Was It Beautiful?: A Novel [Hardcover]

Alison McGhee (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 2003

Was It Beautiful? is a spare, powerful, and tender portrayal of loss and renewal at midlife. With singular grace and humor, Alison McGhee pays loving attention to the details of life in the Adirondacks and to the small kindnesses and idiosyncrasies that make each member of a community precious and unique.

Until recently, William T. Jones was the happiest man in upstate New York, a self-proclaimed king of the world who laughed loudly and often. He had a life he was proud of, including a long-standing marriage, a fine, spirited grown son, and ownership of the farm in the north woods where his family had lived for generations.

But in the past year his life has become almost unrecognizable to him. He watched, powerless, while his musically gifted twenty-seven-year-old son, William J., lost first his hearing and then his life. Reeling with this double tragedy, William T. has withdrawn almost completely, and it looks as though his marriage and his job will be the next things to go. In fact, he has begun to wonder whether his own life is worth continuing. But like it or not, William T. is not alone—and the people around him won’t let him slip away so easily. They are watching over him, as patient and constant as the stars in the night sky, and as he awakens to their gentle strength, he sees that they too have suffered tremendously and that the time has come to reconcile what has been lost and what may yet be saved.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Fifty-year-old William T. Jones, the Adirondacks dairy trucker at the center of McGhee's touching third novel (after Shadow Baby) once had a perfect life: a happy marriage, a grown son and wonderful daughter-in-law, good friends and Genghis, "the king of cats." That comfortable, simple existence is now a painful memory. William T. (as he is called) recently lost his only son, 27-year-old William J., who was hit by a train. William T. retreats from his social world, refusing to allow others into his grief. He takes comfort in Genghis, but rebuffs his wife, Eliza, who moved out after the accident, his lifelong friend, Burl, and his widowed daughter-in-law, Sophie. Gentle Sophie was a favorite of William T.'s, but he feels betrayed when she starts seeing someone else. Above all, William T. is haunted by the accident itself, for he was with William J. at the railroad tracks when he died. Shortly before his death, William J. went deaf; he was thus apparently unable to hear the approaching train that killed him. But William T. knows something else about the events of that day, something that he can't share with his family and friends, and it chokes him with remorse. McGhee's portrait of a father's impenetrable grief, and a small community's attempt to break through it, is gracefully wrought, set against a frigid Adirondack winter that's no match for William T.'s emotional deep freeze.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

William T. Jones, age 50, is barely going through the motions, trapped in the unspeakable hell unique to parents who outlive their children. After watching in helpless horror as a train kills his beloved only child, William J., he is fired from his job, and his wife, as ruined by suffocating sadness as her husband, moves in with her sister. Meanwhile, Sophie, William T.'s treasured daughter-in-law, seeks oblivion in the arms of a local carpenter. Nothing that William T. loved-not his land, not his friends, not the rhythms of nature's inevitable cycles-can break through the guilt that bleaches any shred of joy from his forever-altered heart. Here, McGhee revisits the setting of her magical novel Shadow Baby; many of the same characters in the Adirondacks community of North Sterns, NY, surround William T. in a gently desperate bid to pull him back from the abyss. Hypnotic, wrenching, and powerful in its promise of hope in the face of impossible grief, this book reveals McGhee's extraordinary gift for nuanced simplicity. Highly recommended.
Beth E. Andersen, Ann Arbor Dist. Lib., MI
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Shaye Areheart Books; 1 edition (February 18, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609609785
• ISBN-13: 978-0609609781
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,212,397 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Alison McGhee is the New York Times bestselling author of SOMEDAY, LITTLE BOY, BYE-BYE CRIB, ALWAYS and A VERY BRAVE WITCH. Her other children's books include ALL RIVERS FLOW TO THE SEA, COUNTDOWN TO KINDERGARTEN, SNAP, and the JULIA GILLIAN series, about the adventures of a girl who lives in Minneapolis.

Alison is also an award-winning novelist of the adult novels WAS IT BEAUTIFUL? A NOVEL; FALLING BOY; RAINLIGHT; and the Today Show book club selection, SHADOW BABY.She lives in Minneapolis, MN.

You can find her at her website and also on Facebook under Alison McGhee, Author.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LIGHTENING THE WEIGHT OF GRIEF, March 18, 2004

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Was It Beautiful?: A Novel (Hardcover)

The answer to the question posed by the title of this wonderful addition to my library is a resounding `yes!'. That's not the way the title was intended to be taken, of course, but nevertheless...

I first came across Alison McGhee's writing in the form of her acclaimed novel SHADOW BABY - it impressed me so much that I sought out RAINLIGHT, which in no way let me down. When I heard about the release of this, her third novel, I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. With this work, anyone thinking that McGhee was a one- or two-hit wonder should be convinced that she's very much for real - and one of the best writers around today.

