Life lessons, amid all the laughter, craziness, and romance (Houston, Texas; present-day): What do classical pianist Leon Fleisher, French impressionist Claude Monet, and Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh have in common? More to the point, what do these artists have in common with the wild and wondrous plot of Hello Stranger? More specific to Katherine Center’s newest female protagonist – struggling portrait artist, twenty-eight-year-old Sadie Montgomery – what does Sadie’s medical affliction have in common with them?
Since you won’t know Sadie’s medical diagnosis until 40+ pages in, rather than spoil the oh-so-clever plotting, why not imagine what could be so catastrophic to derail a painter of portraits? That’s not really a fair question competing with Center’s imagination, especially after nine other bestselling romance novels, one adapted and available on Netflix (The Lost Husband), another in production (Happiness for Beginners).
Competing is also key to the plot. On page one, Sadie has just found out she’s one of only 10 finalists out of 2,000 invited to submit a portrait for the coveted North American Portrait Society’s annual contest. A chance of a lifetime to be recognized, appreciated, coming with a $10,000 prize she could use badly. She had six weeks to create her entry, until out-of-the blue she’s hit with a medical calamity that eats up three. Down-to-the-wire, crazily so.
“You know those days when it just feels like the universe is out to get you?” Well, Sadie has had many days, weeks, months, and years of those. Now she feels even worse, as in, “The brokest and sickest and most disoriented I’d ever been in my life.” As in, “No matter how alone you are in life, you always have yourself, right?” Except with Sadie’s condition, she’s lost the ability to rely on herself.
So, if you’re wondering how Center, dubbed “the reigning queen of comfort reads,” concocts her literary magic this time with such a serious plot, here’s a clue: Center believes, “Tragedy is a given, but “joy is a choice.” Center proves, “Laughter is the best medicine.” How she makes that happen is a gift.
The prose makes you smile. One word – “Anyhoo” – conjures up something Lucille Ball, iconic TV comedian, might have said to her dear friend and neighbor Ethel. Ball, who gave us so many laughs. In a way, the sharp-shooting, fast-paced dialogue reminds us of the laugh-out-loud episode when Lucy donned her ridiculous white baker’s cap to work on a conveyor belt wrapping chocolates and cannot keep up the pace. Center can.
For instance, during a session with Sadie’s doctor/therapist Nicole from Trinidad, the conversation goes like this:
“You’re very in your head.” “I’d like to see you dip into your heart.”
“I like it in my head.”
But that’s not really where we live.”
“Are you trying to tell me I’m emotionally closed off?”
“Because I have a lot of emotions. I’m great at emotions! I’m a huge fan of you, for example. I just fell madly in love with my brand-new veterinarian. I cry at life insurance commercials.”
Later: “I’m just going to take a fake-it-til-ya-make-it-approach.”
“It might help people to know what’s going on with you. It might help them help you.”
“Have you met people?” “People don’t help other people.”
Sadie makes her life even more difficult than it already is having mastered the art of acting and saying she’s “fine. OK,” no matter how desperate she feels. Caring about preserving her dignity and not hurting the feelings of others even though inside she’s “falling apart.”
“We all just move about through the world on guesswork and hope,” Sadie says, trying to cajole herself when her world is suddenly, literarily, turned upside-down, sideways, torn into pieces.
Sadie has had a hard-luck life. Adrift for fourteen years since she lost her mother at fourteen, the one person in her life that, “Couldn’t always fix things for me, but she was always there. Until the day she wasn’t.” Sadie misses her mother’s warmth, kindness, fun, creativity, and loving-life spirit. We feel her pain, longing to be hugged and loved. A good-natured young woman who’s been knocked down by the other members of her so-called family. Her father, “a celebrated surgeon,” who wants nothing to do with her; her “evil stepmother” Lucinda might someday make enough amends if she tries hard and long enough and doesn’t let Sadie down; and her “evil stepsister” Parker who, playing amateur psychologist, seems to be a psychopath – dangerously revengeful, abnormally jealous, downright mean, likely beyond hope. Center’s literary world has no room for cruelty.
Sadie, then, has ingrained emotional triggers – feeling betrayed, abandoned, forgotten. On her medical journey, she learns life lessons. One called “confirmation bias,” based on evidence, theorizes that if you go looking for something based on assumptions, you’ll find what you were looking for. Which means you’ll also miss what you weren’t looking for.
Sadie misses a lot.
What the reader doesn’t know is how much they miss. Clue: starts in the first chapter. You will not see the twist coming. When it comes, you’ll marvel at how well put-together the novel is, despite being engrossed. In fact, you won’t read this novel, you’ll devour it. For the record: I didn’t know Center would say the same thing about romantic stories in her Author’s Note after the novel ends. She wants us to devour her novels the way she devours what she reads.
Still, how could Sadie have the presence of mind given what’s on her plate to get romantically involved with someone? She’s so discombobulated, though she can’t remember the last time she was kissed, touched. Well, that’s part of the sexual tension and humor.
Enter that aforementioned dreamy new vet, who comes to the rescue of Peanuts. Sadie’s senior, fluffy, adorable, mini-dog – her “soulmate, and only real family.” Ugh, how those emotions tug at the hearts of dog lovers who understand what the unconditional love and loyalty of a special companion profoundly means, or anyone with compassion for someone who’s terribly lonely. She’s not that far gone, though, that she doesn’t consider she might be “manufacturing a crush” to distract from her “wounded” self. You’ll see how delightfully entangled that relationship becomes.
Another handsome male is in this picture. Sadie overhears him on the phone in the elevator of her apartment building she interprets to mean he’s the worst type of man alive. When she tells Sue (Soo Hyun), her best friend from college, an art teacher, they playfully debate whether he’s a “playboy,” “seducer,” “libertine,” “shag bandit,” “Womanizer,” “Mutton monger.” Sadie lands on Weasel but Sue’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kim, who own the building, call him Mr. Helpful. Hmmm. It’s the Kims who’ve kindly allowed Sadie to use their rooftop storage space for a studio she lives in and calls a “hovel.” Casting the Kims as Korean-American immigrants translates into they know what it means to struggle.
Rooftop views let us know where the novel is set. In Houston, Texas the author’s home. The building located in the Warehouse District. West is Buffalo Bayou.
When Sue can’t be there for Sadie modeling for said contest – Sadie is operating on Hope – she doesn’t tell her how frantic she feels. Sue has a good reason. What are best friends for?
How will Sadie find a replacement model? Imagine where that can lead to!
Lorraine