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emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Child death, Pregnancy
Minor: Homophobia, Religious bigotry
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Cancer, Abandonment
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Homophobia
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The most beautiful book I have read this year. Deserves every single ounce of love
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Terminal illness, Suicide attempt
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I wanted to love this book as much as I was drawn to it. The love and dysfunction, the complexity of relationships, were captured well. And I couldn't quite place it as a favourite because the things that were so strong were undersupported by the somewhat imbalanced character development/depth. The story is a loose homage to Little Women while being its own, and given that it centres so strongly on the 4 sisters their development felt somewhat imbalanced and left me wanting a more cohesive fullness to the women.
The character development for Sylvie, William, and the twins were decent. Izzy's and Rose's stories were lightly explored, and that felt disjointed from the development of the others' stories. I suppose Julia also grew, but while I have compassion for what would have been hard for herin navigating the relationship between Sylvie and William I found her absolutely insufferable, self-centred, immature, and selfish, so I simply cannot honour her growth in any meaningful way. I'm the same age as Alice, and found so much of her experience—particularly the loneliness, the self-sufficiency, the protectiveness of a single parent that come along with being the only child of a single mom— uncomfortably relatable.
What the book does remarkably well is articulate both grief and the way mental health was treated during the time period when this was set. Having experienced the loss of the person who knew me as well as I know myself,and having lost that person to brain cancer, I felt the process of grief very deeply. Having experienced depression and suicidal ideation, I felt deeply connected to William's experience and appreciative of how Sylvie saw him as I have been seen in the same way and it has saved me. There is a beautiful construction around these scenes that I deeply appreciated.
The character development for Sylvie, William, and the twins were decent. Izzy's and Rose's stories were lightly explored, and that felt disjointed from the development of the others' stories. I suppose Julia also grew, but while I have compassion for what would have been hard for her
What the book does remarkably well is articulate both grief and the way mental health was treated during the time period when this was set. Having experienced the loss of the person who knew me as well as I know myself,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Mental illness
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Abandonment
Moderate: Cancer, Death of parent
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow start and i very nearly dnf'd but pushed through. the books really picks up at about the half way mark and zooms to the finish line. it becomes very poignant and i admit i did actually shed a tear. it creates a layered portrait of a family through the generations and did a fantastic job of showing how our stories and personal mythoses are told and retold and woven into the tapestry of our lives. the style initially was quite off putting for me as we are told a lot of information rather than shown it but i did eventually get over it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Terminal illness
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book really worked for me because I love slower-paced, multi-perspective stories that span multiple years. I was surprised that I loved it as much as I did because while the writing was definitely well-done, it was not as lyrical as I typically prefer and there were a number of recurring plot points that I frankly wasn’t very interested in (basketball, Julia’s life in New York, basically any scene involving Rose), but somehow the characters got under my skin and I found my thoughts being constantly drawn back to them throughout my day. In fact, I originally planned not to finish the book after sampling the first 30 or so pages because I thought it lacked the depth and beauty of language that I was in the mood for - but when I put it down, after a week or so, I realized that the characters had gotten into my head and I was still thinking about them. Thanks to reviews, I knew the basics of the ending and I thought I could just let the story rest there, but it wouldn’t leave my mind so I finally picked it up and continued reading.
There were aspects of the book that I didn’t love - mostly the treatment of sex, which was basically always reduced to “being fun” when, given the nature of the story, it could have been used in a much deeper way, the unnecessarily negative and frankly inaccurate depictions of religion (if Rose really was “Catholic to the bone”, she would have know that Julia and William’s marriage was textbook grounds for annulment - and the story of St. Clare is literally one of a young girl throwing her life away to hide in a cloister for the rest of her life). Finally, the descriptions of Chicago (especially the geography) were very confusing and distracting. As someone who has lived in Chicago for about 15 years, hearing about characters casually walking the FIVE HOUR walk between Pilsen and Northwestern’s campus made no sense. Perhaps Pilsen was more Italian in the 80s and 90s, but today it is much more associated with Latinx communities (especially the church that is mentioned over and over again), and it took me an embarrassing number of pages to realize that the Padavano girls were Italian and not Latina.
