Little Beauties: A Novel

Kim Addonizio's Little Beauties is a wonder of a novel. Told in alternative viewpoints, she contrasts a woman with severe OCD, an about-to-be teen mom, and a fetus, later a teen mom and a newborn baby. This premise alone drew me to the book, but what kept me reading was how compassionately, rather than neurotically, Addonizio painted her characters. Watching Diana struggle with losing control over her rigid OCD rules and trying to welcome people into her life post-breakup, and seeing from the outside how sad a life she had created for herself, was tempered by the hopefulness of Stella, and Jasmine's youth. All of this is contrasted with the world of beauty pageants Diana has left behind as well as the ethereal place Stella occupies. It's her insights that truly make this book shine, for Stella has access to everyone, even dead people, and can see far beyond people's surfaces. Pitting a baby with all her inherent messiness, not to mention Jasmine's internal messiness, with Diana's fastidiousness, creates an uneasy tension between them, and watching Diana be forced to open up to them, and to the possibility of a relationship after the demise of her last one, is like watching a sullen teenager slowly grow up and realize the world is not all about them. Diana's emotional growth has been stunted, by fear and OCD, and watching her teeter on the verge of getting better and sinking into the familiarity of her rules was riveting.The contrast between what the mothers in the book want for their daughters?Gloria wants to have a beauty pageant winner, Maria wants to have a "good girl," and Jasmine doesn't even really want to be a mom?is splendidly done, and instead of making the reader feel sorry for any of the protagonists, who are all trapped in certain unsavory situations, Addonizio shows them each struggling and coping the best they can as they adapt, adjust, and grow up. By the end, I certainly hoped that Stella could use all the additional knowledge she's gained from being privy to the Before to help herself avoid the pitfalls the other women had gone through, even though surely some of them are inevitable.Stella was by far my favorite character, perhaps because she was the most helpless. Diana and Jasmine often made me want to shake them out of their stupors, pull them back into the real world, or at least one more real than the fantasies, of rules and freedom, they've each created in their heads. Yet Addonizio, thankfully, doesn't judge them, letting each character find her own path to "beauty" and love, of self and others. She made me care and wonder about the characters long after I'd closed the book, wanting to know how they've turned out, and if they've fulfilled the potential Addonizio's imbued them with so beautifully. This was a risky, unusual novel, especially with a fetus/newborn as a storyteller, and Addonizio more than rises to the challenge.The idea that this is a "Lifetime channel" type of book simply because it's about women struggling rings false. Addonizio humanizes OCD and teen motherhood without preaching or making this a morality tale.

I picked up Little Beauties hoping for a good novel to escape into. I was immediately pulling into this remarkable story, and found it provided that moment of escapist reading where I enter into the world of the book, yet surprisingly was rich with insight that literally changed my perspective and understanding of my own life.It was one of those few books that I felt was MEANT for me to stumble across. I wasn't looking to read anything about OCD and when I picked it up had only heard of the author so did so based on her notoriety as a poet. That subject matter was a huge surprise-and RELIEF for me.It just spoke to me so personally in a way that reading dry clinical literature on OCD can't. Not only was it a literary brilliant move to structure the title of each chapter as one of the items on the OCD list, that made the book FUN and CLEVER while informative but not didactic. What a fabulous story which just pulls the reader in. After a while you realize you are learning about this rarity of OCD which for most people isn't something they may ever really have to think about (THANKFULLY!) But for those of us who have ever had relationships with those who just can't use a soap bar if touched by another, or have to wash with nine washclothes (one for each part of the body), or flip out if you bring a libraby book to bed because of the germs-- Well this book is nothing more than the AH HA! Moment of FINALLY UNDERSTANDING the torture of those who suffer this disorder, and the stress it places on not only themselves but those around them.My copy was passed on to a friend who is a counselor as I think it is a MUST READ for anyone working in a clinical field whom may ever have to help someone deal with the challenges of OCD. When I finished it I was tempted to write a THANK YOU LETTER to the author as I was so touched by this book.

This is the type of book you bring with you on an airplane. Light reading, predictable plot, not much substance. The main character Diana is afflicted with OCD and spends much of her day worrying about germs and handwashing. She works in a baby store and one day Jamie, a 17 yr old pregnant girls buys a teddy bear from her. Jamie didn't want to be pregnant and was planning on putting the child up for adoption.Well, you can pretty much guess what happens next. Jamie has the child and instantly falls in love with the child and decides to keep her. Yeah, right. This is the same pregnant girl who did drugs while pregnant hoping she could kill the child? The same girl who wished she could miscarry? The plot gets more and more unbelievable as Jamie moves into Diana's apartment with the baby. Jamie decides to get drunk and high, fly from Los Angeles to New York on a whim and leave her baby at Diana's without even a note? And then the baby gets sick and Jamie rushes back and realizes how much she loves her daughter and how she'll immediately change her lifestyle? Puh-leeze! None of this is believable. I never got a good sense of who the characters were, nor did I even like any of the characters. And the whole dead wife talking to Jamie's baby? Just plain weird.All in all, not a horrible story, but don't read it with the hopes that it will be a great book. It's just not. Light reading, yes. Literary genius, no way.

I read this whole book on the way to England on the plane. It was a perfect story for that sort of length. Easy, fun reading. A story of three and 1/2 women (you'll have to read it to find the "1/2"!), Little Beauties tells a tale drawing on four stages of life. The OCD that's interwoven throughout the book rings very true and the details are fascinating. Every character is given a voice and even if the story doesn't end in a tidy knot, it's satisfying. One reason I gave it 4 out of 5 stars is that it felt too short. The story could have been longer. I wanted to know more about each woman's fate. I did love the cover art; the bars of soap with bubbles against the robin's egg blue is really striking.