Book #40 |
Book: The Family Fang | Author: Kevin Wilson | |
| Source: Library loan Format: Print |
Pages: 309 | Duration: 05/15/25 – 05/17/25 (2 days) | |
| Rating: ★★★★☆ | Genres: fiction, humor, art, family | ||
| 📕10-word summary: Quirky family adventures with bizarre parents and arguably exploited children. 🖌6-word review: Compelling enough story. Structure sometimes confusing. |
|||
💭Favorite quotes:
|
|||
| 🎓Some new-to-me words: sestina, pratfalls | |||
| Description:* Annie and Buster Fang have spent most of their adult lives trying to distance themselves from their famous artist parents, Caleb and Camille. But when a bad economy and a few bad personal decisions converge, the two siblings have nowhere to turn but their family home. Reunited under one roof for the first time in more than a decade and surrounded by the souvenirs of their unusual upbringing, Buster and Annie are forced to confront not only their creatively ambitious parents, but the chaos and confusion of their childhood.*From goodreads.com’s synopsis. | |||
| Thoughts: I saw this book in my 5/12/25 BookBub email and it sounded interesting and was available in the library. I noticed that it had been made into a 2015 movie, and I asked my husband if he’d ever seen it, and having not, he watched it while I was reading the book. “Quirky” is a good word to describe both the story and the titular family. The story shifts between the past and the present, and that was a little confusing until I figured out the structure. I enjoyed the imagination of the “performance art” scenarios enumerated, and I enjoyed the intellectual quandaries as to whether it was indeed “art,” and whether or not the children (and arguably the wife) in the family were being exploited. In answer to this discussion question at the end of the book: “Have you ever witnessed an event in your own life that felt like a Fang performance?” I’d have to say it was the time I participated in a flash mob on Fayetteville Street in downtown Raleigh. | |||
See the rest of the books I’ve read in 2025 and previous years: 2024 | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019.