We Never Took a Bad Picture

Praise for Ashley N. Roth

“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