Cartoonishly funny

Well, for that matter, what was the purpose of my first sixty-five years? Maybe the act of wanting to live and being given life is the only thing that matters. Forget the mountain of haikus I can write now. Forget learning to play the cello or slaving away for charity. But then what?

Yes, then what, exactly? All Families Are Psychotic is the third (and second best) Coupland novel I’ve read this year (and I would have never picked up the author’s work without goodreads so, um, thanks, Otis and Co.). The novel revolves around the exploits of a supremely fucked up family converging on Florida to witness and celebrate the “good” daughter’s accomplishments. The Drummonds’ Jerry Springer-worthy history never stops, really, and the remarriages, bad blood, and simmering avoidances spill over around the matriarch’s illness and clear, somber reflection on her existence.

Coupland’s outlandish dues ex machina habits recur in this book (for chrissakes, main characters run into each other at random fast food restaurants) but the preposterous developments feel as if they nearly could be real in the wake of the Drummonds’ bonkers behavior. And Coupland’s gift, his ability to take mundane and flat-out depressing scenarios and piece together bits of authentic hope and meaning from the sparse resources, is present as well. Listen. None of Coupland’s characters are likely to die in African war camps or live in third world squalor or even a ghetto tenement. They’re more likely to exist in faded, dispiriting apartment complexes and take the bus to shitty jobs as telemarketers or counter help acutely aware that they’ve made some seriously damaged choices and the road back to happiness is either going to take a whole lot of fucking work or some miraculous Zen reframing of surrounding conditions. And that, I think, is a feeling to which most of us, on some level, can relate. And even if we dodge a higher percentage of the “bad decision” bullets, well, as Coupland says, then what, exactly? Does that make better people? Are many of us just as dispirited but in better residences and slightly more expensive shoes? Coupland explores these questions around a curious mix of the recognizable (anonymous hotel rooms, interstate strip malls) and the borderlands of magical realism (untouchable but rather friendly drug dealers and the twisted paths of seemingly predestined bullets).

Florida, by the way, is a main character. The hazy, oppressive heat and pervasive sense of decay inherent in the location (sorry, Ben!) become both the novel’s backdrop and part of the atmosphere. I hate alligators and temperatures above eighty. I fucking hate Florida. But I only visit for family and professional conferences so perhaps my judgment is unfair. I don’t care.

So I’d return to Coupland, sure. I don’t love his work but he’s carved a reasonable niche to which I could return when I needed something quick, insightful, and easy to read but not all that light. I don’t see other authors covering this terrain as well as Coupland. Life After God next, maybe, but not for a while.

"All Families Are Psychotic" is a farce that explores dysfunctionality in modern families. The story (such that it is, given its farcical quality) is beyond believable; some of its characters include a thalidomide-baby (deprived of one arm) who grows up and becomes an astronaut, a sibling who unknowingly has sex with his step-mother after he meets her in a bar for the first time (and who is shot by his father after said dalliance), four (FOUR!) members of this same family who are HIV+ because of this sibling's sexual waywardness (including his mom, who, when he was shot by his father, the bullet exited him and entered his mother standing behind him)...As you can probably intuit, this is farce on a grand scale...but believability is irrelevant if you just read the book for its comedic value and its dead-on insights about today's nuclear family.

A comedic caper that zips through misery after misery at a mile-a-minute and crashes into chunks of truth at every corner. I was tempted to take a star away on account of the characters being a bit too simplified and amplified for my taste (or credulity), but the story itself is ludicrous on purpose and I had a good time, so why punish anyone? The family's inner monologues and observations aren't the deepest musings ever put to paper, but every time I found the over-the-top action getting to be too much, tidbits of poetry kept surfacing.

I'm not surprised at all, however, that the GoodReads reviews are so polarized. Mixed reactions are often the sign of a daring feat.

The thing I love most about Douglas Coupland is his ability to turn a situation that should be completely tragic and upsetting and turn it in to something light hearted in funny. It is an amazing ability to see the bright side of depressing situations. I really enjoyed this book. It was a fairly quick read, but a lot of fun.

Douglas Coupland is my favorite author by far. I haven't read all of his works yet, but he hasn't let me down yet. This book was no exception.

If you feel that your family is sometimes a little "psychotic," just pick up this book and maybe you'll feel a little better about it.

There is something about Douglas Coupland that makes me avoid picking up his books but makes me love them whenever I do. His stories strike me as slightly sensational and attention-seeking but he tells it all through the lens of humour.
The Drummond family has all assembled in Florida for the launch of Sarah Drummond's first space flight. As they catch up after a long time apart and rehash old issues, we get to see how completely dysfunctional they are. Between affairs, favouritism, diseases and secrets, their loathing for each other has been percolating for decades. As they await the space launch, they manage to get mixed up in the worst kind of crimes imaginable which brings them just a bit closer together.
Odd throughout but funny.

"Curse you, Douglas Coupland" was all I could think to say as I closed this book. By the end I was actively rooting for every single character to die off, at least to make them interesting if nothing else. I wish I had the time I've wasted on this book back.

I've enjoyed the author's work in the past, but it'll be a long time before I pick up another book of his.

The title is the basic thesis; it's expanded to suggest that one only notices this about one's own family; everybody else's family seems sane and normal.

THIS REVIEW HAS BEEN CURTAILED IN PROTEST AT GOODREADS' CENSORSHIP POLICY

See the complete review here:

http://arbieroo.booklikes.com/post/93...

“All families are psychotic. Everybody has basically the same family - it's just reconfigured slightly different from one to the next.”

This is from Coupland’s golden period, where he was consistently producing some really great books, wonderful pieces of work filled with all sorts of random, intriguing and utterly compelling ideas. It was fresh, it could be funny and they were memorable in many ways.

“All Families Are Psychotic” is a daring and at times outrageous novel that sweeps you into a gloriously surreal headspace. This remains one of my favourite Coupland novels and shows him at the top of his game and reminds you how much fun great writing can be.

Coupland creates a dysfunctional family. I read this awhile back, but I remember enjoying, once again, Coupland's talent for dialog and wit. The last third of the book becomes a chase-novel, and Coupland proves himself adept at plot as well. This is a funny, well-written tale.

Another by Coupland that I quite liked. Donating as I'm clearing my bookshelves for a move.

Nice book with a great title, my second Douglas Coupland.
I appreciate Coupland's ability to portray the lives of these middle-aged or older mums, and how they must feel after their children are gone and grown up, how their lives and their perspective change, how difficult it must be to adjust, especially for a generation of women who were taught to put family before all else. He does this with great sensitivity. It's thought provoking, and it might make you want to call your own mother to tell her you love her.
In this book, specifically, he also manages to tell a funny, bittersweet story, populated by characters that aren't so realistic, maybe, but who definitely balance the more introspective parts of the novel by offering you a good laugh and insightful observations of our society.