Bill Clegg’s debut novel, Did You Ever Have a Family, begins with a scene of almost unimaginable tragedy: on the eve of her daughter’s wedding, a fire breaks out in June Reid’s house, killing her daughter, prospective son-in-law, partner and ex-husband. Unable to bear the loss – or the stifling atmosphere of the small community in which she lives – June heads for a coastal motel once visited by her daughter, where she tries to piece together the stories of the lives that have been lost.
What follows is a beautiful, heart-rending novel of quiet, understated tragedy, dissecting the relationships between parents and children, friends and lovers, neighbours and strangers.
Told from multiple perspectives, Clegg’s novel creates a rich tapestry of characters whose lives intersect around the fire. Clegg weaves their stories delicately, teasing out their connections with subtlety and authenticity, so that revelations are all the more shocking for their unexpectedness. This is a novel in which there are no secondary characters: every individual possesses their own, distinctive voice.
As well as being a study of love and loss, Did You Ever Have a Family is a skilful deconstruction of the preconceptions, gossip and judgments rife in small communities. June’s former neighbours create their own narratives about both the cause of the fire and the private lives of its victims, in a searing indictment of small-town prejudices. As such, the novel is as much a commentary on storytelling as it is on grief; on the tales people tell themselves and one another to make events fit into their own narrow worldview.
Ultimately, Did You Ever Have a Family is sensitive and insightful, heartbreaking and hopeful. Clegg has a perceptive understanding of the tribulations of parenthood and the transitory nature of relationships: “None of these people were ever hers. They either belonged to someone else or had lives or lies that put them out of reach, or should have.”
Near the beginning of the novel, a gossiping local woman comments on the fire: “How do you recover from that? How would you even begin?” In this tender, wise and hopeful novel, Clegg begins to answer that question.
Did You Ever Have a Family is published by Vintage (£8.99). Click here to buy it for £7.37