This is definitely a book that “tells” more than “shows” when it comes to plot - it will drive some readers crazy, but I enjoyed it. I also really ended up loving the weird dynamics happening between truth and memory and story. For example, a main premise of the book is that the Padavano family is extremely close - then we learn how Charlie and Rose are essentially checked out of their marriage and don’t understand each other at all, how Rose has completely cut them off from any extended family, who are portrayed briefly as “enemies” and then never re-appear. Similarly, the living Charlie we meet in the first few chapters is shown to be a disconnected dreamer who has turned to alcoholism out of the shame of not providing for his family, and yet after his death we hear story after story that essentially treats him as a saint and the one person who truly saw, loved, and understood each one of his daughters. Finally, the sisters who are so close that they are described throughout as sharing one body go decades without ever communicating.
Many other reviews mention frustration with the repeated poor choices of the characters and especially William’s actions towards Alice. I actually loved the Alice story-line and appreciated how the author demonstrated the truth that the ways we seal up and harden are hearts in an attempt to protect ourselves from pain always backfire and bring about the very thing we were trying to avoid. For William, he was trying to avoid the pain of losing another little girl, and he ended up losing his daughter. He was also trying to protect her from the “damage” he felt he was bound to do to her, but absence ended up shaping and hurting her just as much. For Julia, her commitment to protecting Alice and making sure Julia was the only one she ever needed left Alice in a weird relational void and ultimately was the set up for Alice’s realization that she was raised to “not need anyone” and that included Julia. For Alice, her attempts to protect her heart from further pain after she learns of the death of her father as a little girl ends up bringing her the pain of isolation and withholding herself from the loving, messy experiences and relationships that we are meant for. I LOVED mulling all of these thoughts over and thinking deeply about the characters’ motivations and choices. Again, many painful and frankly poor choices were made, but I feel like I can understand why they all did what they did, and I love when a book can do that for me.
There were aspects of the book that I didn’t love - mostly the treatment of sex, which was basically always reduced to “being fun” when, given the nature of the story, it could have been used in a much deeper way, the unnecessarily negative and frankly inaccurate depictions of religion (if Rose really was “Catholic to the bone”, she would have know that Julia and William’s marriage was textbook grounds for annulment - and the story of St. Clare is literally one of a young girl throwing her life away to hide in a cloister for the rest of her life). Finally, the descriptions of Chicago (especially the geography) were very confusing and distracting. As someone who has lived in Chicago for about 15 years, hearing about characters casually walking the FIVE HOUR walk between Pilsen and Northwestern’s campus made no sense. Perhaps Pilsen was more Italian in the 80s and 90s, but today it is much more associated with Latinx communities (especially the church that is mentioned over and over again), and it took me an embarrassing number of pages to realize that the Padavano girls were Italian and not Latina.
This is definitely a book that “tells” more than “shows” when it comes to plot - it will drive some readers crazy, but I enjoyed it. I also really ended up loving the weird dynamics happening between truth and memory and story. For example, a main premise of the book is that the Padavano family is extremely close - then we learn how Charlie and Rose are essentially checked out of their marriage and don’t understand each other at all, how Rose has completely cut them off from any extended family, who are portrayed briefly as “enemies” and then never re-appear. Similarly, the living Charlie we meet in the first few chapters is shown to be a disconnected dreamer who has turned to alcoholism out of the shame of not providing for his family, and yet after his death we hear story after story that essentially treats him as a saint and the one person who truly saw, loved, and understood each one of his daughters. Finally, the sisters who are so close that they are described throughout as sharing one body go decades without ever communicating.
Many other reviews mention frustration with the repeated poor choices of the characters and especially William’s actions towards Alice. I actually loved the Alice story-line and appreciated how the author demonstrated the truth that the ways we seal up and harden are hearts in an attempt to protect ourselves from pain always backfire and bring about the very thing we were trying to avoid. For William, he was trying to avoid the pain of losing another little girl, and he ended up losing his daughter. He was also trying to protect her from the “damage” he felt he was bound to do to her, but absence ended up shaping and hurting her just as much. For Julia, her commitment to protecting Alice and making sure Julia was the only one she ever needed left Alice in a weird relational void and ultimately was the set up for Alice’s realization that she was raised to “not need anyone” and that included Julia. For Alice, her attempts to protect her heart from further pain after she learns of the death of her father as a little girl ends up bringing her the pain of isolation and withholding herself from the loving, messy experiences and relationships that we are meant for. I LOVED mulling all of these thoughts over and thinking deeply about the characters’ motivations and choices. Again, many painful and frankly poor choices were made, but I feel like I can understand why they all did what they did, and I love when a book can do that for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Child death, Death, Pregnancy
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Alcohol
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Death of parent
Moderate: Cancer, Death, Abandonment
Minor: Alcoholism, Child death, Homophobia, Racism
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment