Book Review-The Family Fang

“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” wrote Leo Tolstoy in Anna Karenina, and when you think about it, a lot of novels are about these unhappy families. The Family Fang is told from the viewpoint of the children, Annie and Buster Fang.  Their parents are performance artists who like to create public scenes as their art, such as having a fight with the waitstaff in a restaurant, sometimes filming the "art" so they can show it later.  For their entire lives, Annie (or child A) and Buster (child B) have been part of the art, but as they grow older they realize that not everyone lives like this and perhaps they don't particularly enjoy it.  As they become adults they simply refuse to participate, until one day they learn that their parents have disappeared. The book examines how parenting, or not, can affect the adult lives of children; what exactly constitutes "art"; freewill; and becoming your own person.  I enjoyed the quirkiness of the story.  The ending was satisfying, not something you figured out half way through the book.  Altogether, this was an interesting, fun book.

The Family Fang By Wilson, Kevin 2011-08 - Ecco Press 9780061579035 Check Our Catalog "The Family Fang" is a comedy, a tragedy, and a tour-de-force examination of what it means to make art and survive your family. Like everything else Kevin Wilson does, I have never seen anything like it before. The best single word description would be brilliant.--Ann Patchett, bestselling author of "Bel Canto." …More

Other books by the same author.

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth: Stories By Wilson, Kevin 2009-03 - Harper Perennial 9780061579028 Check Our Catalog 2010 Alex Award Winner Southern gothic at its best, laced with humor and pathos, these wonderfully inventive stories explore the relationship between loss and death and the many ways in which people try to cope with both. …More

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