Within Arm's Reach: A Novel

“A baby and a wedding to someone other than the baby’s father, all in one year…This family is in crisis…When it comes to matters of the heart, every single person in this family is hopeless…What you get when we are all in the same room is not love. It is a potent combination of our childhood, my father’s anger, and my mother’s deliberate silence and pointless barbed comments. It is the long, thin, thorny end of the rose.” “It’s like looking at a reflection in a broken mirror; I can see the sharp corners and growing cracks of my family…I recognize myself in the story; I recognize the people I come from and am surrounded by. It proves that even when the worst thing imaginable happens, the individuals involved still survive…A family needs the old, the young, and the infants.” “There is something of my mother and my first child in her eyes, and I can see the unborn child that she already loves there, too. In that moment I can see everything, everyone, the entire McLaughlin family, shining out of her tear-stained face…I glance over at the couch to make sure my mother is still here, to make sure she is still within arm’s reach of my daughters…If I were able, I would weave my way to the other side of the room and take her hand. The boundaries, the squabbles, and the resentments have dropped away. Time has dropped away. I am lucky enough to recognize this for what it is: one of those perfect, full-to-bursting moments you wait a lifetime for, when it all comes together.” “In this moment I am seated in a miraculous room that is singing with the voices of the people I love. My babies cry out to greet the next infant, the one that will grab hold of life and this family and turn everything around…What I have made is in this room. This is my life’s work. This is what I have left and this is what I will leave behind.” Ann Napolitano’s debut novel is a classic that will forever remain on my bookshelf, just Within Arm’s Reach.

I enjoyed the change of character from chapter to chapter. The story tells of complex relationships, secrets and finding one’s self. It does feel as if the latter is unattainable to the daughters, who they really are does not get tied up in a bow. The end leaves a bit to be desired as to if anyone will find happiness and I found myself wanting more.

Thank you net galley and random house for the advance copy.

“Within Arm’s Reach” is the surprising re-release of Ann Napolitano's first book. It follows the huge success of Napolitano's last hit “Hello Beautiful.” The combination of these works demonstrate Napolitano genius for telling deep and compelling stories about families. This one is particularly fascinating and entertaining. She uses an Irish-American family's complex web of relationships to give us a story about generational drama and the patterns that repeat or skip lines. Napolitano's brilliance really shines in how she is able to write from different perspectives and create unique voices. That tapestry of personas hammer home the themes of family, relationships, and loss. In this one Napolitano also delves into mysticism and the spiritual. The differences in how the cast of characters approach these topics and others works particularly well in this novel. Specifically, in how key characters are diametrically opposite to one another's views. All of them painfully messy in their own way. Most of their issues rooted in trauma that they never directly deal with. The title itself is poignant. At many moments Napolitano's style and the plot underscore how the things we want are always within arms reach, if we can be brave enough to reach for them. This imagery is wonderfully represented by the scenes of being tied physically to a tree versus being tied together by unspoken emotional drama. In both cases, love and freedom are within arm’s reach but remain unattainable. All of Napolitano's novels I have read thus far are great at telling stories where we see how changing socio-economic times can change families as well. Napolitano's prose and pacing really grab me. Her deeply flawed characters irk me but I can’t look away. I am becoming a big fan of her books and look forward to catching up on her complete works. I definitely recommend this one and “Hello Beautiful.”

Classic Napolitano. This is a beautifully written story with deeply flawed characters who navigate a dysfunctional family dynamic that is heartbreaking in its sincerity. Six characters will have their turn at narration, painting the broad strokes of the family dynamic and judging it with idiosyncratic eyes. The whole created by these narratives is available only to the reader who shares Napolitano’s omniscient eye. The family will not be better for it. The reader might gain insight or just admire the art of a writer who is at the top of her craft. Either way, this is a compelling read but not a book to walk away from with warm fuzzies. Many thanks to Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing the eARC.

Novel about an Irish American family and their complex relationships.