Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #16597 in Books
• Published on: 2002-07-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
In All Families Are Psychotic, Coupland combines Anne Tyler's compassionate command of family relationships with a world-view that probably hails from a distant galaxy. His latest work of genius is fast-paced, blisteringly funny and the literary equivalent of electric-shock therapy.

NASA Astronauts must be the healthiest people on the planet, and Sarah Drummond, preparing for her debut launch from Cape Canaveral, is no exception. Unfortunately, Sarah's family, gathered in Florida to witness the take-off, is sick--in every sense. Her brother Wade, a low-rent hockey star whose only real talent is bedding women, is performing an elaborate tango with terminal illness and the Federal Penitentiary system. Her mother Janet is a devotee of Internet porn and outlawed medication. Then there's Bryan, who has nothing wrong with him except a highly contradictory desire to have children and kill himself. And Bryan's girlfriend, who really is called Shaw, and really doesn't care about much except renting her womb to the highest bidder.

While Sarah patiently prepares for outer space, Wade glimpses a lucrative, if desperate remedy to his family's manifold miseries. And as the countdown begins, the dysfunctional Drummonds--a family who have hitherto been unable to meet up without sustaining gunshot wounds--find themselves united in a last, labyrinthine quest for personal salvation. It's a journey punctuated by medication schedules, peppered with sleazy trailer-parks and even sleazier characters, a Disneyworld scented with dirty money and encroaching death. But somewhere along the way, the Drummonds are about to discover that they're not much different to any other family.

--Matthew Baylis

Independent on Sunday
A unique and wonderful book... Utterly fresh and thrillingly modern. Yet again, Coupland has zeroed in on where we are now.

New Statesman
Coupland’s last four novels are so good and distinctive they seem to mark a seismic shift in the literary landscape.

Customer Reviews

Weird yet wonderful
This was a wonderfully bizarre and amusing book with some really insightful and profound sentiments: It would make a great film. I loved the whole bunch of varied and diverse characters but my favourites were Wade and Janet. The developing relationship and witty exchange between Florian and Janet was simply hilarious as was the family's darkly comic moments together. The Drummonds were crooked but utterly loveable. The ending was a bit fantastical; if only troubles in life were that easy to fix, but on the whole I enjoyed the book very much.

"And they'll think they've just seen a star."
Excellent book. Not much can be said about it other than it is a must read, funny, interesting, and believable... well, maybe just funny and interesting.

The completely over-the-top plot would usually put me off a book, but the hillarious situations and genuinely brilliant characters kept me hooked from start to finish.

The relationships in this book although downright bizzare, are also beautiful, and the last few lines between Janet and Sarah give the book the perfect ending.

Since reading this I have read Coupland's first book, Generation X, which was dissapionting in comparison to this, but I still look forward to reading some of his other work such as Girlfriend In A Coma and JPod.

Highly Recommended
This is a very funny book, but also moving and thought provoking. The twists and turns in the plot were fantastic - DC has the most amazing imagination to come up with these ideas, all of which are pulled effortlessly together. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this book and am currently working my way through his entire back catalogue.