I just reviewed The End of the Day by Bill Clegg. #NetGalley

The End of the Day is a story of characters from different backgrounds inwoven in complex ways, with difficult histories. Told through a span of lifetimes. At times hard to follow, but still enjoyable.

Bill Clegg impressed this reader with his acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Did You Ever Have a Family. He returns with The End of the Day, a very different sort of novel. In it, alternating chapters from the past and present tell the stories of multiple characters which, when followed, reveal a mystery some didn't even know existed. I found the the resolution somewhat unsatisfying, but that is a minor part of the book. The enjoyment is in the acquaintance made with the cast of characters through Clegg's crafty writing.

I read the ARC of The End of the Day by Bill Clegg, in exchange for an honest review, courtesy of Gallery Books and NetGalley. To read this book is to struggle to complete a jigsaw puzzle of 5,000 pieces. Characters are introduced in a way that leaves the reader with many questions such as, who is this and how does he/she fit into the story? The puzzle is solved, but it takes far too long for my taste. Seemingly disjointed events of the multiple characters’ lives finally merge when sixty-year-old secrets begin to unravel.

Clegg reminds that our choices, whether to protect a person or to betray them, to connect or not can become our legacy for good or for bad. He also reminds us that to assume is dangerous. The End of the Day covers sixty years of the many characters’ lives: their loves and losses, their brokenness, their successes and failures and, yes, their betrayals.

What makes The Grumpy Book Reviewer grumpy?

• Incorrect verb usage: bring vs. take, coming vs. going;
• incorrect verb usage: further vs. of farther (they are not interchangeable);
• incorrect punctuation: a question (“What are you doing?”) that ends with a period.
• several missing commas.

Interesting story telling style, but the plot became fairly obvious roughly a 3rd of the way in. That being said, it is a raw examination of how life choices (made either impulsively or methodically) can affect the trajectory of both our own lives and those around us and is worth the read.

I love reading books where there are different characters and timelines but it all is connected in the end. Definitely a great book to make you think!

Interesting read, the connect of the stories of the various characters, seemingly unrelated, eventually weave together in a satisfying way.

His writing is magnetic

With polar sides there is a push-pull effect.

You want to explore every asset of his characters lives the way he does. But the way he does it is eviscerating. So with every excerpt a part of you is left there on the pages. Living the lives his characters are living.

So to say that listening to Bill Clegg is an experience is an understatement at least.

This is the second book I’ve read by him and the second audiobook I’ve read narrated by him. The books are inextricably linked now to his voice. He pauses, lilts, goes faster, slows down in a way only the author of the book can really do.


Thanks to Netgalley for the earc of this book.

QUICK TAKE: my first Bill Clegg novel, and I ultimately enjoyed a lot about it. A multigenerational drama about a group of women and the secrets they've been hiding from one another is well-written with interesting, fully-developed (yet flawed) characters with interesting relationship dynamics. It's a little small and slice-of-life, but overall it's a solid book for fans of the author or anyone looking for a an emotional mystery.

Bill Clegg's The End of the Day is, at its heart, a story of friendship and love, family, anger, and forgiveness.

Clegg’s new book (I really enjoyed Did You Ever Have a Family, his first novel) requires patience. It’s one of those stories where disparate threads and characters eventually come together, where connections are revealed and questions are answered, but it takes some time to get there.

A woman wakes up to find an old friend waiting outside her house, a friend she hasn’t spoken to in nearly 50 years. A shuttle driver in Hawaii gets a call from the mainland that reawakens old memories. The father of a newborn sits beside his father’s hospital bed, hoping he will awaken and praying there won't be bad news regarding his condition.

Who are these people? How do they connect with each other? Why do they lead separate lives? So much hinges on things that occurred nearly a lifetime ago. Everything unfolds over the span of one day.

Clegg is a fantastic writer and he breathes life into his characters. The story is narrated by at least six or seven people, which gets a little unwieldy at times. But the biggest challenge I had is that the story overall just didn’t resonate with me. It took so long for everything to be revealed that I didn’t feel the payoff when it happened.

This is a beautifully written book, however. Clegg has talent, and perhaps for a more patient reader, this really may work.

NetGalley and Scout Press provided me a complimentary advance copy of the book in exchange for an unbiased review. Thanks for making it available!!

Bill Clegg has a style: contemplative, interior, almost morose. This type of book is great for readers that love long, fractured, complicated interpersonal relationships, that don't care as much about plot at all never mind a fast-moving one, that love getting to know characters inside and out. Whether or not the book succeeds at any of these things is up to the individual reader. Time moves back and forth so attention is needed.