Like her previous two works, this story is set in the Adirondacks - rural upstate New York, small-town America, complete with its fair share of mildly eccentric characters. The eccentricity of McGhee's creations never gets in the way of the story, as it might in the hands of some writers - her people never become caricatures. She is such a gifted writer that the humorous side of them blends effortlessly with the more serious issues that they face - and, as a result, the inhabitants of her fiction are always completely believable, as real as they could possibly be. They feel joy, they experience uncertainty, and they wrestle with the obstacles life throws their way. In this story, as in her other novels, there are no really `bad' characters - everyone is simply who they are, pure and not-so-simple, and McGhee's portrayal of them in this way accomplishes two things: it allows the reader to more closely identify with the characters, and it keeps the reader from being distracted by a too-easily-seen good-versus-evil set-to. McGhee respects her characters, her story - and her readers - too much to stoop to such techniques, and the result is a treasure of a book.

The `culprit' in this novel is Grief - how to bear it, how to understand it, how to process it, how to lighten its load. The main bearer of grief in this story is one William T. Jones - described by many (and on the jacket flap) as `the happiest man in upstate New York, a self-proclaimed king of the world who laughed loudly and often'. William T. is blessed with a son whom he loves more than anything, a devoted wife, and his best friend Burl, a quiet, reserved man who knows more about those around him - and in a deeper way - than anyone suspects. William T.'s son is William J. - and this is only confusing for a little while - and is blessed with the gift of music, which he manifests by constructing wind chimes, and by his love of listening to his father's friend Burl (who has perfect pitch) sing in his beautiful Welsh tenor voice.

William T.'s world is indeed perfect - until William J. is suddenly and inexplicably stricken with Cogan's syndrome, causing a rapid deterioration of his hearing, to the point of deafness. William J. - and his father and mother - are desperate to understand his condition, and each, in their individual way, devastated by the unfairness of it. William J.'s deafness is followed closely by his death - and it is this greater loss that sets the wheels of William T.'s grief and struggle in motion. He detaches himself so completely from his former life that his wife leaves him as well, compounding his sorrow and confusion.

William T. is not alone, however. He has his faithful feline companion, `Genghis Khan, king of the cats'; his `flock' (a motley crew of feathered foundling holed up in a barn on his property that stands as if by sheer will alone, on the verge of imminent collapse); and, mainly, his friends. Burl, chief among these, is tortured to understand what William T. is feeling, and aching to help him. William J.'s widow, Sophie (William T. muses repeatedly over the question of whether she is still his daughter-in-law), and Crystal (waitress in a local diner) both love the grieving man in their own way, and are eager to help him as well. This `conspiracy' of friends is at first invisible to William T. in his sorrow - but as things begin to fall apart for him, and things begin to happen that he can't explain, he begins to realize that he is, indeed, blessed and loved by those around him.

The journey William T. Jones takes to this revelation is a moving one - and revealing it here is no spoiler, it's hinted at on the jacket flap. The beauty of this book lies in McGhee's narrative and character development skills. Her method of revealing William T.'s thought processes - the book is told in third person, but centers around him, naturally - is utilized with such delicacy and naturalness that I felt privy to his actual thoughts. Additionally, the voices of the individual characters are so perfect that I accepted them right away as intensely real.

In the hands of some writers, returning to the same small hamlet and bringing back several of the same characters from previous books would be hackneyed and clumsy - in McGhee's hands, it's absolutely perfect, and merely adds perspective to the other books. She introduces previously seen characters gently and unhurriedly - it's a definite asset, never a distraction - and does so in such a way that it's not necessary to have read the other two novels in order to appreciate this one. That being said, I can't imagine anyone reading this wonderful book and not wanting to explore the earlier works. If you haven't done so already, you're in for a treat.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an absolutely beautiful book, January 6, 2004

By 

konnie k (sarasota, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Was It Beautiful?: A Novel (Hardcover)

I love a book like this. The words move like colored water through the pages. The story unfolds gracefully and the descriptions are gorgeous. The story is simple but the character's emotions are not. The author allows you to enter into this world and for one moment to live in a place where someone you love has died- and the world stops.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb, February 17, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Was It Beautiful?: A Novel (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of McGhee's soulful writing since I picked up her book Shadow Baby from my local library. In that book, I fell in love with Clara winter, and now I've fallen in love with William T. Jones. McGhee creates a world that my mind never leaves upon finishing her books. It stays with me--a feeling, an image, sometimes a sadness. This is a worth follow-up to Shadow Baby, and I will eagerly await another book from this very talented writer.