Opis

On the eve of the next Space Shuttle mission, a divided family comes together!Warm, witty and wise, 'All Families Are Psychotic' is Coupland at the very top of his form. In a cheap motel an hour from Cape Canaveral, Janet Drummond takes her medication, and does a rapid tally of the whereabouts of her children. Wade has spent the night in jail; suicidal Bryan is due to arrive at any moment with his vowel-free girlfriend, Shw; and then there is Sarah, 'a bolt of lightning frozen in midflash' -- here in Orlando to be the star of Friday's shuttle mission. With Janet's ex-husband and his trophy wife also in town, Janet spends a moment contemplating her family, and where it all went wrong. Or did it?

Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review
'Heartbreakingly bitter-sweet!This book will make you want to phone your own psychotic family and tell them how much you love them.' Daily Telegraph 'Miraculous!has you laughing, thinking and crying all at once.' Evening Standard 'As funny as The Simpsons!The dialogue fizzes and snarls with brilliant one-liners. By the end of this energetic yet philosophical novel you will be cheering on its hapless rabble of outcasts, for Coupland's coup de theatre is to entice you to suffer this family as if it were your own.' The Times 'Irresistibly hilarious, unique and wonderful.' Independent on Sunday 'Coupland's last four novels are so good and so distinctive that they seem to me to mark a genuine seismic shift in the literary landscape.' Nicholas Blincoe, New Statesman 'Douglas Coupland is one of the freshest, most exciting voices of the novel! He has a wonderful talent' Tom Wolfe 'Coupland has passion and pace, intelligence and wit. If you find anything about the way we live now disturbing and wrong, he is your man. (He is my man.)' Daily Telegraph 'Coupland at his best can make a single phrase say more than many another writer's whole novel.' Jenny Turner, London Review of Books

UK Kirkus review
Douglas Coupland first gained international attention with the groundbreaking Generation X back in 1991, and in this latest novel he follows the trials and tribulations of the acutely dysfunctional Drummond clan, when they assemble in Florida to watch Sarah Drummond make her debut launch from Cape Canaveral. Imagine an unholy alliance of The Simpsons, Jerry Springer's most outlandish guests and the kids from South Park, and you begin to get a glimmer of life chez Drummond. Janet Drummond, the 65-year-old matriarch of this mad bunch of misfits, contracted HIV in a freak accident when her ex-husband shot her oldest son, Wade; the bullet passed through his liver and lodged in her sternum. Astronaut Sarah is the sanest of the Drummond children but she has her own problems: she was born without a hand because Janet took thalidomide during her pregnancy, and she has just discovered that her husband, Howie, is having a fling with a fellow-astronaut's wife. The youngest Drummond, Bryan, suffers from suicidal tendencies and has shacked up with the rebellious Shaw, who seems hell-bent on peddling her unborn child to a couple of unscrupulous baby merchants. The plot tears along at a frantic pace, throwing in a stolen letter from Princess Diana's coffin and a pharmaceutical billionaire with an interesting in human cloning. Yet amongst so many crazy characters and a plot which becomes increasingly convoluted the presence of Janet remains a central stabilising force; she is the eye of the hurricane which is the Drummond family. Just as we all laugh at The Simpsons while owning up to the programme's essential truth about American family life, so the Drummonds are essentially a close, loyal family unit, despite all the hyperbole and their almost farcical adventures. The family is psychotic, but Janet's selflessness binds up the wounds of these crazy people and her unconditional love is their salvation. (Kirkus UK)