All Families are Psychotic

I might be biased because this book carries elements I'm a huge fan of: dysfunctional weird families, dark comedy, and thought-provoking introspections. Having the characters (even the minor ones) be intriguing and well-written is a plus. This is one of the few books out there that would translate SO WELL being made into a film. I would be excited to see it.

I mean, what a ride. The story escalates in a fantastical manner, with crazy character development and it's funny how unexpectedly events evolve but with great flow. Nothing makes you think "WAIT, WHAT?", and the way things progress really feel like the only way they could. I have no idea how Douglas could write psychotic yet very loveable and relatable characters.

All that said, I show more found the book to be so feel-good. Am I the only one?

For the past year or so, I stopped enjoying reading as much as I used to, but this is the book that made me remember just how much I love turning pages. I actually had to pace myself and savor it; and with that I finished it in 3 sittings. I'm beginning to think that Douglas Coupland is incapable of writing a bad book, simply because I've started with his least popular works, and I'm glad I made that decision. It can only get better from here. show less

I loved the ridiculous over the topness of this book. The wildly disfunctional family comes together to cheer on the one successful member of the family - an astronaut taking off on the space shuttle. As they get involved in an illegal con, they deal with family issues in their own messed up ways. I found all the characters curiously like-able, despite repressions, addictions, sexism, and criminal behavior.

I’ve started reading a lot of Coupland lately, all out-of-order so I’m getting a really schizophrenic view of how his writing has evolved. So far, the only pattern I’ve been able to establish is: earlier stuff—told in 1st person, somewhat plausible narrative; later stuff—told in 3rd person, *completely fucking insane*. This book falls into the latter category and while, like a lot of Coupland’s work, it’s nutty and implausible and kind of scattered, it was a blast to read and I found it oddly touching. (Though it didn’t rock me as much as the end of "Microserfs"—*God*.) This book—which involves a one-handed astronaut, a family of middle class Canadians with AIDS, Prince William’s last letter to Diana, and a couple show more of Florida baby-harvesters—reflects reality while being completely divorced from it. It’s neat. *g* show less

I'd agree with the person who said "a gentle Sunday afternoon read" - this is an engagingly old-fashioned farce, dressed up with astronauts and retroviruses, but still revolving around adultery, embarrassing revelations about ostensibly respectable middle-class people, and a missing letter. There's a nicely-judged escalation of improbability building to a suitably over the top final act set-piece. You could easily imagine it being performed by elderly actors in seaside rep.

Not that there's anything wrong with this technique - Tom Sharpe used it successfully for many years, and if you strip out the schoolboy smut, it's not so different from P.G. Wodehouse. Obviously it's being marketed mostly to an audience that has never read anything show more published before 1990, so the publishers can pretend that it's whacky and modern, but that Tintin rocket on the cover of the UK edition is a bit of a give-away... show less

This is my favorite Douglas Coupland book so far. It's funny how varying the reviews are - I thought the characters in this book were much more well-defined than in JPod, and I actually cared about what happened to them. It's like the last 10 pages of JPod was expanded into this wonderful book. I loved Janet, and I love that she told everyone she was a dumb bunny.

Hilarious black humour. Dark, dark humour but the satire is buzzing and sparking with ideas. As nearly always, in a Coupland book the ideas are more important than plot or even character, but after just slogging through Don Quixote, this was exactly what I needed.

A real page turner, with unbelieveable situations involving the Drummond family. A reunion in Florida near Cape Canaveral takes place in order to watch Sarah (daughter) launch into space. Mom, Janet, is dying and her politeness and manners go out the window. Her two sons, Wade and Bryan, her exhusband, Ted, along with Nickie (Teds new wife), Howie, Sarahs husband and Shw, Bryans true love, get into some humorous, crazy circumstances and you're afraid to put the book down. What will they do next!?