Blog Tour: This Beautiful Life by Helen Schulman
Please join Helen Schulman, author of This Beautiful Life, as she tours the blogosphere with TLC Book Tours!
Reviewed by Garret Rose
Helen Schulman brings the reader into a dark, unflinching, and somewhat unforgiving world of the Bergamot family in her new novel, This Beautiful Life. The family consists of Jake, a fifteen and-a-half-year-old learning about his body and mind; Coco, a free-spirited, adopted six-year-old; Richard, a hard working father and successful businessman; and Lizzie, the reluctant stay-at-home mother. After moving from the safe, rural confines of Ithaca, New York to the fast-paced, unnerving environment of New York City at the behest of Richard, the family finds themselves in the middle of a magnanimous change. To complicate matters further, Jake runs into a world of trouble after an inebriated experience that could be the downfall of his family’s very foundation.
After a night of partying Jake receives an email that will change his life forever. Dumbfounded, he forwards it to his friends and within a couple of days, everyone he goes to school with has viewed it. Because of this, Jake is suspended and the news of his actions jeopardize Richard’s career and Lizzie’s dignity.
The beauty of Schulman’s story is that just when it feels that this will be some type of a scripted Hollywood movie, she veers the plot into a different direction. Just when it feels that the family will survive with only a few scars, more wounds open up. Schulman does a great job staying away from the clichéd conventions that infiltrate into dramatic situations. The portrait she paints is that of a very human family with very human responses to very human mistakes. No one seems to take on the protagonist role, or for that matter, no one takes on the role of the antagonist either. Schulman also does a great job in not answering every question towards the end of the story. This gives the reader a chance to pause and reflect about what they have read, rather than being sold short on their own imagination.
This Beautiful Life is an uncompromising and very graphic modern-day story about teenage sexuality and its possibly devastating effects. It is also a story about love, devotion, and forgiveness (even though forgiveness is not really summed up at the end). While very disturbing and explicit, it is a novel that will challenge the reader to reflect on how far they would go to sacrifice for the ones that they love.
Rating: 
Garret loves literature! He is creating the Vernal Journal for his students as well as anyone else that is interested in literature – be it fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, or even miscellaneous! Garret’s goal is to share, review and make connections to the world and each other.
Review copy was provided free of any obligation by Harper Perennial. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.
Category: Contemporary, Literature & Fiction, Women's Fiction
After reading this book myself, I have to say that I do not agree with this review at all.
As for veering the plot in a different direction, what direction? While I felt it was good that the story was told from the viewpoints of all the family members, each of them saw what was going on differently. And no one tells the other how they see it.
You say that Schulman does a great job staying away from the clichéd conventions. But then you say, “The portrait she paints is that of a very human family with very human responses to very human mistakes.” Many authors have done that better, in my opinion.
You say that this book is about teenage sexuality and its possibly devastating effects. No, it’s about modern technology and its possibly devastating effects.
First, Schulman contrasts the party that Jake went to with the party his mother and little sister attended the same evening. That might have been a good way to begin, but Schulman tells us way more than we need to know before she gets to Jake’s problem. That took up almost half the book, and it was boring.
The second half is better. Now the reader sees how Jake’s problem is the family’s problem. Their problem, as seen from each family member’s perspective: how do we get Jake out of this unscathed?
But it gets silly. For example, every time the parents argue they both think they’re on the brink of divorce.
My copy of THIS BEAUTIFUL LIFE was a giveaway from http://www.BookClubClassics.com.
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very Beautiful Life
great book , i advice to read this book ,full of enjoy
thanks for sharing Garret Rose
I love this: “The beauty of Schulman’s story is that just when it feels that this will be some type of a scripted Hollywood movie, she veers the plot into a different direction.” I love how, when I think I’ve got the story figured out, and I’m a little bummed that it’s so formulaic, the author totally goes in a different direction. Those are some of my favorite books.
Thanks for being on the tour!
I had a gut feeling that might not like this book. I enjoyed your review but I did peep at the other reviews on Amazon and they are all over the place. Why is the book explicit, did it need to be?
With it starting out like a Hollywood movie, I might not be encouraged to go farther. I love some Hollywood movies but not all of them. Some seem so scripted, so predictable, over dramatic, too sparkly. That may be why I am drawn to foreign films so much.
I just read this, Carol. I don’t agree with the review.
The book doesn’t start like a movie. I don’t even understand how a book could start like a movie. How does a movie start? Aren’t they all different?
You’re right, it did not need to be explicit except in its description of the explicit email the eighth-grade girl emailed to Jake. All else was just there to be there.
This book has been on my TBR list for awhile now. I almost missed recognizing the book tho bc the cover is completely different. Crazy. I am not sure which one I prefer. Great review!! I still want to read it, even not knowing I already did.
Heidi@heavenisabookstore recently posted..Review – All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin
I love stories that showcase characters that show real emotions and do not seem too cookie-cutter. What would be the point of that? Everyone makes mistakes and having characters in a book react or have consequences, or a lack there of, in ways that do not seem real usually just aggravates me. I am not a big fan of open ended stories, though, so it might annoy me if the book does not wrap up in some way towards the end. This does sound like a book overall that I might enjoy, so I will definitely keep it in mind. Thanks for the review!
I agree, this does sound like it was made for the movies. The reviewer says, though, that something happens that doesn’t seem made for the movies. I wonder what that is.
I also wonder how you mean “explicit.” If it’s about the teenaged boy, yuck!
Now I’ve read it. See my opinion above.
Love this review! I love reading stories that are set in NYC especially, since it is a city I would love to explore more than the limited time I had there.
I’m most curious about Jake, and what he does, that complicates things for his family. I really want to find out now!
It sounds like some really heavy issues are touched upon in this novel, and I am always up for a book that will challenge me, and maybe even take me out of my comfort zone.
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