Radiant and brilliantly crafted ... Isn't a typical sports novel ... Resists the easy satisfactions of the sentimental and never settles for simple answers to emotional predicaments faced by her characters ... Elegant ... Poignant.
Piercingly tender ... Ann Napolitano catalogues the multitudes of love and hurt that families contain, and lays bare their powers to both damage and heal. If that description echoes the poetry of Walt Whitman, whose work Napolitano quotes in her epigraph, it also reflects her own expansive literary spirit — a bracing yet restorative sensibility that managed to render cathartic...seemingly unbearable pain .. Hello Beautiful will make you weep buckets because you come to care so deeply about the characters and their fates ... Aching precision ... Napolitano’s voice is her own. Like her deeply felt characters, she compels us to contemplate the complex tapestry of family love that can, despite grief and loss, still knit us together. She helps us see ourselves — and each other — whole.
With the vibrant and close-knit Pilson neighborhood playing a supporting role, Napolitano’s latest novel investigates the deep, maddeningly frustrating, and ever-present love of family, whether tied by genetics or by choice.
Thoughtfully examines the comforts and challenges of home life, work and romantic love, but with a distinctly modern perspective ... Napolitano goes to great lengths to explain and justify her characters’ choices—at times, at the expense of action and dialogue. Still, William and the Padavano sisters remain memorable, and Napolitano’s sharp plotting provides a gripping conclusion that radiates love and kindness, the sort you wish that all feuding families might find their way to ... This bighearted domestic novel reaches comforting highs and despairing lows as Napolitano examines the many ways that families pull each other together and apart.
Striking ... The author breathes great life into her characters, and brings insight into their quiet moments as they gradually come into their own. This will move readers.
The influence of Walt Whitman is felt throughout the book ... Heartbreaking circumstances shatter the lives of relatable human characters who are unprepared for the task of building a meaningful life ... Napolitano’s characters can break your heart as they work to mend their own.
