Customer Reviews

Within Arm's Reach: A Novel

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is a beautiful book. It deserves to be read by anyone who loves great writing. It deftly and insightfully weaves the different stories of the McLaughlin family into a rich and deeply satisfying tapestry.

The novel is written from the subjective perspectives of six people, bound together by ties beyond their choosing. Like all great writers, Napolitano displays a manifest affection for her characters, and it becomes an affection we share. Notably our sympathies shift throughout the novel, as these are real human beings, drawn with the skill and attention they deserve.

I read Within Arm's Reach in one sitting. It is exquisitely written, with an ending that feels true and yet emotionally satisfying. With this remarkably accomplished debut, Napolitano can stand proud in the company of Ann Patchett, Alice McDermott and even John Irving.

This is Napolitano's first novel and her future looks extremely bright, not to understate the fact that she has clearly already arrived.

I was wrapped up in this book from the very first chapter. Every character was like seeing a same problem from a different view point, a different generation, a different perspective. I began to think like I was getting to know this family. Was Kelly finally loosening up? Would Louis get over his guilt and see beyond his grief? By the second half of the book I wanted to hear the story from Ryan's viewpoint, Angel's and even Maggie's. When it came to the last chapter I felt like the family was driving away and I wasn't going to see them again. I wanted to know what Gracie's decision about marriage would be. What would Lilly do with her future? A touching book that grips your heart and wants your to pay more attention to the dynamics in your family.

I feel very fortunate to have received an advance reading copy of Ann Napolitano's first novel WITHIN ARM'S REACH. Once I started, I coudn't put it down...I was swept into the story of the McLaughlins, an Irish-American family who are all struggling with their own personal demons.

The story is told from six points of view that all wind neatly into one another to form the crux of the novel which is this: sometimes family can be too bound together. In this case, they are bound by control issues and the need to show strength at the cost of intimacy at all times.

Catherine is the matriarch of the family who's father was a successful hotel manager and mother hid in the closet with a rosary during thunderstorms and spoke with invisible family members. She spends her life married to a man who doesn't make her happy, but who communes with her mother in way that she never could. After the deaths of three of her children, she unconsciously witholds the affection that the rest of them need in favor of holding them at arm's length with the fear that she might lose the others.

Kelly is Catherine's oldest living daughter who is struggling with conflicting feelings about her mother and dealing with a pregnant, unmarried daughter. She and her husband are drifting apart and she doesn't know why.

Louis is Kelly's husband who is living with the guilt that one of the men who worked for him died on the job when he fell from the roof of a house he was working on. He feels that he is somehow responsible and must make it up to the man's widow and family. In the process of obsessing about this, he is becoming estranged from his wife, Kelly, and blind to what is going on in his own family.

Noreen Ballen is the widow of the man who died under Louis's watch. As a nurse at the hospital where Catherine is taken on several occasions, she has the opportunity to get to know the family and eventually leaves her job to become a caretaker for Catherine. She is grieving over the loss of her husband and learns to let go of her pain and worry about her children through experiences with the McLaughlin family.

Lila is Kelly and Louis's younger daughter, a medical student who feels she is drifting through life at the same time that she is working so hard to become something she isn't sure she wants to be. She is abrupt and unpersonable, but learns that she can feel and be a caring person by following her instincts and living a life that she wants to live.

Gracie is at the middle of the story, Kelly and Louis's older daughter...she prefers casual sexual flings to intimacy and relationships. When she becomes pregnant, the entire family is thrown into a state of chaos because she is to be a single mother after her 'boyfriend' returns to his ex-girlfriend. As everyone tries to come to grips with the fact that she will be having this baby, their personal stories come to the forefront and you begin to learn why the family has been bound by pain and how they learn to let it go.

Napolitano's lyrical writing style and dreamy scenes of the shadows of family ancestors help to bring the family's struggle with each other and their legacy of estrangement to the forefront of the story. Where the past and the present collide is where they will find healing within arm's reach.

