Review of Wreck by Catherine Newman

Newman's second charming novel centering around Rocky and her family demonstrates the characters' quirkiness, concerns, love for each other, and plenty of heart in a heartwarming, often funny, and poignant novel.

Catherine Newman's novel Sandwich focused on a family and its menopausal matriarch Rocky as its members navigated close quarters, health issues, life changes, complicated dynamics, and messy love, all while on vacation.

Wreck picks up with the same family two years later at home, and life is just as unruly, complicated, and shaped by love, good intentions, and missteps as ever.

When a local young man dies suddenly, Rocky and her young-adult daughter Willa, temporarily living at home again, become fixated on the circumstances, loss, and blame. Jamie's becoming uneasy with his job at a consulting company. And Rocky is facing a mysterious, possibly grave, illness that doctors find difficult to diagnose.

Throughout their worries, occasional headbutting, and demonstrated neuroses, Newman showcases the wonderfully imperfect characters' intense love for each other. Their quirkiness is most often funny, but their many adorable inside jokes sometimes left me feeling on the outside.

I would follow this family anywhere just for peeks into their snuggly, bickering, heartwarmingly obsessive connection to each other. Newman's smart, funky voice comes through in Wreck.

More from Catherine Newman

Catherine Newman is also the author of Sandwich (one of My Very Favorite Bossy 2024 Reads), We All Want Impossible Things, the wonderful nonfictionWaiting for Birdy, and How to Be a Person: 65 Hugely Useful, Super-Important Skills to Learn Before You're Grown Up.