When Oprah Calls
āHello Beautiful,ā the fourth novel by Ann Napolitano ā94, is the 100th selection for Oprahās Book Club
The pinnacle of Ann Napolitanoās writing career will likely always be the moment she received a personal phone call from the Oprah Winfrey, who promptly informed her that her fourth novel, Hello Beautiful, was the 100th selection for the wildly influential Oprahās Book Club.
But it all began thanks to another larger-than-life personality: ĢĒŠÄTVās Professor Emeritus of English Blanche Boyd.
āI donāt know whether Iād be a writer if it werenāt for those years with Blanche,ā Napolitano acknowledges.
āShe was the first published writer I ever met. We were all intimidated by her and obsessed with her at the same time,ā she continues. āShe had a huge impact. Iām eternally grateful.ā
That same energy animates how she discusses Hello Beautiful joining Oprahās Book Club. While its selection was officially announced in March, Napolitano had been keeping the secret since she got the call from Winfrey nearly five months earlier. As she told The New York Times in March, āI felt like I went into full menopause because my whole body system was just adrenalized.ā When CC Mag spoke to her recently, that feeling had not faded.
āItās exciting. It feels sort of surreal just because itās been a noisier book release than Iāve ever had, which Iām very lucky for, obviously. But it feels like itās happening to someone else because this couldnāt be happening to me. Surreal really is the most apt thing.ā
It may feel surreal for Napolitano, but her career had been steadily building toward this moment. After years of fighting rejection, depression, time and lifeās crushing responsibilities, her third novel, Dear Edward, broke through in a big way. Bought at auction by Dial Press, it was her biggest publishing deal to date. Dial proved right to gamble on her, and the book became an immediate New York Times Bestseller after its release in 2020. It wasnāt long after AppleTV+ struck a deal to adapt the novel into a limited series, which hit the streamer in February of this year.
Napolitano considers the adaptation as a wholly separate entity. āI think it is just fun,ā she says.
āI respect [show creator Jason Katims] so much as an artist that I was just like, āGreat.ā I had no anxiety, no worries or anything. My book remains my book. What he did was a delightful adventure from my point of view.ā
The one aspect that did sneak up on her was Colin OāBrienās performance as Edward. āI find that emotional because that was like seeing my heart in a 3D human being,ā she recalls.
Despite the first taste of success, the author felt free when sitting down to write again. āI started writing Hello Beautiful right at the start of the pandemic, like April of 2020, so I think the world was so weird that I didnāt have the normalāthe world was making no sense,ā Napolitano says. āThat took away a lot of the structural worries I may have had.ā
The resulting novel, a period piece focused on four sistersā journeys from late adolescence into adulthood, captured Oprahās attention and has led many to compare it to Little Women.
āNot since Jo and Meg and Amy and Beth have we seen sisters like this, with this kind of connection, and written so vividly that you feel like youāre in that home,ā Winfrey told the Times. āYouāre experiencing life with them. I am telling you, the ending? I mourned. What an extraordinary writer Ann is.ā
While the attention has been at bit overwhelming, Napolitano is thankful it happened at this point in her career.
āIām glad Iām this age as opposed to in my 20s. I see how fun and exciting it is, and Iām not trying to deflect it or make it overly important as a statement on my own writing quality or anything like that. I just feel incredibly grateful to have this happen.ā
Sheās also not afraid of whatās next. Sure, being an Oprah Book Club selection is a tough act to follow, but itās one that Napolitano is already working on.
āFor the first nine months to a year, I donāt let myself write what I call pretty sentences, which is what I really love to do,ā she explains about her process. āI canāt think analytically or with any sense of perspective when Iām in the work like that. So I have found that reserving the first nine months or so where Iām not allowed to writeāI can only research and take notes and try to figure out as much as I can in my brain about this ideaāhelpful.
āIām in that phase now for the next one. I have an idea. I have lots of notes. Iām hoping to start writing it in June, but Iām not allowed yet.ā
Sheās as excited for that ban to lift as her growing collection of new fans.
āTaking the break from writing also makes me so happy to be writing again that I sort of dive back in with gusto.ā