When three generations of the Irish-American McLaughlin clan come together for Easter dinner, everyone is on edge. "We are family, but we have very little in common except that we are all terrible at small talk," notes medical student Lila. Gracie, Lila's sister, is even more nervous about this family gathering than usual. Gracie is hiding a big secret --- she's pregnant and unmarried. In addition to Gracie's dramatic secret, other members of the McLaughlin factory harbor secrets no less transformative than the one Gracie holds.

In six distinct voices, Ann Napolitano skillfully brings these secrets to life. There's Kelly, Gracie and Lila's mother, who so desperately longs for her own identity that she rents out a motel room where she can feel utterly herself (and, later, where she can bring her lover). There's Lila herself, a brilliant young woman whose photographic memory served her well in medical school but can't provide the bedside manner she needs to be a successful physician.

Most memorable is Catharine, the matriarch of the family. Wise, instinctive and haunted by the deaths of her own babies years ago, Catharine hopes that Gracie's new baby will mean a new beginning for the family. As she remembers her past and looks toward the future, Catharine sees figures from the past. Are they visions, as Catharine claims, or a series of small strokes as her pragmatic family fears?

Lila fears that her generation has lost the drama, the vibrant stories of her parents' generation. "Our problems were normal and boring; we couldn't come up with one knee-slapping story among us. We had fewer brothers and sisters, fewer brawls, fewer secrets." The stories told by Lila and Gracie, though, as well as the impending arrival of the next generation, seem to indicate that the McLaughlin family saga is far from over.

WITHIN ARM'S REACH is a rich and multi-faceted character study. Each of its narrators has a unique voice and a memorable story to tell. As the McLaughlin family story unfolds, its tellers overlap (and sometimes contradict) viewpoints, giving their own accounts of events. Although there are few surprises or revelations in the plot, the real treasure of this rich first novel is the depth to which we come to know these characters. Much like families in real life, these characters are often imperfect, sometimes maddening, and always fascinating.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

WITHIN ARM'S REACH by Ann Napolitano

Ann Napolitano's debut novel, WITHIN ARM'S REACH, tells the story of three generations of Irish American's, centering on Gracie McLaughlin, third generation member of the family that finds that she is pregnant by a boyfriend she does not love. Each chapter is told by a different character, giving differing viewpoints of the story. It may have been a method of story-telling that could have failed, but Napolitano does a good job of making each voice stand out as a unique personality, and the overlapping chapters and view points give this book a unique feel.

The book has a large cast of characters, most of whom are members of the McLaughlin family, either by marriage or by birth. Catharine is the matriarch, and it's her story that is told in the opening chapter by her granddaughter Gracie. Gracie details the birth of the twins, two of Catharine's children that never got a chance at life. The birth is a story that goes into detail, up to Catharine's husband Patrick's devastating behavior of taking the dead twins and throwing them in the trash. It's the start of a novel that describes a family that has endured hardships, yet despite these hardships that could have brought them together as a family, they find themselves drifting apart. Catharine's attempts at keeping the family together are wasted, as she ages and realizes that without her there, her children and grandchildren almost have no need to stay together as a family.

Gracie's pregnancy remains a secret throughout most of the book, and the reader watches as Gracie makes one decision after another regarding the baby, without any regard to the father's feelings, whether to take care of it on her own, or find help. Catharine's intuitive nature helps her figure out Gracie's situation, and insists on helping out her granddaughter. Gracie's problems are temporarily fixed, but not for long.

Gracie continues on her every day destructive behavior, meeting new men purely for the sake of sex. Gracie's history is of a woman who has no self-worth, bouncing from one man to another as if trying to win a contest. Her temporary roommate is her sister, Lila, who is struggling with her own problems. While Gracie uses her body to define her self-worth, Lila is doing the exact opposite, trying her best to keep from getting into a physical relationship with any man. When Lila finds herself in a very unlikely relationship with a friend of the man that fathered Gracie's child, Lila goes for it, despite her repulsion for the man. Lila's obsession was her scholastic achievements, and was on her way to becoming a doctor, when she suddenly lets go of the dream, focusing mainly on this new relationship.

