Reviews
This first novel arrives with a shout...Clegg covers the full spectrum of human emotion in this beautifully nuanced story., Did You Ever Have a Family is the first full-length foray into fiction for Bill Clegg... but it reads like the quietly assured work of a veteran novelist.... it's rare to find a book that renders unimaginable loss in such an eloquent, elegant voice., Illuminate[s] how grief, guilt, regrets and the deep need for human connection are woven into the very flammable fabric of humanity.... Clegg's emotionally direct, polished novel is at once heartrending and heartening. It's a gift to be able to write about such dark stuff without succumbing to utter bleakness, and to infuse even scorching sadness with a ray of hopefulness., PRAISE FOR DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY "An attempt to map how the unbearable is borne, elegantly written and bravely imagined.", In this sorrowful and deeply probing debut novel, literary agent and memoirist Clegg ( Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man ) delivers a story of loss and its grueling aftermath . . . it's Clegg's deft handling of all the parsed details--missed opportunities, harbored regrets, and unspoken good intentions--that make the journey toward redemption and forgiveness so memorable., In this sorrowful and deeply probing debut novel, literary agent and memoirist Clegg ( Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man ) delivers a story of loss and its grueling aftermath . . . it's Clegg's deft handling of all the parsed details-missed opportunities, harbored regrets, and unspoken good intentions-that make the journey toward redemption and forgiveness so memorable., Clegg...cuts through the addiction-memoir noise, recounting the glamour and pathos of self-destruction with efficiency and disturbing clarity., I marveled my way through Did You Ever Have a Family, at not just the masterful writing and storytelling, but at the emotional authenticities of every persuasion. It's a wondrous thing when a writer gets things this right, this absorbing, and this beautiful. Bravo, Bill Clegg, and thank you., Bill Clegg... has written a streamlined, hair-raising, high-torque memoir...Even though we know how the story must end, it's hard to believe Clegg will survive the ordeal he describes in such horrific detail., PRAISE FOR PORTRAIT OF AN ADDICT AS A YOUNG MAN "Bill Clegg's Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man stands up to Frederick Exley's great memoir of alcoholism, A Fan's Notes . . . . But really, forget comparisons. Read the book.", [Clegg] tells the story in plain, innocence-drenched sentences that bring to mind the wonderful Edmund White, as if to adorn the events would be dishonest., In measured prose, Clegg unspools the stories of June and the other survivors as they face unimaginable horror and take their first halting steps toward hope and community., PRAISE FOR THE 2015 MAN BOOKER PRIZE NOMINATED DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY "An attempt to map how the unbearable is borne, elegantly written and bravely imagined.", A quiet, measured and engrossing piece.... a poignant portrait of fractured family lives. Clegg's prose conveys the numbed grieving state of mind, its quietness fitting its subject of deep clear-eyed sadness.... It approaches grief gently and, in the end, its gentleness is its triumph., This isn't your typical mystery, it's something better: a real-life thriller in which resolution takes the form of acceptance. While [Clegg] never suggests anything as simplistic as closure for these tormented souls, he manages to find ways for them to move forward from this tragedy, making it seem a little less random than it did at the beginning, and that in and of itself is a kind of mercy., PRAISE FOR DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY "Masterly...The vignettes provide deft reprieves, a mosaic of a community and its connection to the tragedy. And connection-the way people and their lives fuse-is this novel's main concern.", [ Did You Ever Have a ] Family is a quiet and beautifully written novel that will keep readers turning the pages.... There is no resignation here. Rather, Clegg seems to say, it is the courage to intervene in another's life that defines the notion of family., Heartbreaking but quietly optimistic, Did You Ever Have a Family is a rumination on horrific loss, healing, forgiveness, and the families we choose for ourselves., In trying to tell the faceted story of a single moment as seen by a hundred different eyes, Clegg has attempted something daring. And the wonder of it is how often his experiment succeeds..., Clegg is both delicately lyrical and emotionally direct in this masterful novel, which strives to show how people make bearable what is unbearable, offering consolation in small but meaningful gestures. Both ineffably sad and deeply inspiring, this mesmerizing novel makes for a powerful debut., The force, range, and scope of Bill Clegg's Did You Ever Have a Family will grab you with its opening lines, and won't let go until its final one. I can't