All Families Are Psychotic

This book was a wild rollercoaster of a ride. Twists and turns, happy and unhappy moments...this book has it all. I always enjoy reading about people who can find beauty in the negative/ugly aspects of life. All Families are Psychotic has the ability to dig deep down inside your soul, making you re-examine your own life. Douglas Coupland is definately one of my favorite authors to read. A+ for All Families are Psychotic.

I think, perhaps, the reason I enjoyed this book so thoroughly is because my family is, in fact, psychotic. I read this book immediately after reading Hey Nostradmus! because I was instantly infautated with Coupland's writing style. I thought this book was equally as good as my prior read. It was hilarious and fantastical. I'm not one for fantasy or science fiction, and I certainly didn't expect any of that from this book, but this only being my second Coupland novel, I wasn't really familiar with the tidbits of fantasy. But, I loved it. 100%, two thumbs up, 5 stars, etc etc etc. Makes you family not seem so crazy.

This is one of the funnier D.C. novels. I love it because it is so very interesting and not at all boring. It is full of twists and turns and madcap capers. It's deep. And it's about love and redemption. As with all D.C. books you REALLY have to keep an open mind while you are reading it and appreciate it for it's quirkiness.

I am a huge Douglas Coupland fan, but I'll be the first to admit that most of the characters in his books talk EXACTLY THE SAME WAY. Everybody in DouglasCouplandWorld is well-versed in pop-culture references and has a clever, culturally literate response to every situation. This is not the case in "All Families are Psychotic." These are the most interesting, 3-Dimensional characters that Coupland has written since "Microserfs." The dialogue between the members of the Drummond family could have been taken from taped conversations in MY family, or yours. This book is a tribute to real families everwhere, and it was one of the funnest books I can remember reading. Douglas Coupland is a genius, and "All Families are Psychotic" was more therapeutic to me than 100 hours of psychological evaluation.

To the uninitiated-and even to some Coupland fans-All Families Are Psychotic will be one bizarre little novel. The book is in the same vein as some of Coupland's previous works (see Shampoo Planet, Girlfriend in a Coma, and Miss Wyoming), but the psychotic people and chaotic coincidences have been turned up to 11. However-even though All Families is considerably darker than these previous novels (the narrative is Pulp Fiction meets Peyton Place), Coupland's trademark optimism and core faith in human nature shines through. Along the way he addresses some of the usual Couplandesque themes with the same acuity and perceptiveness he demonstrates in all his work-relationships and family (dysfunctional, of course; note the title), the interaction of one's sense of self with various pharmaceuticals, and nodal points in North American post-war culture, to name some of the big ones.Even better, All Families Are Psychotic features some of Coupland's most vivid characters-virtually everyone is well-developed (which couldn't be said, in my opinion, for Miss Wyoming). Particularly notable are the stunningly level-headed materfamilias Janet and the riddle wrapped up inside an enigma that is Florian. Sixty-something Janet is so remarkably patient and grounded that despite suffering constant trials and tortures, both petty and not-so, involving (as the jacket copy indicates) "kidnapping, blackmail, gunplay, and black market negotiations," she doesn't utter the words "I'm scared" until page 266 of 279. And Florian is . . . Florian. What can one say? He is a singular individual and one of the funniest characters I've ever met. In this book, Coupland again employs the time-shifting narrative structure he used to develop the plot of Miss Wyoming-introducing his characters as they blunder through their present-day chaos, then slowly filling in their backstories so that the reader can savor it. He's not a pioneer in this respect, but he's one of the best. If you're a long-time Coupland fan, this book is definitely a candidate for his best work (assuming you are not put off by the farcical elements of the plot and Coupland's usual tidy little happy ending). I can't wait for a few months' distance from the book so I can read it again. If you're new to Coupland, All Families Are Psychotic is a reasonable place to start, but be sure not to miss his other works as well. Coupland is a consistently good writer, and each of his books is the favorite of many of his die-hard fans.