bellatora's review against another edition
2.0
The love story of a mentally handicapped young woman and a deaf man, and the child that results (taken in by a kindly old lady). Also, about How Awful Sanitariums Were.
I just couldn't get into the story, and felt that the time jumps and exposition slowed things down. I feel like this is the book equivalent of a Lifetime Original Movie. Which could totally be your thing, but it's not mine.
I just couldn't get into the story, and felt that the time jumps and exposition slowed things down. I feel like this is the book equivalent of a Lifetime Original Movie. Which could totally be your thing, but it's not mine.
mdabernig's review against another edition
4.0
There is just something about this story that gets to me. Before reading it I anticipated either loving it beyond reason or being massively let down. As it was...I really liked it, and I loved the end of it beyond all reason but overall I didn't have that connection through other parts of the book.
The story is about a young couple who flee an institution one night and show up outside an old woman's door. The couple - a deaf, black man and a white, silent girl hide and the old woman discovers that the young woman has just had a baby. Before she can get any further information, people come to the door looking for her guests and the man runs and the woman is captured, but not before begging for the woman to hide the baby.
The story then splits as we watch the main characters try and find their way in the world, and back to each other.
I guess the best thing to do would be to say why I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. I think for me, the only real issue I had with it was I didn't feel as invested in the characters journey as I thought I would. I don't know if it's because we had three distinct voices (very well done with that incidentally - you are never in doubt over who is 'talking') and just as you were getting into one situation, you would jump to a completely different one and when you would go back to them time would have moved on. It's perhaps an unfair gripe because there wasn't a whole lot else that could be done unless the book was 200 pages longer, but it did slightly detract for me a little.
Outwith that though I did find the rest of the book wonderful. The characters journeys were very well written, and although we could have perhaps done with more information on Martha & Julia's journey as that very much felt like an afterthought at times, Lynnie and Homan developed perfectly in terms of where they started and where they ended up and you would be a pretty cold hearted if you weren't rooting for them both individually and to find each other again. Again, the way time flows over the piece is maybe an issue - too many years pass in too short a space of time so you sometimes get the sense you are only seeing snippets of time but again, that is something that probably could only be rectified by either altering the writing style or adding a significant number of pages. As it is, although it would have been nice to have a more detailed journey if we were travelling that many years, you still get the sense of what has happened and you can feel the characters develop as the years pass. It doesn't really detract, although it may have enhanced the story if it had been done slightly differently.
The ending...
I will say I recommend to read on into the authors notes at the end of the book about what inspired the story. If anyone was aware of the story of John Doe #24 before this then it will add an extra something to the experience to know that that tragic tale helped inspire this. It's a nice dream to imagine that in another universe, that didn't have to end quite the same way.
Anyway - I highly recommend this. It will stay with you after you read it, in the very best way!
The story is about a young couple who flee an institution one night and show up outside an old woman's door. The couple - a deaf, black man and a white, silent girl hide and the old woman discovers that the young woman has just had a baby. Before she can get any further information, people come to the door looking for her guests and the man runs and the woman is captured, but not before begging for the woman to hide the baby.
The story then splits as we watch the main characters try and find their way in the world, and back to each other.
I guess the best thing to do would be to say why I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. I think for me, the only real issue I had with it was I didn't feel as invested in the characters journey as I thought I would. I don't know if it's because we had three distinct voices (very well done with that incidentally - you are never in doubt over who is 'talking') and just as you were getting into one situation, you would jump to a completely different one and when you would go back to them time would have moved on. It's perhaps an unfair gripe because there wasn't a whole lot else that could be done unless the book was 200 pages longer, but it did slightly detract for me a little.
Outwith that though I did find the rest of the book wonderful. The characters journeys were very well written, and although we could have perhaps done with more information on Martha & Julia's journey as that very much felt like an afterthought at times, Lynnie and Homan developed perfectly in terms of where they started and where they ended up and you would be a pretty cold hearted if you weren't rooting for them both individually and to find each other again. Again, the way time flows over the piece is maybe an issue - too many years pass in too short a space of time so you sometimes get the sense you are only seeing snippets of time but again, that is something that probably could only be rectified by either altering the writing style or adding a significant number of pages. As it is, although it would have been nice to have a more detailed journey if we were travelling that many years, you still get the sense of what has happened and you can feel the characters develop as the years pass. It doesn't really detract, although it may have enhanced the story if it had been done slightly differently.
The ending...
Spoiler
the ending is beautiful and wonderful and it made me smile like an idiot. I'm a romantic, but the idea if him buying a lighthouse, running up everytime someone visits in the off-chance that his 'Beautiful Girl' will find it was just wonderful. Add in her wearing the locket and the scene at the end a few years later where they wake up together...perfect.I will say I recommend to read on into the authors notes at the end of the book about what inspired the story. If anyone was aware of the story of John Doe #24 before this then it will add an extra something to the experience to know that that tragic tale helped inspire this. It's a nice dream to imagine that in another universe, that didn't have to end quite the same way.
Anyway - I highly recommend this. It will stay with you after you read it, in the very best way!
amyherbert's review against another edition
4.0
Book Review: Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon
It has been a long time since a book made me sob but the last fifty pages of this book had tears running down my face. In the best possible way of course.
