Review of HELLO BEAUTIFUL
Go ahead ... judge this book by its cover
The cover is beautiful. It grew on me as I read the book. Its choice was inspired. The novel’s beauty emerges in just such a warm and gradual way. No book stands much of a chance after a three-week immersion into Middlemarch. The 19th century tomes remain, in my mind, the gold standard of the novel despite the bright genius of the 20th century and the canon busting of the 21st. The great Russian, Victorian, American, and French novels of that century rest in their own space as securely as Shakespeare does in his. After a long 19th century retreat, I struggle to come back into the noisy modernity of a contemporary novel and, thus, it took me way too long to finish Hello Beautiful. It was partly Napolitano’s fault as a heavy dose of editing would have done this book many favors. The redundant exuberance and thrice told information led to frequent pauses in my reading. But like the colors in her mosaic cover, the characters hold up and their narratives eventually blend into a satisfying (maybe too satisfying) whole. It breaks no ground thematically embracing the all too familiar narrative cycle of love, loss, family, mistakes, and redemption. We live in an alienated world that requires the comfort that, like the weddings that end every Austen novel, things will come together … that we are not, in fact, in a constant state of fragmentation.
NOTE: this novel’s need for an editor is the fate of most books written today. The publishing world is no longer one where a writer is taken to task to clean things up. It no longer embraces the finished product with an expansive marketing campaign unless big money is involved. Instead, the writer too often embarks on his own social media platform, unencumbered by humbling but edifying edits and unsupported by an enthusiastic publishing house. Thus, everything is too long: the novels, the biographies, the movies, the television series and even the songs. It is ironic. In “protecting” the sensibilities of the artist we are ignoring those of the audience.
Hello Beautiful
Ann Napolitano
2023 400 page
s