Crazy book! Somewhere between "ok" and "really liked it".

I have tried to read this book twice and just cant read it. Yes families are psychotic, but this is just plain ridiculous. Love the title.....hate the book.

This book was dreadful. I really liked "Microserfs" and was excited about reading another Douglas Coupland novel. The plot is so outlandish, that it is difficult to become emersed in the story. It was almost like the book was weird for the sake of being weird.

I also could not get a clear mental picture of any of the characters. They seemed to contradict themselves and their reactions to their environment and each other. I didn't feel that they were fully developed.

One bit that irked me, was the whole Disney World section. I visit WDW often and I felt it was as if Coupland had never set foot in the place. It drove me nuts, because all of his inaccuracies, took me out of the moment when reading.

I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid Coupland as an author, but definitely avoid this particular book. Awful.

This outrageous cartoonish caper sure as hell was a fun read; but only because I put my brain to one side and just went with it. Most of the Drummond family here and those associated with them were complete insanity. We get drugs, hold-ups, car crashes, accidental shootings, kidnappings, blackmail, HIV, affairs, and plenty of arguments. There really was no rest for me, with the novel cracking on at breakneck speed, as if a manic Coupland wrote this during one massive Caffeine hit. It's only really Sarah: about to be launched into outer space aboard a Nasa shuttle, and mother Janet, who appeared to be normal. As for the rest of them - Ted the skint womanising brutish Father, Eldest son Wade, wimpish younger son Bryan - they are; as family reunions go, a disaster! And then there is, along for the ride also, Wade's religious ex-addict wife, Bryan's bullying girlfriend who is trying to sell her unborn baby on the internet, Ted's second wife Nickie (who Wade happened to bed), Sarah's bonhomie-filled husband Howie, and Florian, a Swiss pharmaceutical magnate. While all these characters mingle in one way or another before the imminent departure of Sarah, Coupland throws in a crazy plot revolving around an envelope pinched from the top of Princess Diana's coffin - which leads in turn to a rather tasteless sub-plot about DNA cloning. Through the comic pessimism, and wacky set pieces: one involving being cured of illness whilst stuck handcuffed in a swamp, Coupland does find the time to put something more moving and heartfelt in there - and that involves his affection for strait-laced housewife Janet, who along with son Wade are now beginning to suffer seriously from the effects of immunosuppression due to HIV. It is on Janet that we get moments of recollection and sentiment, and in her sensibility the acute insights into the frailty of family loyalties and the ambiguous gifts of love and care. While the novel does suffer from many weak points, I have to say that at no moment was I ever bored - so a big plus there. Although this doesn't read like a Pynchon novel, it's about as close as I can get in terms of similarities.

If you think your family is maladjusted, think again! This is a tale of an incredibly dysfunctional group of people which is hilarious, disturbing, and heartbreaking at the same time. Get ready for one plot twist after another in this wild ride; this book is a real page-turner! Coupland’s writing is truly entertaining and really draws the reader in as he unfolds the details of this calamitous family reunion with some very interesting observations about life mixed in. You will really begin to feel for these dynamic characters despite how over the top their absurd lives may be. A quick, clever, and fun read.

I hated this book!

In All Families are Psychotic, Coupland creates a bunch of interesting characters (astronaut Sarah; her brother Wade, a handsome conman who's found God; their mum, prim 60something Janet, who finally embracing rebelliousness after an HIV diagnosis) and then... sets them off on a One-Last-Job crime caper plot. It's Scooby Doo levels of silly and also? pretty boring?

Coupland's prose is still witty and fun, and I sincerely adored Sarah and Wade's sibling relationship, but this was overall a misfire for me.

Also, now I've noticed this pattern, I can't un-see it. Why is Coupland so obsessed with pregnancy??? Not children, not child-rearing, just the medical state of pregnancy. In Microserfs, there's 1 pregnancy, in Girlfriend In a Coma, there are 3(!) pregnancies, in Miss Wyoming, there's 1 pregnancy, in this one, there are 2 pregnancies. I just started Coupland's subsequent book after this one. GUESS WHAT? THE MAIN CHARACTER IS PREGNANT.

Dude, it's giving... "I think all women are brood mares".

3 1/2 stars

This has been on my shelf for over 15 years and I finally gave it a shot. The only other Douglas Coupland book I've read is Hey Nostradamus!, which I liked, but it's VERY postmodern Gen X. While All Families are Psychotic definitely has its postmodern tendencies, characters and color, it's more grounded, dare I say traditional, in terms of narrative. It feels like A Novel. But, a Douglas Coupland novel.

It's breakneck, entertaining, unpredictable and surprisingly poignant. I enjoyed the ride and the characters that took me on their journey. It tries a bit too hard to be witty and its plot mechanics feel too convenient too often, but once you realize you're in for a mad-cap ride with colorful characters, grounded in family dynamics and disfunction we all know too well, it can be quite a satisfying, effective journey. Think: Shameless, but more literary, postmodern and poignant—and without the constant trashiness. Well, it's set in Florida, so there's some trashiness. What happens stretches credulity in too many places, but what it means to the characters, this family, makes up for it.

Of the many characters—and there are many—the ones focused on are fully drawn and Coupland really sinks his teeth into them. Several surrounding characters, though, too often feel like caricatures more than flesh and blood people, and I wish that they had been given more weight rather than simply being laugh fodder or plot devices. Still, the entire tapestry of characters is a full, satisfying bunch, and the dynamics that ensue feel natural. Yes, the antics are ridiculous but are grounded in real character, resulting in existential insights that stick. The complete narrative arc is greater than the sum of its parts—and, more importantly, feels earned.

This was a quick and easy read, but I started to lose interest once I got a little more than half in. It's billed as kind of a humorous tale, and there were some "ha!" moments. But overall, it wasn't funny.... it was really pretty horrible (the goings ons). So an interesting and compelling overall story (of the family), but there wasn't much meat to it (too much back and forth dialogue for me) -- I also felt somewhat disconnected from the characters, and the story, although lacking meat, didn't hold me -- it took a turn at one point, the kind of point where if I were watching a movie and such a scheme took place, I'd turn it off right away. As I'm writing this, I am having fond feelings for the two main characters, so I'm glad things sort of worked out for those two in the end.

“Tutte le famiglie sono psicotiche, Wade. E ciascuno di noi ha più o meno la stessa famiglia, solo con qualche piccolo cambiamento dall’una all’altra.”

Questo è quello che sostiene Douglas Coupland nel suo romanzo “Tutte le famiglie sono psicotiche”. E come dargli torto quando è sempre più difficile comprendere a cosa corrisponda davvero il concetto di normalità?

Sicuramente è difficile applicarlo alle avventure della famiglia Drummond, che ci trascina sin dalle prime pagine del romanzo nel suo universo caotico, instabile e assolutamente privo di senso. Dopo molti anni e il divorzio dei genitori, la famiglia al completo si riunisce ad Orlando per assistere al lancio dello shuttle che vedrà Sarah sparata in orbita.

Continua qui: https://parlaredilibri.wordpress.com/...

An outlandish, bizarre and surreal soap opera with the bonds of family at its heart.

This story was insane but fun. Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get more whacked--it did. Worth reading, I enjoy Coupland's "style."