Three girls grow up living near each other in Wells, Connecticut. Dana. Jackie. Lupita. Each in a different social class. With or without wealth. With or without expectations. Privilege, no privilege. One betrayal touches their lives and has ramifications for the next generation. ‘The End of the Day’ by Bill Clegg is about the fragility of loyalty when teenage bonds are tested by love, jealousy, indiscretions, secrets and lies. ‘To end a friendship, it just takes someone willing to throw it away.’ Because when a decision is taken, more than one life is affected.
Clegg has written a genealogical story wrapped up in two timelines, the years not defined but basically the Sixties and the Noughties. An elderly woman, frail and confused, sets out from New York on an excursion. Another old woman wakes in her family home to a beautiful passage of memories. A taxi driver in Hawaii ignores the repeated messages left on her mobile phone. These three are connected by a youthful flirtation, a pregnancy, arrangements made and lies told, assumptions made. A fascinating story, characters so believable, but the details lacking in clarity – perhaps because so many lies have been told. In the Noughties are mother and son Alice and Hap. Hap’s life takes two momentous turns when his father is seriously ill in hospital, the same hospital where his wife has just given birth to their baby daughter. A little girl still, significantly, without a name.
The first half is a slow read with beautiful writing that at times edged towards the self-indulgent. The book, though not long, felt long. I wanted occasional clarity of story and shorter paragraphs. I was unclear about the different houses featured – the childhood homes of Jackie and Dana and the area in which they lived. Perhaps the author knows it so well he forgot to be clear for the reader. The story moves location and year without specification which can be disorientating.
In re-reading the notes I wrote after finishing the book, I found I had twice written ‘lacking clarity’. The story is a sad one, of connections made, lost, and unknown, but for me it could be more touching with a clearer narrative spine. That said, the story stayed with me days after I finished it – always a good sign. The parallels between the generations, the vulnerability of a baby dependent on adults for the truth of its origins, the duty to protect and the urge to run from an old life. An okay story wrapped up in exquisite writing.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/

This was a beautifully woven narrative with rich characters and lots of topics for reflection. I really enjoyed the writing style and look forward to reading more from him.
Many thanks to Scout Press and NetGalley for the advance copy.

I thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book - unfortunately this one just wasn't for me.

I'm a fan of Bill Clegg and really enjoyed this book. He makes it very easy to connect with the characters and it was a wonderful escape read for me during a very difficult time.

Thank you, NetGalley, Gallery Books, Scout Publishing and Bill Clegg for the advance readers copy of The End of the Day.

I loved this story! I loved how the different characters and stories really intertwined with each other. I liked that we followed the women through multiple stages of their lives and I always love different POVs.

Bill Clegg is a very gifted storyteller and has a way of writing that makes you feel part of the story. This was a good one!

The End of the Day is beautifully written but I just had a hard time staying engaged with the plotline and had to put this one down. My reading has been all over the place during 2020 and has very much been mood-based. After picking this one up a few different times, I realized it might just not be a great fit for me right now.

As always, I appreciate the generosity of this publisher for allowing me the opportunity to review this book.

(I chose my 3-star as the option to be neutral, as there isn't a way to not pick a rating when submitted feedback on NetGalley. Thank you for your understanding!)

I unfortunately dnfed this book pretty quick ; nothing grabbed me and there was (already) way too much telling, not enough showing.

I'm also not a fan of this new trend in literary fiction of writing sort of interlinked short stories with numerous different characters and calling it a novel as it often doesn't allow for enough character depth.

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery/Scout Press for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was the perfect escape. It was lovely and fun. It was my first book by this author and I will definitely be on the look out for more!!

I have revisited this book twice. When I failed to connect with the story I tried it on audio but something still did not click. But I am glad I came back to it.

The End of the Day is about how one day, one choice, one misunderstanding or missed opportunity can affect a life and those around you. Clegg introduces us to these characters' present day lives and we wonder what's the connection? How is a taxi driver in Hawaii related to a new father in Pennsylvania or a widow in Connecticut? Told from alternative viewpoints we get glimpses into their pasts. The treasured visits from a world travelling father. The nights spent slumbering over a friend's house. The taunting by classmates. These moments from the past unravel slowly.
Over time the picture of where these lives intersect is revealed.

The End of the Day is a character study that is told with compassion and insight. The prose is very descriptive with a focus on interior dialogue. As in real life none of the characters have a bird's eye view of what actually happens. Everyone holds firmly to their corner of the truth. For the most part they do not realize how this steadfast belief in memory has impacted their lives.

After an exceptional debut, I was sad but perhaps not surprised to be underwhelmed by Clegg’s latest. It’s a baggy family drama with a complicated structure that spends far too much time delivering resumes and retrospectives and far too little showing developments in the here and now. That would seem an essential error that someone with Clegg’s background might have avoided. Moreover its character list is weak, often one-dimensional, and the overall mood of mournfulness and regret pulls the reader down.
Is Clegg a capable novelist? Definitely. Should he now move on, having fulfilled the dreaded second-novel obligation. Yes, please.