Michelle Blanchard Ardillo

In January this year Madison Dettlinger at Penguin Random House offered me an ARC of the reissued first novel of Ann Napolitano, Within Arm’s Reach. I was teaching and mentoring a new teacher at the time, and subsequently, my reading life was derailed. With apologies for the lateness of this review, thank you to Madison for sharing this book with me.

If you have followed my book reviews and essays on my website, you will know that Dear Edward was the last book I checked out the day before my local public library shut down at the start of the pandemic. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend Dear Edward to someone who is about to board an airplane, I of course was stuck in my house with nowhere to go and not much to do but read. I loved Dear Edward so much, I loved the tenderness with which Edward’s aunt and uncle took him in, and I loved the young man he was growing up to be. I loved the television series as well.

Naturally I was all in for Napolitano’s next book, Hello Beautiful, which I also loved. While Edward had absolutely no one, the Padavano family was large and tightly knit. The ups and downs of the lives of these four sisters and their parents spread out over the pages of the novel was so well done; I knew I was a Napolitano fan for life.

Going back in time and reading Within Arm’s Reach after her later work, it is easy to see how Napolitano honed her talents for writing the strong and complicated web of a large family found in Hello Beautiful. While the Padavanos from Chicago were Italian American (I think?), the three generations of McLaughlins are 100% Irish American, complete with all of the Irish stereotypes: alcohol, Catholicism, and visions of the dead. Throw in a controlling matriarch, sibling rivalry, jealousy over money, and an unwed pregnant granddaughter, and you have the makings of a multi-generational family saga.

Having read three of Napolitano’s four books, I will agree with most reviewers that each of her novels is stronger than the one before. However, I still loved her debut novel, even if I didn’t love her characters. Really, there isn’t much to love in any of them. But, their stories are nonetheless compelling. Everyone, every single one of them, is unhappy with their station in life, and all of them are desperately searching for something or someone to fix for them whatever is wrong with them. Some have commented that this book is all over the place, and I get that, but I feel as though that is part of what makes this book hold together. These people ARE all over the place. A young woman who has worked her whole entire life to be #1 in the medical field hates it and everything about it. A middle-aged woman with what appears to be a perfect life, is miserable and searching for love in all the wrong places. And, the men are just as bad as the women in this saga. Seriously, everyone except the laid-back, easy-going firefighter should have a standing weekly appointment with a good therapist.

Years ago, I routinely rejected novels where each chapter is told from a different character’s perspective. I hated it and found it so confusing. But, I did not find this novel confusing at all. The chapter titles announce who the narrator is, and after just a few paragraphs it is crystal clear whose pain we are being invited to share.

This novel ends with a bang, and I didn’t feel resolution for some of the characters, but I think some of the main characters do at least catch a glimpse of being at peace with their personal demons. Perhaps some of the McLaughlins will even find their way back to better relationships with one another.

I really enjoyed Within Arm’s Reach. Thank you, Penguin Random House, for the ARC. Thank you, Ann Napolitano, for the pleasure your books bring to me. Please keep writing!