Review: The Family Fang

The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



I'm having a lot of trouble capturing my feelings about Family Fang, and at least part of that is because I can't really tell whether I'm in on the joke or the butt of the joke. At the core, it's a book about emotional abuse. Or pranks. Or bad art. I'm not totally sure.

Child A and Child B (Annie and Buster) are the children of C & C Fang. Half of the book is told in flashbacks that illustrate the wacky insanity that C&C inflict on the world and their children through their "art". It's clear that Mr. Fang values his art above *everything*, including his children. There's a serious book about what happens when you raise children in that sort of unstable environment, and what it does to them as adults.

(spoiler: it fucks them up, big time!)

The problem is that a lot of the book is spent twisting that around and turning it into jokes or playing it out for the mystery portion of the novel, only to have it suddenly Get Serious at the end.

Like some of the critics on here, I'd have liked to see more evolution to Annie and Buster's relationship, and to see them grow a little more organically, and a little less of the wacky hijinks.

Overall, an interesting, if a little uneven, read.



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