Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?
Vibrating with tenderness, Hello Beautiful is a gorgeous, profoundly moving portrait of what’s possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
Review: William Waters grew up in a house silenced by grief and parents who cannot bear to risk loving him. His refuge is basketball, which eventually takes him to a college far from home in Chicago. There he quickly catches the attention of Julia Padavano, an ambitious young woman who seems to have all the answers that William lacks. In William, Julia sees a checkmark on her plans to a successful future. Julia is part of a pair, that makes up a set of four sisters. Julia is utterly inseparable from her three sisters, twins Cecilia and Emeline and most especially her sister Sylvie. But over time, a seemingly irreparable rift occurs in the family centering around William, and the formerly inseparable sisters find themselves unable to bind themselves back together.
This was such a beautiful, character driven novel, consumed with the intricacies that define all sibling relationships, but most especially those that are deep and most meaningful: "The deepest union in this apartment was between the two sisters who fell asleep in each other's arms" (95). Sylvie and Julia hold a deep love for one another, which also arms each with the greatest capacity to hurt one another. I loved the depiction of love in this book: its binding nature, its capacity to both wound and heal, and the way it is unavoidable and at times beyond the control of the person who loves, who finds themselves at the mercy of a love that must exist, no matter who it hurts: "It was hard for me to accept the fact that we don't choose who we love, because who you love changes everything" (238). Moreover, the novel illustrates over and over that the absence of the one who is loved has the capacity to shape a life in profound ways, which happens over and over in this novel: "When your love for a person is so profound that it's part of who you are, then the absence of the person becomes part of your DNA, your bones, and your skin" (360). You cannot escape love, not by leaving, not by dying, this novel insistently refrains.
Napolitano makes deliberate connections between the four sisters and the four sisters in Little Women. The sisters take turns pointing out which fictional character from the classic they identify with the most. In a heartbreaking turn, we learn which sister is Beth in the end. I loved how the Little Women references are woven into the novel and the way in this book the sisters shape shift from one Alcott character to another until the final concluding chapter of one of the sister's lives.
The writing in this novel is heartbreakingly beautiful. In the wake of a profound loss, William returns to his empty apartment: "That night, turning the key in the apartment door hurt. It yawned open and revealed the landscape of his happiness" (362). The searing immensity of what he has lost is felt so keenly in those two short sentences. This has so many beautiful turns of phrases, like William hearing a stunning revelation: "He felt a pressure on his chest, as if he were being tackled by relief" (365). I rarely cry when reading books, but Napolitano so vividly captures William's grief that it was impossible not to find myself with my face fully wet reading the final chapters.
Readers who like plot driven books will likely not be thrilled by this one. It is deeply about family dynamics, about how those we love make us feel and how the way we are loved shapes our actions and the course of our lives. I regret that my review has been restrained in order to avoid spoilers, because I would like to wax on about certain characters and certain relationships. In the end, I think while sad and despairing at times, this novel is truly about the enduring nature of love and the capacity for second chances and making amends.
Stars: 5
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