Blog Tour: A Good Hard Look by Ann Napolitano
Please welcome Ann Napolitano, author of A Good Hard Look, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!
Reviewed by Vera Pereskokova (Luxury Reading)
Young and beautiful, southern belle Cookie Himmel arrives in Milledgeville, Georgia with her handsome and rich fiance, Melvin Whiteson, in tow. Her triumphant return home is marred by a similar homecoming, although under different circumstances, of Flannery O’Connor. A celebrated author, Flannery returns home after her lupus diagnosis, to live out her life on her mother’s farm in Andalusia. Flannery succumbs to her mother’s requests and attends Cookie’s wedding, where the strange animosity between the two women is immediately evident.
Seeing his new wife blossom in her familiar surroundings, Melvin is determined to make a new start for himself away from the bright lights of New York City and the weight of his family name. Despite his best intentions, his determination leads him to Andalusia and into Flannery’s company – a company that he keeps secret from Cookie. He is drawn to her spirit and her honesty, and finds himself examining his own choices in light of her openness.
At the other end of Cookie’s social stratosphere, Lona Waters, the quiet wife of a local policeman, helps make ends meet by sewing for the local families. When Cookie hires Lona to sew curtains for her new home, Lona too has the opportunity to examine her choices and to find tenderness where she least expects it.
A Good Hard Look is Ann Napolitano’s second novel and is structured around the actual life of Flannery O’Conner. She was in fact diagnosed with lupus at the age of twenty-five and moved home to Andalusia where she continued to write, and to “collect” a large flock of birds. These birds, and specifically peacocks, are featured heavily in the novel; their shrilling cries coincide with momentous occasions in Milledgeville, both good and heartbreakingly bad.
Although I was not sure where A Good Hard Look would take me when I first opened the book, I absolutely loved the journey. I was consistently drawn in by the string of choices made by incredibly real characters, and how those choices shaped their lives after one tragic afternoon.
Ann Napolitano has a special knack for hinting about events without fully defining them, allowing the reader to draw her own conclusions, to decipher the meaning through the clues that are offered. At heart, A Good Hard Look is very much like life: things are not always crystal clear or perfect in the end, but even an imperfect ending is beautiful in its journey.
Rating: 5/5
The review copy of this book was provided free of any obligation by Penguin Press HC. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Contemporary, Genre Fiction, Historical, Literary, Literature & Fiction
I haven’t read any of O’Connor’s work but I don’t think that would hold me back from enjoying this one.
Thanks for being on the tour.
[...] Tuesday, July 19th: Luxury Reading [...]
You have intrigued me! I really want to know why Cookie and Flannery have such animosity towards each other, and what Cookie would think of her new husband becoming friends with Flannery. How will these very different characters all interact and affect each others growth? Thanks for the review, I have added it to my wishlist!
liking the sound of depth in this novel. consequences to choices and the digging deeper to our ‘why’ of making those choices… thx, Vera, for introducing me to both Ann and Flannery!
I haven’t read anything by Flanenry O’Conner yet so I would like do that before reading this one.
I have two draws towards this book. One is peacocks. I used to live in Arcadi,Ca and they were easy to spot. The Los Angeles Arboreteum used to be home of “Lucky Baldwin”. He brought over peacocks from India and they still thrive there. They also take walks outside the arboretun so can see they walking across the road every day. They also loved to walk the roof tops of houses. They are very interesing birds so I can easily understand why the author kept them.
The connection that I have is a close friend who has Lupus. She has been struggling for many years with this horrible auto-immune disease.
So, I will probably read it because of the connections and the great review by the reviewer.
Carol Wong
What a amazing review of an extraordinary story. This book will be put on my wishlist.
Pam
A GOOD HARD LOOK is a book that invites me to do this very thing with my own life. Simply living and going through the motions of being alive it is very easy for time to fly and for me to get a little lost in life. My dreams are always on a high shelf, my life is busy without results and yet I can’t say I am unhappy. Or that I am the happiest. I would definitely say I am caught in between but when I come across a story that elicits a reaction I try to learn from it. I think I will really like getting to know all these different women. One is young and just beginning her life and another is already living out her days. I wonder how they will come together and what parallels we will see with them.
I think this is something I would enjoy. I like to hear when a book has real characters and not stereotypes. I like to read very light books in the summer. The kids are home and its kind of tough to get into anything too heavy or meaty right now. I think I will put this one on my list for the fall. Thanks for the review.