We Never Took a Bad Picture

We Never Took a Bad Picture

It's been thirty years since the Joyces made a final pact to save their failing marriage. Gloria Joyce knows the anniversary party she's planning is more than a celebration-it's a crack in the promise she made to her husband after losing their teenage son. Artie has spent decades retreating into the mundane and orderly world of his grocery store to avoid facing the choices he made as a father and husband. Will the party finally force him to confront the past-or shatter the only routines holding him together? When their estranged daughter Autumn returns, she is forced to navigate the strained relationship with her mother and own daughter, along with the festering guilt surrounding the role she played in her baby brother's untimely death. As the party looms nearer, the family faces new tragedies, forcing the Joyces to confront what they've buried beneath decades of curated memories and a crafted veneer. With timelines and voices that weave seamlessly between decades, We Never Took a Bad Picture explores the curation of memories and legacies, intergenerational complexities, and the quiet battles fought behind closed doors. "A literary tour de force." - Independent Book Review "Represents a vivid, glowing vision of change and hope that is especially needed in a world riddled with loss and angst." - Midwest Book Review "Sweeping elegantly through decades of American life while bursting with intimate, visceral close-ups, We Never Took a Bad Picture lays bare one struggling family's heartaches and betrayals, their moments of joy and forgiveness and acceptance, as they attempt to hold on-to make it last in spite of it all. I won't forget Gloria, Artie, or anyone else in this absorbing tale. It belongs on your shelf of Great American Novels." -Susannah Felts, writer and founder of The Porch. "In We Never Took a Bad Picture, Ashley N. Roth has written a beautifully complicated story. But it's a complicated story we all know from our own lives. From the most picture-frame worthy family to those on the obvious brink, all families have a past that can't be forgotten, and there's nothing like living so many years together with unresolved trauma to change the fire of love into the grind of work. Roth's lyricism gives our lives the heft and present-ness it deserves. On a literal level, how Roth organizes her book proves time really is the revelator. We see the beginnings and endings almost simultaneously: nothing is lost over the churn of years. Most important, though, is we also see those glimmering instances that make the day worth it-those true moments of bliss. Those are what we live for, no matter how quickly they might come and go. This book makes that point so apparent. It's a message of love." -Chet Weise, writer, musician, editor at Third Man Books Ashley N. Roth is a Nashville-based writer, educator, and performer. Her writing has appeared in Moonsick Magazine, Literary Orphans, Crack the Spine, Jersey Devil Press, and elsewhere, with her short story "Adolescent" earning a Pushcart nomination. Her multimedia work has also appeared in various exhibits including the Flying Toaster Video: An Art Exhibit Dedicated to the 1990s, Bowiescapes, and Art All Night in Trenton, New Jersey. When not writing, she can be found revamping www.ashleynroth.com, starring in campy music videos alongside her husband, or perfecting vegan pastries with her ten-year-old daughter.