Well, I got through it, so that’s something. The “psychotic” family in the book were difficult to spend time with, but the dialogue was lively and I did chuckle once or twice. I guess I just found it hard to connect with the story and the characters.

I've loved Douglas Coupland novels since I read Hey Nostradamus! (this was my first Coupland book to read). The title, "All Families Are Psychotic" seemed to hold a bit of funny truth to it, so I picked up this book. Coupland has a way of painting with vivid colours and almost tries to stretch our disbelief with his outrageous stories. But through this chaos comes beauty and love and truth about all families. Great book.

Douglas Coupland's 'All Families are Psychotic' is an extraordinary novel that boldly explores the concept of family and the dysfunctional dynamics within it. The book provides a unique and at times surreal insight into family relationships. The story centers around the Drummond family, composed of extraordinarily eccentric individuals, each with their own quirks and issues.

What makes this novel so captivating is its unique narrative style. Coupland employs a first-person narrative voice that rotates among the various family members, allowing the reader to delve deeply into the minds of each of them. This approach provides an intimate and in-depth perspective on their personalities and stories.

The novel explores complex themes such as mental illness, drug addiction, family dysfunction, and unconventional love. Coupland tackles these themes with a blend of humor and emotional depth, striking a delicate balance between drama and comedy. Additionally, the book offers social commentary on modern society and its growing alienation, through the lens of a family that is anything but ordinary. The plot defies conventional expectations, taking the reader on a surprising and often unpredictable journey.

Douglas Coupland delivers an engaging and thought-provoking read that invites the reader to reflect on the meaning of family and humanity as a whole.

I gave this book 100 pages but it never really engaged me so I gave up. I used to love everything that Douglas Coupland would write. This was disappointing.

The dysfunctional Drummond family are gathered in Florida to view the latest Shuttle launch, as the brightest of the clan is one of the astronauts.

And everything goes wrong! There are kidnappings, shootouts, stolen documents and car crashes.

The novel often has the feel of a grungy Marx Brothers movie, complete with slapstick.

It’s an enjoyable, easy read about families.

Existentialism, terminal illness, philosophy of death, and family - if you like books with a lot of dialogue and a ton of conflict, this will satiate you very well. The overall story is nothing particularly special, in fact it loses itself many times throughout the book and gains new paths with mere pages left, but offers a lot to think about in terms of family dynamics. The review on the back cover about wanting to call your family is rather accurate - no matter how unlikeable the characters become, no matter how many selfish turns are made, there is an undying connection between them, and it makes you evaluate your own family dynamic. That's not to say its a perfect read, in fact it is far from it, but it has enough interesting twists and interactions to make for a good experience.

I just didn’t really care about the characters or what was happening. Only finished reading it for bookclub. It was funny at times and I enjoyed some of the characters and their dialogues but overall not too fussed.

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.

Al principio no me gustó demasiado: lo encontré demasiado recargado, demasiado negro, demasiado obvio, etcétera, pero no lo solté porque... bueno, en parte porque no estaba con la paciencia para empezar otro, jajaja, y fue bueno porque después de un rato, me agarró, y me agarró muchísimo.

La historia, que parecía aleatoria y sensacionalista, fue tomando forma, y se fueron atando cabos, y los personajes que se hicieron protagonistas fueron los más amables, interesantes, impredecibles de todos (la mamá, por ejemplo), justo los que eran "aburridos" y de los que no se esperaba gran cosa en lo que otrora me pareció un desfile de los excesos. Jejeje.

La cosa es que al final me encantó. Siguió siendo extremo y un poco grotesco, pero... bien escrito, y justo, y sutilmente dulce, y redentor.

No se lo recomendaría a todos, porque hay que tener guata, y mucho espíritu de aventura, pero... es bueno. Incluso me dio pena cuando al fin llegó la hora de terminarlo.

As far as I'm concerned Douglas Coupland can do no wrong. This book shows all his skill and talent. Every character is well drawn and totally believable, if not totally likeable. The dialogue reads like the transcripts of a private conversation and the premise of a family supposedly coming together to celebrate what should be a wonderful shared moment will be familiar to any of us who are a certain age and had to meet long lost relations at a family gathering only to realise that there was a reason they were long lost.
In short, this is another masterpiece from the wonderful Douglas Coupland.

Meet Wade. Wade seems to have a way of wrecking everything around him. For instance, "accidentally" sleeping with his father's new wife and giving her AIDS. And then "accidentally" giving his mother AIDS as well, when his father shoots him for the whole sleeping with his wife thing, and the bullet passes through Wade's AIDS-infested body and and rests neatly in his mother.

Wade isn't exactly doing so hot lately. But then, neither are the rest of his family. His white picket fence mother has a secret Internet porn addiction. His abusive father is blowing all of his money on drugs. His brother has attempted suicide a handful of times. Only his sister Sarah seems to have gotten it together, and the hopes of the family rest on her trip into space. Yes, Sarah seems alright. Which, of course, means she is hiding something...

Wade has a plan to make a few bucks. And the whole of his family gets dragged into it, bickering (when not straight up fighting) all of the way. And yet, they come together and bond in the end in a way only a family can. Dysfunctional love.

I think this novel is Coupland's way of reminding us that no matter how crazy things get, you only have one family, so you might as well make the best of it.

A Hallucinogenic Free-Fall Disguised As Real Life:

If nothing else, the title is genius.

I have no idea what Coupland was hoping to convey in this tumbling, bizarre narrative of family life gone crazy, but it's as if he latched onto the word "psychotic" and never let go. While all families have their quirks, likely none are as nuts as this one he's conjured up. And the idea of that was ultimately funnier than the execution.

First the good stuff: amazing phrase turns; smart, clever, funny dialogue that had me laughing out loud at times. The pace was brisk and engaging, ideas and plot points rich with imagination and a sort of insane clarity (at first). Characters were designed in big, broad crayon strokes that seemed to scream themselves to life, unbound by most normal human behaviors bar the affection they might feel for each other. The settings were etched in acid, the roiling, ridiculous story line rolled out like the manifesto of a street corner madman, and yet, despite the utter unbelievability of most of it, we liked the people involved. Most of them. But still...

As the story banged on like a tantruming teenager, I found myself less and less enamored of who the characters were and where they were going, annoyed by the endless extremes the author put them all through. What started out as just quirky and madcap became -- chapter by chapter -- predictably insane and unbelievable, to the point that it lost its punch in the repetitiveness.

I liked the originality of it all, but the hallucinogenic free-fall nature of the narrative seemed so hell-bent on being clever and over-the-top that the humanity got lost in the one-upping of each absurdity. This is the only one of Coupland's books I've read so maybe I'm just out of his stylistic loop, but by the book's end, I was skipping paragraphs, weary of the onslaught, wanting to just get back to the story in the midst of never-ending chaos.

Ultimately, a mix. A three. There were some five moments in there, but the ones and twos weighed 'em down.