The Story of Beautiful Girl
Rachel Simon
May 2011
346 pages
Published by Grand Central Publishing
Purchased for my nook app
I’ve decided that I’m a total sap. I sobbed through the last half of this book, and then found myself appalled over the fact that I sobbed through the last half of the book. It’s like The Art of Racing in the Rain…you want to slap yourself, because while the book is good, it’s not THAT good, and you feel like a moron because you let yourself be emotionally manipulated and you’re crying over something at the same time that your brain is saying “Get real…that would NEVER happen.”
And what, exactly, would never happen? Well, hold onto your hats, because I’m about to spoil the shit out this book.
The thing is, every single person that deserves a happy ending in this book gets one. And by the time I got to the end of the book (red eyes and all) I was disgusted by how happy everyone was. I mean, really…two people who don’t even know each other’s names find each other after 30 odd years? Really? And then their long-lost daughter finds them because she’s chaperoning her son on a school field trip and sees a certain mural? You have GOT to be fucking kidding me. And don’t even get me started on all of the secondary characters who get married. I would have been much happier if someone was left hanging. Anyone. Thing is, I love HEAs…but there comes a point when too many just spoil the book. Especially when the first half of the book was pretty damn powerful.
Lynnie and Homan are stuck in the Pennsylvania State School for the Incurable and Feebleminded (yes, it’s the 1960s…you can tell by the politically incorrect name). Lynnie is developmentally disabled and Homan is a deaf-mute. He’s also black and Lynnie is white, which is pretty relevant, since they fall in love and runaway. Unfortunately, Lynnie is captured and sent back to the school, while Homan is able to escape. However, because he can’t communicate and he’s on the run he can’t help Lynnie. The two remain separated, but they never forget each other, or the secret that they hid. The story alternates between Lynnie, Homan and Martha, the elderly widow who tried to help when they hid from the authorities.
The book is at its most powerful when showing the circumstances that led to Lynnie and Homan being sent to the school against their wills, and the appalling conditions that the residents of the school endured. In the afterword, the author talks a lot about how horrific these state schools were, and how Homan was based on a real individual who lived at one school for 50 years without anyone ever knowing his true identity. Because when you grow up black and illiterate in the South before the civil rights era, and then you lose your hearing, you’re pretty much screwed. It’s frightening to consider how little people cared, and how easy it was to be labeled feeble-minded, just because you couldn’t communicate by any socially acceptable (or expected) means.
So there parts of the book that I really liked, and there were parts (the end) that I didn’t like, so I’m pretty conflicted as to how I really feel about the book.
I’ll keep this one in mind for when I need a good cry.
Care´s last [type] ..The Doctors’ Plague
I skipped over the bulk of your review when you said you were going to reveal spoilers. I really want to read this book. I don’t mind being emotionally manipulated from time to time.
Dude, that’s EXACTLY how I felt about The Art of Racing in the Rain. I was WEEPING but also watching myself weep all, I can’t believe I’m falling for this schlock. I AM BEING EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATED.
Ha ha! i know exactly how you feel! I felt similarly when I was reading One Day: for most of the novel I was like, “Meh, this isn’t all that or a bag of chips!” and then this thing happens that I even suspected would happen and it still totally destroyed me. And I was sitting on a plane trying not to get all weepy on my seat mates, who were two burly men. So then I had to reevaluate how indifferent I was to the book because obviously it did something right if it made me almost cry in front of strangers!
I bawled like a baby too at The Art of Racing in the Rain, on the exercise machine no less. And I’m not the crying type. Just don’t go there with animals. I can’t cope.
Besides the Disney ending here, that would annoy the hell out of me, I do think the circumstances between these two folks is story-worthy. If you read Henrietta Lachs, they also address the relative that was in the home for the insane or some such thing because she had epilepsy. Frightening stuff.
Sandy´s last [type] ..Sunday Salon- The Calm Before the Storm
Lord, I feel like that about EVERY book that makes me cry. All manipulated, even while weeping my eyes out.
This book looks dopey as well as weepy. Thanks for saving me from it. See ya at the book blogger con?
Elizabeth W´s last [type] ..Book Expo Excitement
I am waiting for my copy from the publisher. I have heard great things about this book. Sorry it did not work for you. I just read a book, with the same feelings. Too unrealistic. I threw the book across the room. I was so mad… But, alas it is fiction.
I do want to read this one though.
Susan´s last [type] ..Book Review- Lipstick in Afghanistan
I didn’t read the spoilers because I am an inch away from buying this book, and I almost did last weekend. It sounds really intriguing, and if you sobbed, I know I will too.
I read all the spoilers because I want to spare myself the embarrassment of getting this book and then like crying and shit…..
Trisha´s last [type] ..Book Review- Crooked Letter- Crooked Letter
La la la not reading your review since you are going to spoil it and I really really want to read this
Amused´s last [type] ..Mailbox Monday- May 16th -21st- 2011
Hate the emotional manipulation, love the premise, not thrilled with the end… but somehow think I still may want to read it!
JoAnn´s last [type] ..Tuesday Intro- Disturbing the Peace
I do hate when I’m emotionally manipulated … especially when I KNOW I’m being manipulated. And yet, a good cry from a book can feel so good.
Jenners´s last [type] ..Three Mini Book Reviews
I don’t like endings in which EVERYTHING is tied up perfectly for EVERYONE, either. That was one of my main beefs with Guy Gavriel Kay’s earlier novels, that he’d just slap together any two people who happened to be single towards the end of his books. So I can completely understand annoyance at your tears, and feeling like your body has turned on you. That always happens to me in lame movies, too. It’s just ridiculous!
Aarti´s last [type] ..Musings- Mairelon the Magician
Oh no.. I really was looking forward to reading this one. I don’t want to read any/many sappy books now, so this is going on to the maybe shelf.
Aths´s last [type] ..Breezing through with some quick reviews Kira-Kira- Coraline- Wherever Nina Lies
After the second paragraph, I couldn’t read the rest since I’ve JUST checked this out from the library. OMG! I can’t wait to read this just to get to the last part of the story. Is that strange?
Vasilly´s last [type] ..Summer reading and looking ahead
I’ve had this one on my wish list for a while. I do love a sappy book but sometimes when everything just wraps up too perfectly it really irritates me.
Darlene´s last [type] ..Sunday Ramblings & Videos of Sammy
I love what you said about too many happily ever afters in a book. But I totally understand what you mean … not everyone can get that happy ending. Sometimes, you need a little drama – a little reality. Still, this sounds like a really powerful book about some really great characters.