When Julia had first read Little Women, she told her sisters about the four fictional sisters in the book, and they began to argue over which of them was which March girl. Julia and Sylvie both saw themselves as the feisty Jo, and they were both right, Sylvie thought. They had Jo divided between them. Julia had Jo March’s exuberance and passion, and Sylvie had her independence and literary learning. Emeline and Cecelia passed the identities of Meg and Amy back and forth between them, but whenever one of the sisters was sick or forlorn, she’d declare herself Beth. Ann Napolitano, Hello Beautiful.
I think most girls who become fans of Louisa Mae Alcott’s classic book, want to be Jo, the strong, independent thinker. Few declare that they want to be Meg, the homemaker; Amy, the beautiful, but spoiled artist; or Beth, the musician who dies in her teens. In the past century and a half since the book was written, it has continuously been in print. Multiple movies and television shows have been built around it.
But Hello Beautiful is the first I’ve read to declare that it pays homage to the classic in its blurb, thus enticing readers. Because of this one statement, I knew I had to read this book. I enjoyed it, but I did not find any of the four Padavano sisters resembling any of the March sisters. Nor is their intertwined stories similar to the gentle Alcott narrative I was expecting. Likewise, while fathers Robert March and Charlie Padavono share some generous traits, mother Rose Padavono does not in any way imitate Marmie. Of all the lines in Hello Beautiful truly connecting it to Little Women is the one whispered by a sister when she is not feeling well. “I’m Beth today.”
Once I moved beyond my disappointment that Napolitano had not written a new Little Women, I enjoyed reading her very modern story about four sisters. Since I was an only child, I’ve long been drawn to books about sisters. And for those who like to see the interaction between sisters, Hello Beautiful doesn’t disappoint.
Oprah Winfrey was so moved by Hello Beautiful that she named it the 100th book of her recommendations for Book Clubs. Napolitano says, "Oprah calling me on the phone, out of the blue, to tell me that she loved my novel and had decided to select it for her book club was so unbelievably exciting that I'm pretty sure I'm still in shock. She has done so much to amplify authors and their work. The writers and books she has featured in her club reads like a list of my literary heroes, and to be included among them is an unbelievable honor."
While a few readers share my same initial disappointment by the comparison, other critics have also praised the book. The Literary Lifestyle blogger Jules Buono, says, “Not only do I think this will be the book of the year, but I think this is “the book” of the past several years. Only once in a great while is a novel so masterful that you can’t bear to turn the last page.”
Book Club Chat blogger Heather Caliendo writes, “Little Women is the gold standard for stories about sisters. Sometimes homages to literary classics miss the mark or rely too much on the original source material that they don’t feel authentic. But in the case of Hello Beautiful, Ann Napolitano pays tribute to the classic while also ensuring the story stands on its own.”
Always, I am interested in the whys and hows an author creates a novel. Napolitano’s explanation also drew me into her story. On the Today Show, she explains, “Part of the reason I write is to make sense of myself and the world, and that felt necessary: we were housebound because of COVID, I was trying to make my two sons feel safe even though I didn’t, and my father had just died. I was grateful to find some comfort, and even glimmers of hope, inside the fictional world that became Hello Beautiful.”
2023