For Niamh Ryan, the Foleys are family. Her childhood flew by on their farm, playing with her best friend Peter and his sister Kate—while being doted on by their mother Helen and coached by their father Liam, a legendary former hurling player. Now, following a distressing series of events, those ties are strained. As a family wedding looms, Niamh, Helen, and Kate find themselves face to face once again—and the knotty love that has bound them might just bring them back together again.
Promises to be the kind of stalwartly sentimental novel that breaks your heart and warms up its pieces. What sets it apart is the character of Liam 'Farmer' Fallon ... Brings a contemporary edge to familiar material. Still, the number of social issues in her novel seems a touch everything but the kitchen sink ... Thankfully, Nealon is a dexterous writer. Her broad humour (such as the Happy 60th Birthday paper plates for Liam’s memorial Mass) and snappy dialogue provide a counterpoint to the melodrama and social messaging ... Plus, it’s a torrid hurling tale, which, let’s face it, is an extraordinary thing. Everything That Is Beautiful taps into a passion that has set generations of not only men but also women alight; it’s a breathless romance about a sport that binds communities and creates heroes.
Not a pleasant or uplifting experience; it is not meant to be ... It makes for oppressive reading, told from the perspective of female characters who experience sexism and harassment on all sides ... The point of such books is not exactly to bring us pleasure, although they can have great moments; it is to help us understand ourselves ... The plot of the book is not made up of actions but reverberations, and its ending less a climax than a resolution ... In that sense, the novel is optimistic because in the end its characters manage to live at peace. But some of its most striking moments happen in the wings of the main story.
With humor and emotional understanding, Nealon describes the challenging realities of contemporary family life. Vigorous sports reporting contrasts powerfully with moving descriptions of eating and personality disorders. In the denouement, a family wedding is used as the liftoff point for imminent revelations ... Brilliantly executed, this novel justifies its title.
