Did You Ever Have A Family Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Grief in Contemporary Literature and our BookBrowse Review of Did You Ever Have A Family.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. After June has had an argument with her daughter, Lolly, the night before Lolly's wedding, "Pru asked if she was okay, and June answered with a question that seemed to Pru more of a comment on June's struggles with Lolly: Did you ever have a family?" (p. 131) Why do you think Clegg choose this line as the title of his novel? What does being part of a family mean to each of the characters in the novel? Do any of their perspectives change?
2. When a particularly pushy news anchor asks June how she is "surviving" the loss of her loved ones following a house fire, she answers, "No one has survived" (p. 12). Explain June's statement. Do you agree with June that, although she is alive, she has not survived? How are June and the others affected by the tragedy are coping with their grief?
3. Rebecca says, "Funny how you think people are one way or the other and most of the time you end up completely wrong" (p. 66) when describing her initial assessment of Cissy. What causes Rebecca to change her mind? Apply Rebecca's statement to the other characters in Did You Ever Have a Family. Were you wrong about any? If so, how?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Gallery/Scout Press. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.