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All Families Are Psychotic is the Douglas Coupland 2001 novel that follows the Drummond family in the days before their astronaut daughter Sarah's shuttle launch from Cape Canaveral. The mother Janet is HIV-positive. The father Ted has multiple infidelities to manage. The brother Wade is a recovering drunk. The other brother Bryan is a depressed activist whose pregnant girlfriend Shw has her own complications. The reunion produces the kind of accumulating comic catastrophe Coupland specializes in.
Coupland's strength in All Families Are Psychotic is the comic-novel form played at full speed without losing the underlying emotional seriousness. The Florida geography is rendered with the kind of affection-meets-contempt that the form rewards. The plot accumulates a kidnapping, a counterfeit-letter scheme, a stolen-fetus subplot, and an extended set piece on a yacht. Fans of George Saunders's comic-tragic short fiction or Lorrie Moore's A Gate at the Stairs will recognize the careful sad-comic register Coupland is working in.
The book is shorter and faster than Generation X and ends with appropriate emotional weight.
Four stars. The All Families Are Psychotic Douglas Coupland novel is one of his strongest comic books. Recommended for readers of contemporary literary fiction who like their comedy with serious moral weight underneath. A useful follow-up to Generation X.
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