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In The New York Times Book Review, Kaui Hart Hemmings reviews Bill Clegg’s first novel, “Did You Ever Have a Family.” Ms. Hemmings writes:
Catastrophe and misfortune are a novelist’s friends, dramatic devices that provide a plot and let characters demonstrate their range. Tragedies tunnel through life, and the suspense comes from seeing how these spaces will be filled. This is what excites us about books that begin with a sorrowful bang. Grief is sad — we know that — but what now? How will these particular characters respond? What else do you have to give us?
In his masterly first novel, “Did You Ever Have a Family,” Bill Clegg gives us June Reid, a small Connecticut town and a fire on the eve of June’s daughter’s wedding that obliterates everything: June’s home, her boyfriend, her ex-husband, her daughter and her daughter’s fiancé. How could anyone react to such unfathomable loss? June responds by making a zombielike crawl west to a seaside motel in Moclips, Wash., where she now hides, rarely leaving her room.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Clegg discusses his novel; Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; Kathryn J. Edin discusses “$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America”; feedback from readers; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.