Title: Did You Ever Have a Family
Author: Bill Clegg
Published: September 1, 2015 by Gallery/Scout Press
Pages: 304
Source: Purchased
Rating: 4/5
Goodreads
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke—her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor.
Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak.
From the couple running a motel on the Pacific Ocean where June eventually settles into a quiet half-life, to the wedding’s caterer whose bill has been forgotten, to Luke’s mother, the shattered outcast of the town—everyone touched by the tragedy is changed as truths about their near and far histories finally come to light.
Elegant and heartrending, and one of the most accomplished fiction debuts of the year, Did You Ever Have a Family is an absorbing, unforgettable tale that reveals humanity at its best through forgiveness and hope. At its core is a celebration of family—the ones we are born with and the ones we create.
My review:
Wow! This book packs in some of the most beautiful writing I've come across! Such an abundance of wonderful quotes it would not be possible to list them all, but here is one of my favorites:
Rough as life can be, I know in my bones we are supposed to stick around and play our part. Even if that part is coughing to death from cigarettes, or being blown up young in a house with your mother watching. And even if it's to be that mother. Someone down the line might need to know you got through it.
Such wonderful writing, and yet I had to give it 4 stars for the fact that there were so many characters introduced that I never felt connected to any of them. This was such a tragic story, and I'm a crier when it comes to books, yet I never cried during this book. We are introduced to a new character in each chapter for the first half of the book, and throughout the chapters we sometimes weave back and forth in time. I highly recommend writing down who is connected to who, I think it will help immensely once those characters are reintroduced down the line. Even though I didn't truly connect with any of the characters, I still felt completely drawn into their lives (once I got them straightened out), and was rooting for all to make their peace within themselves and the world.
This is a stunning work, and I would highly recommend it. Do not get frustrated with the amount of characters, it is so worth the read.
I loved this one too and I agree there were definitely a lot of characters. But, after reading The Shore earlier this year, it didn't seem so bad keeping everything straight...at least not nearly as complicated as The Shore was!