recall another novel that so effortlessly weds a nuanced, lyrical voice to an unflinching vision of just how badly things can go for people. I read it deep into the night, all the way through, telling myself it was getting late, I could finish the book in the morning. I finished it that night, however, slept a few hours, and then, in the morning, started reading it again., Clegg has produced a moving, clever novel that subtly dissects the relationships between mothers and their children, lovers, neighbors and strangers. Did You Ever Have a Family is an unpretentious work about how a life can be salvaged from the ashes. Bill Clegg is an author to watch., PRAISE FOR DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY "I marveled my way through Did You Ever Have a Family, at not just the masterful writing and storytelling, but at the emotional authenticities of every persuasion. It's a wondrous thing when a writer gets things this right, this absorbing, and this beautiful. Bravo, Bill Clegg, and thank you.", A propulsive but tightly crafted narrative... reveal[s] the fine-grained sorrows of the human condition, rendered in polished, quietly captivating prose. As the stories emerge, so do their connections-and the idea of connection itself.... Readers may come to this debut novel because of agent/memoirist Clegg's reputation, but they'll stay for the stellar language and storytelling. Highly recommended., You won't be able to stop reading until it's all gone - and you will crave more...what makes Clegg's book especially riveting is the remarkable speed of his vertiginous fall from grace....Portrait is a spare, elegant book, one that shows admirable restraint in the face of extreme, even pathological behavior (A Million Little Pieces this is not.) Clegg may not have been able to control his demons, but he is utterly in charge of this material, with a voice that is knowing and self-deprecating in exactly the right measure., PRAISE FOR DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY "Masterly...The vignettes provide deft reprieves, a mosaic of a community and its connection to the tragedy. And connection--the way people and their lives fuse--is this novel's main concern.", Like the question it poses, Did You Ever Have a Family is brutally direct yet it's got an enormous symbolic power. You hold in your hands a great book of kindness-every restrained, exquisite sentence comes loaded for bear. It's been a lot of years since a novel has so moved me. Number Bill Clegg among that endangered species: major American writer., How do you continue if all at once, everyone you love has been wiped away? With crosscutting perspectives and a voluminous cast of characters, Clegg constructs a layered narrative with some dexterous plot twists., A propulsive but tightly crafted narrative... reveal[s] the fine-grained sorrows of the human condition, rendered in polished, quietly captivating prose. As the stories emerge, so do their connections--and the idea of connection itself.... Readers may come to this debut novel because of agent/memoirist Clegg's reputation, but they'll stay for the stellar language and storytelling. Highly recommended., PRAISE FOR NINETY DAYS "Clegg has rebuilt his career as an agent and become one of the best-known faces of addiction recovery.", PRAISE FOR DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY "A brilliantly constructed debut set in the aftermath of catastrophic loss.", Like the question it poses, Did You Ever Have a Family is brutally direct yet it's got an enormous symbolic power. You hold in your hands a great book of kindness--every restrained, exquisite sentence comes loaded for bear. It's been a lot of years since a novel has so moved me. Number Bill Clegg among that endangered species: major American writer., You won't be able to stop reading until it's all gone - and you will crave more...what makes Clegg's book especially riveting is the remarkable speed of his vertiginous fall from grace.... Portrait is a spare, elegant book, one that shows admirable restraint in the face of extreme, even pathological behavior ( A Million Little Pieces this is not.) Clegg may not have been able to control his demons, but he is utterly in charge of this material, with a voice that is knowing and self-deprecating in exactly the right measure., Mesmerizing...reading it is like letting the needle down on a Nick Drake album. [Clegg] tells his story in short, atmospheric paragraphs, each separated by white space, each its own strobe-lighted snapshot of decadent poetic memory... .Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man is the lightly narcotized sensorium of Mr. Clegg's prose., [ Did You Ever Have A ] Family melds several grieving voices into a detailed mosaic of a town split between locals and weekenders, a mystery in which the stakes really matter, and a recovery story more original than Clegg's own., Full of small-town secrets and whispers, Bill Clegg has woven a richly textured tale of loss and healing. This is a deeply optimistic book about the power of human sympathy to pull us from the wreckage of our fate.
