And Sometimes Why

Carrie Brown

In her first novel, And Sometimes Why, Rebecca Johnson has managed to do an unlikely thing: deliver a perfectly pleasant, even enjoyable, read about a sad subject: the tragic accident of a lovely 16-year-old girl. Readers hurrying away from such a depressing premise should be reassured. And Sometimes Why will not be painful to read, and it will not leave you devastated. It is smart, sharply observant, even gently funny, but it is interested in our haplessness as much as our grief, in our survival rather than our undoing.
—The Washington Post

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Loosely based on Johnson's own loss of a premature baby, this extraordinary novel follows a family coping with a grief that radically changes their lives.
—Carmela Ciuraru

Vogue

With its sharp dialogue and deft character studies, Vogue contributing editor Rebecca Johnson's And Sometimes Why (G. P. Putnam's Sons) is a sunny, lightly comic L.A. story-until a traffic accident darkens its emotional weather. The victim, sixteen-year-old Helen McMartin, lands in a coma, her grieving parents drift apart, the handsome game-show host who was involved tries to shake off his guilt, and Helen's older sister heads for Alaska with a new lumberjack boyfriend. While cheerfully sending up the ludicrous excesses of Hollywood, Johnson offers a wise and affectingly humane portrait of loss-and the varied ways we find to withstand it.
—Taylor Antrim

Publishers Weekly

Voguecontributing editor Johnson examines in her heartbreaking debut the ties that bind and break in the face of tragedy. Darius, a Shakespeare scholar and professor, and his wife, Sophia, head of membership at a local art museum, are mired in the banal ebb-and-flow of family life they share with their two teen daughters-bookish Miranda and imperious social butterfly Helen. A sisterly tussle over use of the family car ends with Miranda attending college orientation and finding herself attracted to fellow freshman-to-be Jason, and Helen, while riding on the back of her just-dumped boyfriend's motorcycle, getting into a horrific traffic accident. As Helen lies in the ICU suspended between life and death, the author gives voice to the people Helen has touched: Darius and Sophia find little solace in each other; Harry Harlow, the game show host who was involved in Helen's accident, witnesses his life falling apart; and Miranda awkwardly navigates the feelings Jason has stirred within her. While the wandering focus on disparate characters pulls the novel in unwieldy directions (as when Miranda drops out to follow her boyfriend to Alaska), Johnson's portrayal of a family's grieving is exquisitely crafted. (Jan.)

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Library Journal

Tragedy strikes the McMartin family when 16-year-old Helen becomes involved in a near-fatal accident after arguing with older sister Miranda over the use of the family car. Miranda and parents Darius and Sophia each respond differently to this catastrophe. Their story is intertwined with that of Harry Harlow, the driver of a vehicle involved in the accident and host of a popular, bizarre reality television game show, as well as a number of secondary characters. Over the next eight months, during which Helen remains comatose, crucial decisions loom and unexpected choices are made. In this debut novel, Voguecontributing editor Johnson depicts the many ways life can change. These changes are generally presented in a way that is both honest and compelling, but surprisingly it is the peripheral characters who seem thwarted. As the story unfolds and the family dynamics play out, the now disjointed McMartins move toward the transformations brought about by the tragedy. In the end, this heartfelt, poignant, and sometimes humorous and ironic study emphasizes the resilience of the human spirit. For larger fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, LJ9/1/07.]
—Andrea Tarr

Kirkus Reviews

Well-written but formulaic debut explores a family's grief after a tragic accident. Intellectually engaged, financially blessed, possessed of good values and better luck, the attractive McMartins have never known real heartbreak until, on an otherwise unmemorable morning, 16-year-old Helen sets off to break ties with Bobby, her secret older boyfriend. With four beers in his belly and a gas tank full of sugar (courtesy of a jealous ex-girlfriend), Bobby crashes his motorcycle into the car of reluctant celebrity Harry Harlow, host of a famous game show, Would You Rather? Bobby dies instantly, and Helen is in a coma. Her father Darius, an esoteric English professor with a photographic memory, holds vigil at her beside, refusing to give up hope for her recovery. Mother Sophia, an arts administrator racked with guilt over her blindness to the signs of Helen's ill-fated romance, becomes obsessed with Bobby, especially after detectives suggest that he had criminal ties. Elder daughter Miranda, a freshman in college, allows herself for the first time to be drawn into a relationship with a man, someone she met on the day of Helen's accident. Meanwhile, though he was not at fault in the accident, Harry finds that he can't let go of his guilt. He begins acting erratically, is fired from the game show, divorces his young wife, pursues a tentative friendship with Sophia and launches a bizarre business venture. As it becomes increasingly apparent that Helen will never recover, family members flee to their separate spaces. Miranda follows her man to Alaska's remote backcountry; Darius insists on moving Helen home to care for her himself; and Sophia, sensing a crumbling marriage, moves to New York City.The final bleak development is anticlimactic, given how many lives have already been irrevocably altered. Unremarkable, though fans of Ann Packer and Jodi Picoult may appreciate Johnson's careful foray into post-crisis fiction.

From the Publisher

"This heartfelt, poignant, and sometimes humorous and ironic study emphasizes the resilience of the human spirit." —-Library Journal