This was not a book for me. I DNFed at 35%
There are a lot of characters and they are not likeable
This book was so confusing

Beautifully written novel with compelling characters that examines race, class and memory. Bill Clegg can tell a story like no one else. He keeps us guessing about how the stories fit together and the conclusion is both surprising and earned.

It takes one person to forgive and it takes two people to be reunited. But what if that journey crosses a bridge threatening to collapse at the slightest shift?

A retired widow in rural Connecticut wakes to an unexpected visit from her childhood best friend whom she hasn’t seen in forty-nine years.
A man arrives at a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania hotel to introduce his estranged father to his new-born daughter and finds him collapsed on the floor of the lobby.
A sixty-seven-year-old taxi driver in Kauai receives a phone call from the mainland that jars her back to a traumatic past.
These seemingly disconnected lives come together through an exploration of class and power as they navigate the corrosive force of secrets, the heartbeat of longing, the redemption found in forgiveness, and lay bare the breaking points of family and friendship.

The first hook in this novel is the writing. You can almost see the words lift off the page, painting vivid images. However, the story lacks grip. Taking place over the course of one fateful day, it travels back and forth, intersecting with characters, often repeating events. The narrative engages you for a while before it begins to ramble. The characters are intriguing though I couldn’t bring myself to emotionally invest in them.

The dialogue throughout the book is presented in an unusual manner – in italics rather than inverted quotes. At first I couldn’t figure out if these were spoken words or thoughts that are possibly being communicated telepathically. Perhaps it was done to add an element of mystic but was an unnecessary distraction.

The literary craftsmanship the author brings to this work is delightful and, had the other factors not bothered me so much, it had all the makings of a fabulous novel.

This ARC courtesy of NetGalley and Vintage Books.

This is an engrossing story told from the point of view of various characters who are all connected somehow - and we only find out how as the story slowly unfolds and builds up to its heartbreaking ending.

Moving between the present and past with fluidity, Clegg manages to build so much mystery and anticipation from the very first page that it’s difficult to put this book down! You may have an idea of what you think it’s all leading to, but with intriguing characters and beautiful writing, you will want to savour every moment of this book regardless of whether you can put the pieces together or not.

This is a story full of life’s heartbreaking moments - from unrequited love to unwanted advances, and full of dysfunctional families, this is a dark and compelling exploration of loss, trauma, and redemption.

Don’t expect a happy ending, but certainly prepare yourself for an emotional and intense journey.

The story begins with three elderly ladies: wealthy Dana pays an unwelcome visit to her childhood friend, from whom she has been estranged for decades, while Lupita tries to avoid a call that will remind her of the old life she left behind. A web of secrets, misunderstandings and deceptions slowly unravels as we return to the events in the past that connect these women and that changed their lives irrevocably. Class, wealth, entitlement, family bonds and identity, friendship and betrayal all play a part, as the mysteries unfold and we come to understand what the characters do not. A rich and nuanced read, with very well drawn and convincing characters that moves towards a satisfying conclusion. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Dana Goss, a wealthy heiress only a couple of years shy of 70, decides to visit Jackie, once her best friend with whom she shared everything, but whom she has not seen for almost five decades. Jackie sees Dana approach but hides and does not open the door. It triggers memories of a time long long ago. At the same time, a young man meets his father to tell him about his new-born granddaughter, soon after, the father dies from an aneurysm, not only leaving his son behind but also many questions. His mother Alice might answer them but this would mean revealing a secret she has kept to herself for so many years that she cannot reveal it now. Taxi driver Lupita Lopez in Kauai is also unexpectedly confronted with the almost forgotten past when she receives a phone call. All these lives are connected by events that each of them has ignored successfully.

Bill Clegg’s story is set in the fictional town of Wells in Connecticut where the old farm house is the starting point of some live changing events. The different characters narrate their stories thus filling gaps the other leave and adding another perspective to what has been told before. They all try to hide things they do not want to think about, but those secrets push to the surface to be ultimately revealed.

At first, the different accounts seem only loosely connected, it takes some time to understand how they are linked and why after all those years, the memory of that time is still that hurtful. The characters are all complex in themselves and presented in detail thus giving insight in their state of mind and thinking. There is not the ultimate good guy and the bad guy; it is lives having taken a turn which is not to be undone, decision that have been made which also had consequences, good ones as well as bad ones. Thus, a wonderful illustration of how life on earth works sometimes.

If I could, I would give it a rating of 3.5 stars, just because it isn't a 3 but it didn't quite get to 4 for me. But I will round it off at 4. We follow our main characters, and learn about their past and present from their points of view. This is a story about people, and characters are the focus. It's a story that shows how these people are connected, what ties them together and what tore them apart.

I really like stories with several POV, therefore, if this is something you love, you're really going to enjoy it. We follow a couple of female characters, and two male characters, but the main focus seems to fall on the relationships between the females of the story. We drift back and forth between past and present constantly, which sometimes left me confused, but most of the times I could keep up. We get to see how they met, how they were all connected, and what they all went through in those earliest years of their lives.

The character that has my heart is Lupita. I instantly connected with her. Not necessarily because I could relate to what happened to her, but her, herself. She was so real and raw. I can safely say I disliked Jackie and couldn't bring myself to relate to her story at all.

I love the themes that were covered, from friendships to love, to marriage and parenthood. It's basically a novel about life. It tells us about the secrets these people have, mistakes they make, the choices that they question, and the consequences of their actions now in the 7th decade of their lives. What tore them apart? Whose fault was it? Could life have been different? How do you cope with the past and unresolved issues that keep resurfacing, after being burried deep in your heart for so long? We go through this with each character.

The story is overall slow-paced, where the first half of the novel is just slightly too slow and uneventful for me. I felt myself wanting to skip paragraphs, because I felt there were unnecessary descriptions and parts that dragged on and didn't add to the story at all. These parts killed my interest. I almost wanted to stop reading it, but it picked up half way into the story, and I was glad it did. Not that it necessarily moved into a different direction, but I was just more hooked at this point. At this point, we start to discover how they are all entangled, and what happened in their pasts that has led them to where they ended up. This is what made the second part interesting for me.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves stories about ordinary people, characters who are flawed, and stories that don't necessarily get a happy ending.

I was a big fan of Bill Clegg's debut, Did You Ever Have a Family, and was keen to read The End of the Day, particularly as the blurb dangled the promise of dark secrets. It follows a set of disparate characters, each linked to the others, exploring themes of class, entitlement and race alongside the complications of family as revelations are made thanks to the failing memory of one and the death of another. Central to the novel are three very different women – Dana, Jackie and Lupita – whose voices are the first we hear. Clegg’s story gets off to something of a slow start, filling in a great deal of background detail for each of these characters, so much so that I began to wonder if I would stick with it but then a bombshell was delivered, the fallout from which kept me going until the end. It's a novel I began with high expectations but finished thinking it needed a good editor.

I love Bill Cleggs writing. Did you Ever Have a Family was one of my favourite books of 2015. The End of the Day is every bit as good. Mr. Clegg writes beautifully with real emotion. All his characters feel real and this story comes together as secrets begin to surface, capturing sixty years within the framework of one fateful day.
Thank you NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this amazing book!