Beautiful Girl is the story of Lynnie, Homan and Martha and a night that changes all of their lives forever. When Lynnie and Homan escape from the brutal institution they have been forced to live in, they come upon the widow Martha's house and make a decision to leave with her the most precious thing they have for safekeeping: a baby. This book follows the three story threads across decades. Changes in the world and changes in the characters themselves weaving the threads of the story loose then tight over and over. This is overall a story of hopes both lost and found.
As Lynnie says at one point "a small hope isn't really small if it makes a lost hope less sad".
It took me a little while to get into this story but then it wrapped it's arms around me and swept me along until I cried at the end. If you want a book to touch your heart then this is the one for you. A perfect book for lovers of Forrest Gump.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
It has been a long time since a book made me sob but the last fifty pages of this book had tears running down my face. In the best possible way of course.
Beautiful Girl is the story of Lynnie, Homan and Martha and a night that changes all of their lives forever. When Lynnie and Homan escape from the brutal institution they have been forced to live in, they come upon the widow Martha's house and make a decision to leave with her the most precious thing they have for safekeeping: a baby. This book follows the three story threads across decades. Changes in the world and changes in the characters themselves weaving the threads of the story loose then tight over and over. This is overall a story of hopes both lost and found.
As Lynnie says at one point "a small hope isn't really small if it makes a lost hope less sad".
It took me a little while to get into this story but then it wrapped it's arms around me and swept me along until I cried at the end. If you want a book to touch your heart then this is the one for you. A perfect book for lovers of Forrest Gump.
⭐⭐⭐⭐
captainjemima's review against another edition
4.0
'The Story of Beautiful Girl' is an emotional tale of Lynnie and her deaf friend who both live in an institution for the mentally ill, in the 1960s. The whole time the deaf man and Lynnie know each other, they cannot communicate their names, so Lynnie is "Beautiful Girl" to him, and he is "Buddy" to Lynnie.
One day the two escape and Lynnie gives birth to a baby. They travel in stormy weather to find refuge, and stumble upon Martha Zimmer, a retired and widowed teacher, who has the baby thrust upon her in a desperate attempt to preserve its life. Lynnie is captured by the 'School' and the deaf man escapes.
The book spans the next thirty-odd years, documenting the lives of everyone involved, including the only worker at the 'School' who sympathises with Lynnie, Kate.
The novel is split into chapters headed with a year and the name of whoever's story is being told in that passage. I found this format easy to read and felt that Rachel Simon carried out this writing technique very well, as each character's passage was convincing and really established personality and motive. Sometimes the skipping of a few years was somewhat confusing, especially since each chapter was mostly told in the present year, so we often didn't find out what had been going on in the gaps.
I very much enjoyed this novel and I'm really glad it was chosen for my book club. It was compelling towards the final third of the book, and I really had to find out what happened to the characters. I actually wept a little at the end, out of happiness.
This book made me so much more aware of the way the mentally ill or physically disabled were treated in the 1960s and early 70s. I had no idea about it before, and it was treated with such a human empathy, not a scientific observation. At the end of the book, Simon goes on to say that the novel is a result of extensive research into the fact that this was EXACTLY how these vulnerable people were treated. I would recommend this book as an eye-opener and a feel-good story, to really make you value your own life.
One day the two escape and Lynnie gives birth to a baby. They travel in stormy weather to find refuge, and stumble upon Martha Zimmer, a retired and widowed teacher, who has the baby thrust upon her in a desperate attempt to preserve its life. Lynnie is captured by the 'School' and the deaf man escapes.
The book spans the next thirty-odd years, documenting the lives of everyone involved, including the only worker at the 'School' who sympathises with Lynnie, Kate.
The novel is split into chapters headed with a year and the name of whoever's story is being told in that passage. I found this format easy to read and felt that Rachel Simon carried out this writing technique very well, as each character's passage was convincing and really established personality and motive. Sometimes the skipping of a few years was somewhat confusing, especially since each chapter was mostly told in the present year, so we often didn't find out what had been going on in the gaps.
I very much enjoyed this novel and I'm really glad it was chosen for my book club. It was compelling towards the final third of the book, and I really had to find out what happened to the characters. I actually wept a little at the end, out of happiness.
This book made me so much more aware of the way the mentally ill or physically disabled were treated in the 1960s and early 70s. I had no idea about it before, and it was treated with such a human empathy, not a scientific observation. At the end of the book, Simon goes on to say that the novel is a result of extensive research into the fact that this was EXACTLY how these vulnerable people were treated. I would recommend this book as an eye-opener and a feel-good story, to really make you value your own life.
pixieauthoress's review against another edition
5.0
Apart from of the slower sections in the middle, relating to Homan's story, I honestly found this book impossible to put down. I will admit that there were some situations that seemed a bit too good to be true or slightly contrived, but the ending genuinely made me cry because I was so happy for the characters. Books rarely make me cry, unless I'm hormonal, so for that sort of emotional connection, I'm going to have to give this book 4.5*. An excellent, but not overly graphic, insight into how mentally and physically disabled people suffered in institutions in this period. Definitely an eye-opener, and made all the more compelling through the characters of Lynne and Homan. Even if I didn't love reading all of Homan's chapters, I couldn't help but care about his difficulties. Lynnie is impossible not to love. If this synopsis even only slightly intrigues you, read this book. It's well worth the read. I'm glad I picked this up from the library on a whim.
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