Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano
Ann Napolitano’s warm, sad and tender novel Hello Beautiful is an absorbing exploration of family dynamics. The novel is thoughtful and perceptive. Napolitano beautifully depicts the complexity of family loyalty. Love can both support and constrain individual choices. Though the novel stands alone, echoes of Little Women add another dimension to this story of four sisters whose relationships change when the oldest sister falls in love. Napolitano’s focus on the interior lives of her characters gives this book its depth.
Willian Waters and Julia Padavano, the oldest of four sisters, met and fell in love when they were students at Northwestern University. William grew up on the East Coast, an isolated and lonely boy. His older sister died soon after his birth. His parent’s grief consumes them and they ignore William, a trauma he wrestles with later in the novel. William’s only joy is playing basketball. Upon arriving at Northwestern on an athletic scholarship, his life expands when he meets Julia’s family: her parents, Charlie and Rose, and her three sisters, Sylvie, Cecelia, and Emeline. William and Julia marry quickly, and William finally feels the love and camaraderie of a warm and supportive family.
Napolitano shows the complicated tension between loyalty to family versus loyalty to self. The four Padavano sisters love each other and are intertwined like strings in a rope. Yet William and Julia’s relationship sparks the unraveling of the family’s structure; a death in the family causes more pain. Reacting to their grief, each sister wants to pursue her dreams and desires, which conflict with the expectations of the others. The sisters love each other profoundly and make each other miserable. Relationships fray and conflicts emerge. Though I wish Napolitano had provided more dialogue so that readers could engage more fully with the changing dynamics, she succeeds in revealing the inner lives of the characters over decades. The novel deftly tackles issues of aging, alcoholism, betrayal and mental illness.
Napolitano understands that humans are not good or bad; they are complex. She has written a powerful novel about a family of individuals doing their best - based on who they are and what they have experienced. Good read. 4/5