- Hardcover: 288 pages
- Publisher: Random House Canada; First Edition edition (Sep 25 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679311408
- ISBN-13: 978-0679311409
- Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16.8 x 3.6 cm
- Shipping Weight: 612 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #570,703 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Canadian author Douglas Coupland's seventh novel could be subtitled When Bad Things Happen to Bad People. As the estranged members of the Drummond family straggle into Florida for youngest sister Sarah's impending space shuttle launch, we only begin to glimpse the true meaning of the word dysfunctional. The family, plagued by terminal disease, financial disaster, felonious activity, infidelity, and violence, is forced--by a series of ever more fantastic occurrences--to attempt to deal with each other. That would be an easier task if they didn't loathe one another with a ferocity usually reserved for war criminals. It's not quite Jerry Springer-style tabloid TV set in Disney's Haunted Mansion, but the family members do muster the strength to insult, assault, and infect one another with abandon. With the exception of the family matriarch, Janet, they are unappealing and selfish, but without Machiavellian brilliance. Instead, they're inclined toward out-and-out stupidity, blinded by self-interest rather than enlightened by it. As they bumble through misadventure after misadventure, there seems to be no reason to cheer for them. Even Sarah, the family's shining star, has her dark side.
True to Coupland's style, the book reads lightning fast. The author punctuates his narrative with clipped dialogue and punchy exchanges that advance the palpable sense of unease and tension running throughout. And amidst the acrimony, Coupland throws a genuine caper into the plot, involving Prince William's farewell letter to his mother, Princess Diana. Add to that the oppressive heat and the postmodern, pop culture junkyard of Coupland's Florida setting, and the entire book brews and builds like a roiling tropical storm. --S. Duda
From Publishers Weekly
The Drummond family at the center of Coupland's new novel resembles a month's worth of soap opera plots. Wade Drummond and his mother, Janet, both have AIDS. Janet, 65, was infected when her ex-husband, Ted, shot Wade through the side of his stomach and the bullet lodged in Janet's lung. Ted shot Wade because his son had accidentally had sex with Ted's second wife, Nickie. In consequence, Nickie is also HIV positive. Wade's brother, Bryan, a frequently suicidal musician, has hooked up with the self-named Shw, a young anarchist. Shw has told Bryan she wants to abort her baby, but secretly she is planning to sell it to Lloyd and Gale, a seemingly normal Florida couple with kinky secrets. Now, all the Drummonds are having a family reunion in Orlando. They are gathered to support Sarah, the successful member of the family, as she is about to be shot into space. Although slightly crippled, being a thalidomide baby, Susan has made a career as a scientist and an astronaut. Her bland husband, Howie, is covertly sleeping with Alanna, the wife of Gordon Brunswick, Sarah's mission commander and Sarah is secretly having an affair with Gordon. The item that sets this crew in motion is a letter from Prince William left on Princess Diana's coffin. It has somehow come into possession of a sleazeball named Norm, who wants Wade and Ted to convey it to a billionaire Anglophile based in the Bahamas. Complications, naturally, ensue. Like Chuck Palahniuk, Coupland mines tabloid territory for sensationalism, which he then undermines with ironic self-awareness. The can-you-top-this atmosphere will keep Coupland's Gen-X readers (the ones who religiously watch Cops for the laughs) totally amused. Author tour.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A good direction,
By
This review is from: All Families Are Psychotic: A Novel (Hardcover)
"All Families Are Psychotic" feels like the book Douglas Coupland has been trying to write since "Girlfriend In A Coma", when he made the shift to creating essentially plot-driven novels instead of the cultural commentaries in the form of character sketches and essays -- though I doubt Douglas Coupland could ever abandon his fascination with pop culture (specifically post World War II pop culture). The end, or the point of (the moral to the story of) "Girlfriend In A Coma", lacked the depth that I felt was promised. And "Miss Wyoming", though fun -- all of Douglas Coupland's books are great fun -- was forgettable, leaving little, if any, residue. What makes "All Families Are Psychotic" better is likable characters, as good as the protagonist in his earlier "Shampoo Planet" -- one of my favorite Coupland books.Coupland is a "good" writer, but not a "great" one . . . at least not yet. For greatness he would have to restrain his signature insights into pop culture and his apocalyptic fears that the world is changing too rapidly for anyone to have stability (on this point he's just as bad as any doom and gloom preacher). He would need to direct his attention on the idiosyncrasies that makes human beings individual and unique: concentrate on the little picture, the "see the world in a grain of sand" picture, instead of the big picture. Great literature lives in the little picture. But he does seem to be moving in that direction . . . somewhat. Maybe the doom and gloom complaint is little less fair with "All Families Are Psychotic". He does attempt to give us a hope: that science, uninhibited by economic interests and limitations, is capable of . . . well I don't want to give away too much of the story. And I'm not very knowledgeable about science in general, so I don't know if the methods and propositions in this book are credible or far-fetched (I'm leaning towards the latter), but it makes for an interesting Wizard of Oz for adults at the dawn of the new millennium.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
Thick on "story" -- interesting to read before movie.,
By Keri Stooksbury (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: All Families Are Psychotic: A Novel (Hardcover)
I have loved Coupland since I first started reading "Gen X". I eagerly await each new release, and in reading the hype on this book was suprised to discover that the film rights had been bought by Michael Stipe of REM's production company -- bad thing to know before reading the book. I found myself engrossed in each page, trying to figure out how it would translate to film. The thing that sets this book apart from the others is that there actually is a A + B = C kind of story. You get the build up, the climax, the surprise twists, and the unexpected ending. It's a little off the wall (everyone in this damn book, save 2-3 characters, are sick), but a unique and fun read. I'm still puzzled as to who will play Janet. Sissy Spacek? Glenn Close? Ellen Burnstyn? A puzzler indeed.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Psychotic indeed....,
By
This review is from: All Families are Psychotic (Paperback)
This is the book that got me hooked to Douglas Coupland. Odd but charming characters. Very entertaining!
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