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Search - Little Beauties
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Little Beauties Author: |
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Book Description:
The lives of three characters -- an obsessive-compulsive, a pregnant teenager, and the teen's unborn child -- come together in National Book Award finalist and Pushcart Prize winner Kim Addonizio's unsparingly funny and transcendent debut novel.
Diana McBride, a thirty-four-year-old former child pageant contender, now works in a baby store in Long Beach. Between dealing with a catastrophic haircut, the failure of her marriage, and phone calls from her alcoholic mother, Diana has gone off her OCD medication and is trying to cope via washing and cleaning rituals. When pregnant teenager Jamie Ramirez enters the store, Diana's already chaotic world is sent spinning.
Jamie can't stand being pregnant. She can't wait to get on with her normal life and give the baby up for adoption. But her yet-to-be-born daughter, Stella, has a fierce will and a destiny to fulfill. And as the magical plot of Little Beauties unfolds, these three characters' lives become linked in ever more surprising ways.
With a poet's ear for fresh, evocative language and a deft humor that exposes her characters' foibles, Addonizio perfectly captures the messiness and unexpected beauty of life.
Diana McBride, a thirty-four-year-old former child pageant contender, now works in a baby store in Long Beach. Between dealing with a catastrophic haircut, the failure of her marriage, and phone calls from her alcoholic mother, Diana has gone off her OCD medication and is trying to cope via washing and cleaning rituals. When pregnant teenager Jamie Ramirez enters the store, Diana's already chaotic world is sent spinning.
Jamie can't stand being pregnant. She can't wait to get on with her normal life and give the baby up for adoption. But her yet-to-be-born daughter, Stella, has a fierce will and a destiny to fulfill. And as the magical plot of Little Beauties unfolds, these three characters' lives become linked in ever more surprising ways.
With a poet's ear for fresh, evocative language and a deft humor that exposes her characters' foibles, Addonizio perfectly captures the messiness and unexpected beauty of life.
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Top Member Book Reviews
Susan L. (
1 member(s) found this review helpful.
I really liked this book! It is written from three different perspectives which makes it very interesting. When I read the first chapter from the unborn child's perspective it was so sweet and unexpected I wanted to cry!
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Please Rate these Book Reviews
Joann (Little Beauties is told from the perspective of three characters. The first is Diana. Diana is a mid-thirty year old who was recently seperated (not by her choice)from her husband. Diana's OCD controls her life. Jamie is the pregnant teenager who is unhappy about her current situation. Diana and Jamie cross paths and eventually their lives become involved. The third perspective is Stella, Jamie's unborn baby.
The book is a quick read
Nancy M. (This book sucked me right in! It tells the story through the 3 main characters, but does so in a way that you can understand. Each character adds their own specific pov to the overall story.
I recommend this one. It is not deep, but it is. An easy read that makes you think.
Stephanie R. (I bought this book one day because it was on clearance at Waldenbooks. It sounded interesting, and was cheap, so I figured, why not? I really enjoyed it! It's a fairly quick, easy read. The way the characters' lives all connect is really neat. Give it a chance!
Too depressing. Also, I am not into the new age thing...the unborn baby speaks as if reincarnated.
Wonderfully readable fare tossing surprising characters together and reminding us of teh power of compassion in human growth, no matter at what juncture of teh journey we find ourselves. Satisfying.
Addonizio writes with sultry candor about womanhood under duress in her celebrated poetry, collected most recently in What Is This Thing Called Love? (2004). She now extends her provocative inquiry with verve and creative license in her first novel. Diana loves her job at a Long Beach baby store, but she is beginning to detect the contamination that haunts her. A former child pageant star pushed mercilessly by her man-crazy, alcoholic mother, Diana is a compulsive washer. Her obsessive behavior has driven away her husband, and she can't imagine how she can possibly give shelter to Jamie, a 17-year-old unwed mother, and her newborn, Stella, who desperately need a place to stay because Jamie's mother insists that she give Stella up for adoption. Addonizio writes with mesmerizing realism about Diana's efforts to conquer her neurosis and Jaime's conflicted motherhood, then turns to tongue-in-cheek fantasy to convey Stella's predicament as an old soul trapped in an infant's helpless body. The result is a funny, insightful, and diverting tale of high anxiety, rocky mother-daughter relationships, and the tyranny of the body.
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