Within Arm’s Reach is a family drama novel written by Ann Napolitano and published in 2004. The novel follows the intergenerational relationships within the Irish American Catholic McLaughlin family after the oldest grandchild, Gracie, becomes unexpectedly pregnant out of wedlock. It explores Shifting Family and Generational Dynamics, Emotional Expression and Communication Within Families, and The Role of Tradition and Change in Personal Development. The novel received little attention and eventually ran out of print until 2023 when Napolitano re-issued Within Arm’s Reach due to popular demand.

This guide uses the 2024 Dial Press Trade paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel explores and mentions the loss of a child, alcoholism, child abuse, and mental illness. The novel also includes brief references to and descriptions of animal deaths. In addition, the novel briefly explores racism and includes a character using a racist slur against Hispanic and Latino Americans.

Plot Summary

Twenty-nine-year-old Gracie Leary details the story of her maternal grandmother, Catharine McLaughlin, losing three of her nine children, something about which she does not speak. The story of these losses interests and comforts Gracie, as it demonstrates the enduring love and resilience of her family.

Gracie mentions that her family has a tendency to keep secrets. Yet, she finds herself pregnant without being married and realizes that it won’t remain a secret for long. Catharine contemplates ways to assist Gracie, whom she knows is expecting a baby. Haunted by visions of her deceased relatives, Catharine has a minor car crash and is brought to the hospital by her son-in-law, Louis Leary. His daughter Lila, a medical student, checks on her, and Catharine suggests Lila live with Gracie. Then Catharine proposes a family Easter party. During this, Louis looks for the widow of Eddie Ortiz, a man on his construction crew who died after falling off the roof of a house on which they were working. He suffers trauma and guilt and wants to help Eddie’s widow and children.

Louis takes Catharine back to her assisted living home, looks at Eddie’s house, and goes home, where he fails to communicate with his wife, Kelly, about his feelings.

Gracie breaks up with both her boyfriend and the father of her baby, Joel, because he is still in love with his ex, Margaret. She reveals her pregnancy, and he panics, denying he is the father and leaving. The following morning, she tells Lila, who is struggling with medical school. She is at the top of her class, but her impatience with her coworkers and patients is quickly putting her on thin ice, and she is starting to question whether she belongs there.

Catharine remembers receiving her visions through her late husband, Patrick, who experienced apparitions and visions while he was alive. Following that, she pays a visit to her youngest child, Ryan, and then Gracie. When Catharine informs Gracie that she is aware of her pregnancy, Gracie becomes emotional and apologizes, but Catharine assures her of her support.

Gracie goes to work, and soon after, her boss at The Bergen Record and her ex-boyfriend, Grayson, learns of her pregnancy and asks her to marry him. Believing she is meant to raise her child alone, she rejects his proposal. She reveals that she had gotten pregnant before with Grayson’s child and broke up with him before getting an abortion, for which she felt guilty because of her Catholic upbringing. She leaves and, while driving, sees an apparition of her future child, who appears as a toddler girl. Gracie then goes to Sarachi Pond, where she once had a picnic with her family and where she often had sex with her boyfriends over the years. She wonders why she wants to keep this baby and thinks about how she tells girls in her advice columns that babies do not necessarily make things better in one’s life.

Kelly, the oldest living McLaughlin child and Gracie and Lila’s mother, remembers seeing her older sister’s death. She gets off work and visits Gracie before going home. She decides she wants to help Louis overcome his grief and consults Mayor Vince Carrelli, who is Louis’s longtime friend. He gives her a haircut, and she asks him to get Louis to open up about Eddie. She then goes to a motel room, where she lies down and thinks about her life, allowing herself to do what she wants without caring what others think. When she gets home, she learns her plan did not work, and Louis tells her to trust that he will soon be okay. The day of the Easter party, nearly the whole McLaughlin family comes. The party goes well, with most of the family connecting until Catharine, hoping the announcement of a new baby will unite them, tells them Gracie is pregnant.

Two months later, Gracie keeps mostly to herself. Her aunts Meggy and Angel arrive soon after and try to convince Gracie to give up her baby to Angel and her husband, but Gracie refuses.

Lila has started having sex with firefighter Weber James after Easter and questions whether she belongs in medical school, taking a two-week sick leave. Meanwhile, Catharine falls while walking in her room and sees the ghost of her mother, who chastises her for keeping her away from her grandchildren and not accepting loss as a natural part of love. One of the nurses arrives to examine a conscious but unresponsive Catharine.

Kelly starts thinking about Vince and calls him: He tells her he is in love with her. Louis then calls and tells Kelly that Catharine fell. At the hospital, they talk to Catharine before Louis leaves. Kelly calls her siblings on the payphone to let them know before calling Vince. She has him meet her at her motel room and invites him in.

Grayson comes to Gracie’s house and proposes marriage again. She initially rejects him, but he asks her if she knows who she is and if she wants to know who she is for her child. She answers yes and agrees to marry him. Meanwhile, Lila is frustrated about her life and, at Weber’s suggestion, goes to Dairy Queen. She lashes out at her colleague Belinda there and ends her fling with Weber. She returns home, where Gracie asks her to be her birthing coach. She accepts and then receives a call from Weber’s radio, informing them that their uncle Ryan’s apartment is on fire. The sisters drive to the site, where they learn Louis has saved Ryan, and Lila sees Weber, who helped get everyone out of the building safely. Seeing Weber’s bravery and passion, Lila wants that same passion and decides to drop out of medical school.

Louis hires Noreen Ballen, Eddie’s widow, as Catharine’s nurse. She enjoys Catharine’s stories and soon learns that Catharine has dreams and visions, including ones about Noreen and the other Ballen children. Kelly has started having an affair with Vince and considers leaving Louis, but, during a heated argument over the phone with Meggy, she learns that Louis saved Ryan from the fire. This makes her realize he is loyal to the family, and she starts planning to bring the family together by throwing Gracie a baby shower. Louis starts helping Eddie’s widow subtly by making repairs and befriends her children. He then regrets not being more hands-on in his parenting and more communicative with his wife.

Gracie bakes an anniversary cake for her parents and then goes to her class with Lila. She then goes to drop off the cake and a card at her parents’ house but sees her mother kissing Mayor Carrelli. She drops them in the trash and quickly leaves. When she comes home, Grayson is there, and she tells him she wants to marry him that week.

On the day of the baby shower, Lila helps her mother prepare and thinks about what she will do since dropping out of medical school. The family, Gracie, and Grayson arrive and converse, and then Weber arrives—thinking he was invited by Catharine. Lila reveals she invited him and wants him to know she thinks they are meant to be together, having left medical school because of him.

During the shower, Noreen goes home to help her daughter pack for a sleepover and is dropped off at Kelly and Louis’s house. Louis reveals he had been helping her and Noreen tells him she does not need his help. Soon after, Meggy calls Noreen into the house for help. At the shower, Catharine is visited by her mother, who sees Catharine’s children and then tells Catharine to focus on being emotionally present with her family. Gracie discreetly confronts Kelly about the affair, and Kelly tells her she was saying goodbye. Soon after, Gracie opens her presents from Catharine: a picture of her and Lila as children and a baby blanket. She loves the presents and starts sobbing. Catharine realizes she should have cried like this for her losses. Gracie then goes into labor, and the family and Noreen come together to help.