All Families Are Psychotic
No Canadian author is as widely respected in the realm of fiction today as is Douglas Coupland. He is quickly becoming one of my favorites. The latest novel that I have checked out of my local library is “All Families Are Psychotic”.
It is essentially a collection of vignettes surrounding a limitted plot about a Canadian family called the Drummonds. The main characters are Janet and Wade Drummond, and the voicing is theirs, sometimes Janet’s sometimes Wade’s, including flashbacks, amazingly prosaic language, and a good deal of humour.
Coupland tackles issues like AIDS, Modern thought in Post-Modern times, the family, crime, and happenstance, all involving a terribly defective Canadian Family unceremoniously depositted in Florida for some NASA goings on.
I have read some crazy novels in my day, but this one has to be the best. Crime Lords kidnapping super-models, normal stay-at-home moms becoming “HotAsianTeen” web-surfers. It’s insane. It’s like Douglas Adams without a British Author’s attitude towards sex, violence and disease.
I could ruin it for you, and am tempted to do so, but all that I will say is that All Families Are Psychotic has something to say to us about what we are doing here.