Hello Beautiful

"Hello, Beautiful" by Ann Napolitano is a hauntingly emotional tug at the soul. While the pace is slow, it feels deliberate, allowing us readers to immerse ourselves in the language of the characters. William Waters is doomed from birth to become a damaged adult, accustomed to tucking his emotions away in order to function in the real world. Growing up in a house full of tragedy, with the sudden death of his sister, made him construct his own world, but it’s not built to last. As a freshman in college, William meets Julia Padavano, with her larger-than-life family, full of powerful sisters. Awkwardly and slowly, he learns to navigate their boisterous, loud family.Julia, driven to succeed, charts a life with William. They marry and have a child, and she sets William on a path to become a professor. But this is Julia’s dream and not one William can sustain. The darkness from William’s childhood swamps him, and the construct of his world collapses, a reality Julia cannot contemplate or deal with. She’s on a fast track to reach her dream, and having a husband have a mental breakdown is not on her list.When William goes off the deep end, it’s Sylvie, Julia’s sister, who recognizes the crisis. This recognition by Sylvie of who William is, and his struggle, sets William and the Padavano family on a new path. To make the path succeed, sacrifices must be made, and it’s Julia who recognizes this and who is determined to live up to her father’s expectations. Julia uproots herself to flee Chicago, where every street holds a family memory, to New York, to start over as a single mother with baby Alice.Decades slowly unravel, and the reader sees the depth of love coating Sylvie and William, the twin sisters Cecelia and Emeline, and William’s vast friendships thanks to his love of basketball.The characters in this novel are richly developed, layered much like Cecilia’s murals all throughout Chicago depicting powerful women (who resemble the Padavano women). This novel unmasks powerful women with tight bonds gluing them together as sisters, who must each learn to stand on their own, often meaning disappointing parental expectations to become truly independent. The male bonds of friendship were wonderful to see as the men in William's life rally around, keeping him afloat in the real world through his initial crisis and throughout the years.I dare any reader not to cry through the last few chapters as the wide gulf that had existed between the sisters is mended through a transformation of life’s expectations, faith, and the powerful love fueled by sisters. This novel will cling to me for a long time, and I highly recommend it as a must-read.

The Padvanos family, Charlie & his wife Rosie stayed in a small town called Pilsen in Chicago along with their four daughters viz Julia,Sylvie,Cecelia & Emeline.Julia is ten months older to Sylvie & that they strongly bond together.They share every bit of information that happens in their life while holding no secrets between them.Similarly the bonding between Emeline and Cecelia who are twins is also remarkable.The four daughters always hold a common perspective reflecting an unbiased love for one another.As both Rosie & Charlie couldn't do their college, Rosie desired that her daughters do their college and lead a much happier life.Though Rosie's expectations of her daughters are unspoken but she did held a view of high stakes of them.She inculcated positive ideas in her daughters like telling tales of Saints to them & hanging photographs of the Saints on the walls in the house etc.She wished that Charlie could do something more to make the family financially stable & many a times she talked her way to bring the change in her husband's thinking but her efforts remained elusive.Charlie, who loved poetry, prefferd to live a simpler and non pretentious life.He believed that a person is more important than the job he holds.Julia, who understood her mother closely, always wished that she could do something for the family. She was able to secure a scholarship in Northwestern University and joined the college to complete her graduation. Sylvie, on the other hand, worked in a library & as being romantic at heart and interested in reading,read hundreds of books like Wuthering Heights,Anna Karenina etc.and fancied her soulmate similar to one of those characters. (someone like *Heathcliff *),She also read poetry and sometimes used to recite a line or two of Walt Whitman's poems to Charlie to impress him as Charlie adored Walt Whitman & often mentions him & his poetry.The twins Cecelia & Emmeline are into painting and caregiving respectively. On the contrary to Padvano's siblings, we find another character, William Waters,who is raised by a grief-stricken parents.Their daughter Caroline, who was three years older to William, dies too young & the parents could not quite get out of that gloom.As a child William grew up feeling unwanted & neglected & enters into adulthood with a fractured past.He had an intrest in basketball that kept him away from his melancholy thoughts of being unwanted and most of the time he used to play alone.It's his basketball skills that secures him a scholarship at Northwestern University, where he joins for his graduation. Julia meets William at the university & that they both fall in love and later gets married.But Williams past & his love for basketball, couldn't quite fit into Julia's expectations of him and William's subsequent sucidal attempt, soon after the birth of their daughter,Alice forced her to think differently.Sylvie, who reads William's manuscripts earlier before,at the instance of Julia,understands him more deeply and emphasizes with his past.She gets drawn towards William & eventually gets married to him, when Julia shifts to New York with Alice.Sylvie's marriage to William distances Julia & the other three sisters. Earlier,Cecelia's getting pregnant without marriage, disappoints Rosie and her beliefs.Frustrated,she asks Cecelia to leave the house.When Charlie learns about the birth of his granddaughter,he visits the hospital where Cecelia delivers her baby, Isabella Rose Padvanoo.But unfortunately Charlie dies in the hallway at the hospital.After Charlie's death the good deeds he has done and the way he helped,people around Pilsen town came to the fore.Such small acts of kindness that the family never knew of Charlie, made them miss him even more. Equally intriguing is that the charectar of William.After his marriage to Sylvie,he improved bit by bit.His friends Kent and Arsh too did their best to help William come out of his depression.He started enjoying his work & derived the pleasure of helping others. When he learned about Sylvie's disease and the limited time she had shocked William and made him come out of his cell.He, now wanted to do the best that he could for Sylvie.He understood how much Sylvie missed her sister Julia & with out a second thought he calls and informs her of Sylvie's critical condition.His sole intention was to see the joy at Padvanos home by bringing all the sisters together for which he felt that he was responsible. It's the title of the book " Hello Beautiful" by Ann Napolitano, which drew me to read the review and then my intrest followed with the mention of the poet Walt Whitman that made me purchase & read.The book begins with the beautiful lines of the poet from the "Song Of Myself" to stimulate the interest and made me eager to complete reading the book.Besides,we also experience the idea of Universal Brotherhood & a few traces of Whimanism and his idealogy, coming out through a few charecters in the book. At the hospital,Charlie's whispering of the lines from,"Song of Myself" into the ears of his newly born granddaughter -- "For every atom belonging to me as good belonging to you " ,is quite impressive.The book also highlights the influence of parents behavior on children & the psychological effects the children carry when they growup into adults.Overall the book is an extraordinary entertainment to read and enjoy while learning the importance of family,relationships, and friendships.

Transaction parfaite

Such a great, complicated and beautiful story!

Got a used book delivered even though it stated it was new when ordering. Certainly not happy with that