But William’s buried darkness surfaces, threatening not only his and Julia’s plans for the future, but the sisters’ once unbreakable bond.

Gosh, but Napolitano can craft some beautiful sentences! While there were times when I thought the plot seemed somewhat contrived, and I could not understand, at all, the way in which the girls’ mother, Rose, behaved, I felt drawn into the relationships of the Padovano family. William, too, is not without some resources, including a group of friends who will do anything to help him; while he may not recognize it, he is rich in love despite the emotional damage caused by his parents.

I liked the way Napolitano reimagined Little Women , though I could have done without the constant reminders in the book about the classic novel. I was sorry that my F2F book club didn’t have a richer discussion (one member just dismissed the book as “a soap opera,” and basically cut off all efforts at further discourse with a variation of that statement).

Maura Tierney does a marvelous job of voicing the audiobook edition. She has a lot of characters to deal with and she is up to the task.


LINK to my review

[Holly R W]

Great review! It's a shame that your book club didn't have a fuller discussion of the novel, as there are so many interesting things in it. To me, it was much deeper than a soap opera, as one of your members called it. While I had some problems with the book, they did not interfere with my appreciation/enjoyment of it. (For example, Rose's behavior toward her daughters was inexplicable, as you mention.)

Here is my own review of the book, in case you are interested. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...