And So We Die, Having First Slept

How do you tell a love story? That is question Jennifer Spiegel tries to answer in And So We Die, Having First Slept. The novel chronicles the “shotgun” marriage between two unlikely partners: Brett Slattery, a brain-damaged, recovering protestant, and Cash Slattery, a drug-addicted, born-again Christian. Brett, desperately fearing “normalcy,” clings to her drama-filled marriage like her own drug. Cash, on the other hand, couldn’t survive without Brett if he tried.

Neither Cash nor Brett, however, are very likable. Cash is impenetrable if indeed there was anything going on in his mind, while Brett is too righteous and thrives in her own despair. In fact, most of their problems are of their own making. Although the intense drama of the book has the appeal typical of soap operas, the unlikable characters compounded by forced literary references sprinkled throughout the book rendered the novel rather difficult to get through. The novel sought to tell a love story, but I’m not sure it succeeded.