Hello Beautiful (Oprah's Book Club): A Novel
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 when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion 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?
An exquisite homage to Louisa May Alcott’s timeless classic, Little Women, Hello Beautiful is a profoundly moving portrait of what is possible when we choose to love someone not in spite of who they are, but because of it.
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Community Reviews
I dislike the summary of the book on the book flap or in the description - it doesn't catch the book for me at all. And I disagree with the "exquisite homage to Little Women" bit - okay, that novel is in this, but nah.
Instead, this book is about being seen, and the consequences of not really seeing people, versus seeing others as they are and accepting them, even loving them, with all the nuances of their characters. When we try to fit people into the boxes that we've constructed for them, everything will fall apart. Julia had a life path chosen for herself and her family members. Well, it turns out that we all get to write our own script.
Of course, because this is a book about sisters and family, when things don't go according to Julia's plan, it upends the whole family, and then the book is about depression, teenage single mom, LGBTQA, cancer, feminist power, cancer and of course the fact that their dad, who was always under appreciated while he was alive, turns out to have been such an awesome guy to all the neighborhood and his kids that he's the one they all remember most fondly. Can we fit one more Lifetime movie trope in there?
Two of my favorite quotes - "stop thinking about who you were when you were living the wrong life, William. you're built of rote life you're living now" and "Opportunity did not knock until I built the door" (which goes back to Milton Berle).
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