Louis and Kelly are two more main characters. The two have been married for years, Kelly being Catharine's oldest surviving child. She lives life trying to control everything in her life, including her family, and slowly realizes she's alienated herself from her husband and her children, Gracie and Lila. Louis loves his wife but after a death at a work site in which he blames himself, he finds himself needing to distance himself from Kelly, spending nights downstairs alone. He secretly obsesses over his lost employee, and finds ways to take care of the widow, a woman that becomes involved in the family later on in the novel.

While most of the story takes place in the present, the various characters narrate scenes from the past, helping to explain what makes these characters tick. It's a mix of the present and the past that makes this novel come alive, culminating with Gracie and her story about her pregnancy. Her situation helps bring together this family that has been becoming more and more distant as time moves on. Catharine's sense of family is strong, and through Gracie she tries to unite them before it's too late.

This reviewer enjoyed WITHIN ARM'S REACH. With a novel that spans several generations of family history, Napolitano wrote a wonderful family saga that will be enjoyed by many. This book deserves a 5 star rating.

What a beautifully written book! Moving and wonderful. I recommend it and look forward to more from this author.

Ann Napolitano's examination of the McLoughlin family dynamics is highly scintillating and impressive. Each character is understood from both the first person and third person perspective, thus lending a true three dimensional view of each family member.

The novel seamlessly weaves together the family's sorrow, disappointments and triumphs with empathy and accuracy.

I highly recommend this book.

Within Arm's Reach is a great novel by a fantastic author. It is one of the most well written books I have picked up in a long time. Ann Napolitano masters the art of writing to the extent of making the words flow with ease from the pages into our lives. You can't avoid thinking of the particular situations that arise in the novel and how common they might be in one's life or someone else's. I highly recommend this novel. Regardless of the tough and sad situations that the characters face throughout the story, it will be a pleasure to read.

I believe in the power and the promise of first lines. And the first sentence of Ann Napolitano's novel, "My grandmother gave birth often, which I suppose increased her odds for tragedy." drew me right in. Have your ever had a grandmother? Have you ever been a grandmother? How can you resist!
The promise of the first line is fulfilled in a thoughtful, delicate, and moving story told in the many vioces of three generations with memories of more.
I couldn't put the book down, but I was sad when it was finished. I await Ann Napolitano's second novel.

I enjoyed this book. I liked that the story was told from six different points of view as the reader was able to delve into the character's thoughts and reasons for their actions.

The family itself is going through its own changes. The matriarch of the family, Catherine, is the glue that holds the family together. She has been a strict guardian for the family and is now failing healthwise. It is during this time that she discovers that maybe she could have done things differently; life is for the living, enjoy your family while you still can. We are able to see Catherine as a real person through the frequent flashbacks. She is a woman who has survived a great deal.

Her own children and grandchildren, most notably Gracie and Lila are suffering their own setbacks on the road of life. Gracie is a bit of a lost soul, finding her worthiness only in the arms of men. When she discovers that she is pregnant, her life is turned upside down. Lila is the "smart" one, she is in medical school but feels that it is not her true calling in life. She is disappointed in herself in a number of ways and when she finds someone she can be herself with and possibly love, she attempts to turn away having felt isolated for so long.

Each member of this family is undergoing their own transformation. Each is on their own path to find themselves and to discover what it is that really makes them happy. Unfortunately, since they are not a close knit family they cannot confide in each other. They are uncomfortable amongst their kin and have no idea how to communicate with one another. Fortunately, Catherine's presence and attention to this fact and Gracie's pregnancy may turn this family around. The baby, not yet even born, may be the link to uniting a family that has been so far divided.