Bill Clegg

Wow....I love a book that touches me and makes me think. After a devastating explosion that kills 4 people, two of them on the eve of their wedding, we follow multiple characters who are affected or somehow connected to the victims. I was a little confused at first by the many characters, but, with patience, it all comes together. Every one of us alive has a story to tell, and in this book we get a glimpse inside the private lives and thoughts of the characters: their losses, secrets, show more regrets, and the private burdens they bear.

There's also a mystery to solve, although it isn't a major part of the narrative, When I learned how the explosion occurred, it packed an emotional punch. How quickly people judge or assign blame when they don’t know the whole story…it makes you think.

Despite the subject matter, the beautiful writing doesn’t resort to cheap sentimentality in order to evoke a reaction from the reader. I wasn’t as moved emotionally by the tragedy as much as I was moved by the human condition. Powerful stuff.

This will be on my 'favorites list' and one that I would re-read. The last couple of pages are poignant and hauntingly beautiful (well, truthfully, that's true of the entire book). A favorite quote:
“Rough as life can be, I know in my bones we are supposed to stick around and play our part…. Someone down the line might need to know you got through it. Or maybe someone you won't see coming will need you….And it might be you never know the part you played, what it meant to someone to watch you make your way each day. Maybe someone or something is watching us all make our way. I don't think we get to know why.”

This book touched on all my emotional hot buttons - in a good way! show less

This is a very moving and insightful novel about the ways that people deal with grief and the bonds between them. On the night before her daughter's wedding, June Reid's Connecticutt house bursts into flames, killing her daughter Lolly, Lolly's fiancé Will, her ex-husband, and her current boyfriend: only June, who had fallen asleep in the wedding tent, survives. After the funerals, June gets into Will's car and heads for small town in Washington state where he grew up and where he and Lolly show more had spent a particularly happy vacation. The story shifts among a number of characters and their perspectives: June herself; Lydia, the mother of June's boyfriend, Luke; Silas, a teenager who worked for Luke; Will's parents; Kelly and Rebecca, owners of the hotel June lands in; Will's parents; George, the father Luke never knew; and Cissy, who knew Will as a boy, works for Kelly and Rebecca, and later befriends June. While this is a sad story of grief, loss, and regrets, it isn't totally bleak. There are plenty of good memories, and the connections, caring, and forgiveness between these interconnected people lift the novel high above the gloom. It's beautifully written, and Clegg gradually releases clues to what really happened as the characters gain insight into themselves. The book has been on several prize lists, and deservedly so. Highly recommended. show less

Bill Clegg has penned a novel that explores the crippling effects of indescribable grief and guilt. On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s house explodes killing her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and June’s much-younger boyfriend. How does one handle such a monstrous loss?

Told from multiple points of view, Did You Ever Have a Family gradually reveals the grief of others in the town of Wells, Connecticut, a summer resort for wealthy New Yorkers. show more Year-round residents prove to be as narrow-minded and judgmental as can be. While I had trouble getting into the book, Clegg eventually sucked me in and, by the end, I was crying with the best of them. Highly recommended. show less

June Reid survived a horrible tragedy, losing her entire family in a fire the night before her daughter’s wedding. After the funerals, she leaves small-town Connecticut and heads west, looking to put as much distance as possible between her and the perceived source of pain and anguish. But June isn’t the only one profoundly affected by the fire. Lydia Morey lost her adult son Luke, just as she was on the cusp of repairing their relationship. The townspeople are sure Luke started the show more fire, supposedly because of an incident in his past, but likely also because he is black.

June’s journey leads to a small hotel on the Oregon coast that had special meaning for her daughter and her fiancé. There she takes up residence under an assumed name. Lydia, in her loneliness, comes to depend on daily telephone calls from a scam artist, to whom she tells her life story. Interspersed with chapters about June and Lydia are stories told by other characters including the florist and caterer for the wedding, a teenage boy who, we come to realize, may know something about the fire, the man who fathered Lydia’s son. Each of these narratives add detail to the stories of Lydia and June, and to the events leading up to the tragic fire.

I loved the structure of this novel, both the narrative voices and the way seemingly minor details take on meaning when combined with others. And the story of grief and loneliness touched me on a deep emotional level which I cannot do justice to in this review. It’s a rare book that can affect me this way, which has earned Did You Ever Have a Family a 5-star rating and place on my “Favorites” list. show less