The latest pick for Reese Witherspoon’s book club is Claire Lombardo’s The Most Fun We Ever Had.
Lombardo’s novel, published by Doubleday in 2019, follows a couple with four daughters whose lives are thrown into disarray when a teenage boy, given up by one of the daughters for adoption years before, re-enters their lives. A critic for Kirkus wrote of the book, “Characters flip between bottomless self-regard and pitiless self-loathing while, as late as the second-to-last chapter, yet another pleasurable tendril of sisterly malice uncurls.” The novel was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
As of 2019, a planned series based on the novel, executive produced by Laura Dern and Amy Adams, was in the works at HBO.
Witherspoon announced the novel’s selection on Instagram in a video set to Jess Glynne’s “Hold My Hand.” In the video, Witherspoon counts on her hand “5(ish) words” to describe the book, including “character-driven,” “complicated relationships,” “messy (in the best way),” “emotional,” and “sisters.”
“This book truly feels like you’re a fly on the wall watching a real family interact,” she wrote in a caption. “SO GOOD!”
Lombardo reacted to her book’s selection on Instagram, writing, “Oh wow oh wow oh wow I could NOT BE MORE EXCITED that THE MOST FUN WE EVER HAD is the @reesesbookclub pick for April!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you, @reesewitherspoon.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
