Date read: March 2024
Date published: December 2023
Summary
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 it’s a relief when his skill on the basketball court earns him a scholarship to college, far away from his childhood home. He soon meets Julia Padavano, a spirited and ambitious young woman who surprises William with her appreciation of his quiet steadiness. With Julia comes her family; she is inseparable from her three younger sisters: Sylvie, the dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book and imagines a future different from the expected path of wife and mother; Cecelia, the family’s artist; and Emeline, who patiently takes care of all of them. Happily, the Padavanos fold Julia’s new boyfriend into their loving, chaotic household.
But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable loyalty 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? (via Goodreads)
My Take
“It was hard for me to accept the fact that we don’t choose who we love, because who you love changes everything.”
Me saying I was sobbing at the end of a book is not completely foreign. It’s not often, but it happens. It hasn’t happened since I finished Hello Beautiful in late 2023.
I came up with the idea for this Substack to write about books like this. Books that hit at exactly the right time, with exactly the right substance and tone, and just absolutely killed me. This is one of those. My favorite book of 2023. And honestly I’ve been a little hesitant to write about it, because it was so powerful and moving, and I’m not sure I can even do it justice. But that’s what we’re here for, right?
This is a heartbreaking, moving, big story about a family, and really about what love can do to break, and heal, people.
The story revolves around four sisters from Chicago, their parents, and the husband of the eldest sister, Julia. The story is stocked with tragedies, more than should befall a family. But the larger tragedy, perhaps, is a theme that comes up in a lot of books—what happens when people don’t face their emotions, process their emotions, and figure out how their traumas inform how they move forward in their lives.
Hello Beautiful works as a title for a couple reasons. It’s one of the greetings that the father of the four sisters used for them (which really affected me, maybe as a parent of two girls). But also the father, Charlie, is one of the only characters in the book who has a realistic perspective on what makes people worthy, what makes people worth loving, and what makes life worth living. He’s the moral center of the book, and the title phrase and his ideas ricochet among the family throughout.
“We’re not separated from the world by our own edges.” Charlie set down his beer glass, empty now, and rubbed his hand up and down his arm, as an example of one of his edges. “We’re part of the sky, and the rocks in your mother’s garden, and that old man who sleeps by the train station. We’re all interconnected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is. Your mother and sisters don’t have that awareness. Not yet, anyway. They believe they’re contained in their bodies, in the biographical facts of their lives.”
There is so much drama between the four sisters and their lives, as the book follows them from childhood through adulthood and beyond. But one of the central themes is how Julia’s husband, William, a deeply troubled person with a very traumatic upbringing, struggles throughout his life to connect with other people. His experience with neglect was reflected in how he saw his own daughter, Alice.
“The thing was—” He stopped, looking for the right language. “Yes?” the doctor said. “Alice is a lamp. A bright lamp, from the moment she was born. She kind of shines. Looking at her hurt my eyes, and I was afraid to touch her.” “You were afraid of her light?” “No. I was afraid I was going to put her light out. That my darkness would swamp her light.” “So you felt like you had to stay away from her, to keep her safe.” “I have to stay away from her, yes.”
The two main male characters here are complete opposites. A patriarch who underachieved professionally but was in touch with art, creativity, human connection, and his community. And William, who strove to success but never knew how to overcome inevitable failures, injuries, and difficult relationships.
I found each of the four sister’s journeys to be so distinct, but related, that the family dynamic seemed extremely realistic—the interpersonal relationships, interconnectedness, aspirations, successes, challenges, separations, reunions, and deaths. The way the story plays out is a masterpiece in how the story contrasts how the sisters stay connected to each other but also independent of their family unit. And a lot of their choices directly affect other members of the family, whether they know it or not.
The eldest sister, Julia, is a character that doesn’t garner a lot of sympathy. But these real character flaws provide one of the main through lines of the book. She is the one who chooses to push away from the family the most, which provides a great contrast to the rest of the family, which is much more inwardly focused.
A lot of the reviews of this book I read were that this book was too dark, too depressing. It certainly has that. But at the core, these are very realistic characters who act in hurtful and selfish ways, much like many people in many families that we all know. In the end, though, what shines through is how bonds are formed, and how love can help people heal, reconcile, and accept.
But maybe my biggest takeaway reflecting on this book is that books are so personal. This is a cliche. But the way I read this, when I read this, what was happening in my life, just hit me with such weight, that it was hard for me to move on to the next book. We can only hope to continue to find books that do this.
My Rating
10/10—won’t ever forget this one.