Canadian author Douglas Coupland's seventh novel could be subtitled When Bad Things Happen to Bad People. As the estranged members of the Drummond family straggle into Florida for youngest sister Sarah's impending space shuttle launch, we only begin to glimpse the true meaning of the word dysfunctional. The family, plagued by terminal disease, financial disaster, felonious activity, infidelity, and violence, is forced--by a series of ever more fantastic occurrences--to attempt to deal with each other. That would be an easier task if they didn't loathe one another with a ferocity usually reserved for war criminals. It's not quite Jerry Springer-style tabloid TV set in Disney's Haunted Mansion, but the family members do muster the strength to insult, assault, and infect one another with abandon. With the exception of the family matriarch, Janet, they are unappealing and selfish, but without Machiavellian brilliance. Instead, they're inclined toward out-and-out stupidity, blinded by self-interest rather than enlightened by it. As they bumble through misadventure after misadventure, there seems to be no reason to cheer for them. Even Sarah, the family's shining star, has her dark side.

True to Coupland's style, the book reads lightning fast. The author punctuates his narrative with clipped dialogue and punchy exchanges that advance the palpable sense of unease and tension running throughout. And amidst the acrimony, Coupland throws a genuine caper into the plot, involving Prince William's farewell letter to his mother, Princess Diana. Add to that the oppressive heat and the postmodern, pop culture junkyard of Coupland's Florida setting, and the entire book brews and builds like a roiling tropical storm. --S. Duda


From Publishers Weekly
The Drummond family at the center of Coupland's new novel resembles a month's worth of soap opera plots. Wade Drummond and his mother, Janet, both have AIDS. Janet, 65, was infected when her ex-husband, Ted, shot Wade through the side of his stomach and the bullet lodged in Janet's lung. Ted shot Wade because his son had accidentally had sex with Ted's second wife, Nickie. In consequence, Nickie is also HIV positive. Wade's brother, Bryan, a frequently suicidal musician, has hooked up with the self-named Shw, a young anarchist. Shw has told Bryan she wants to abort her baby, but secretly she is planning to sell it to Lloyd and Gale, a seemingly normal Florida couple with kinky secrets. Now, all the Drummonds are having a family reunion in Orlando. They are gathered to support Sarah, the successful member of the family, as she is about to be shot into space. Although slightly crippled, being a thalidomide baby, Susan has made a career as a scientist and an astronaut. Her bland husband, Howie, is covertly sleeping with Alanna, the wife of Gordon Brunswick, Sarah's mission commander and Sarah is secretly having an affair with Gordon. The item that sets this crew in motion is a letter from Prince William left on Princess Diana's coffin. It has somehow come into possession of a sleazeball named Norm, who wants Wade and Ted to convey it to a billionaire Anglophile based in the Bahamas. Complications, naturally, ensue. Like Chuck Palahniuk, Coupland mines tabloid territory for sensationalism, which he then undermines with ironic self-awareness. The can-you-top-this atmosphere will keep Coupland's Gen-X readers (the ones who religiously watch Cops for the laughs) totally amused. Author tour. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
You may think that your family is the most psychotic, but meet the Drummonds: shady errand-runner Wade, the oldest, is HIV-positive and has infected his mother, Janet, in a scenario too complicated to relate here; paterfamilias Ted has prostate cancer but clings to his virility via trophy wife Nickie, who is also HIV-positive; born-loser Bryan has impregnated hippie hell-child, Shw; and baby sister Sarah, the seemingly normal one, is about to undertake a space mission for NASA. Coupland, who dubbed the post-boomer babies "Generation X" with his book of the same name, continues his sociological study here. Divorce has dented the Drummond children, who grew up in the 1970s, as well as their parents, but in Coupland's contemporary America that makes them all the more vulnerable to reunions. Unbelievably awful and miraculous things happen in the days leading up to Sarah's launch in Florida, where they all convene, but the subplots descend into lame-brained slapstick. As anyone in a psychotic family can tell you, chaos is often predictable, and it is here. The vignettes on Janet, who, at 65, has recently broken out of the 1950s wife mold in which she was cast, add some needed depth, but it's not enough to take readers to the moon and back. For larger collections. Heather McCormack, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
The launching of the space shuttle prompts a family reunion as the Drummond family gathers in Florida to witness one of their own, Sarah, take off on a mission into outer space. Family reunions, typically, are opportunities for relations to take stock of themselves, patch up differences, and/or maintain feuds. So it is with the Drummonds, who, despite their eccentricities, just may be the quintessential, twenty-first-century, middle-class family--only more so. There's the matriarch, Janet, serene at 65 and dying of AIDS; ex-hubby Ted, a philanderer, who shows up with his trophy wife, Nicky; eldest son Wade, also with AIDS, along with his pregnant wife, Beth, whom he met when she thought she had AIDS; brother Bryan, the family depressive, who, after several suicide attempts, now has a reason to live; and Bryan's girlfriend, with the unlikely name Shw, whom he met while setting fire to a Gap at an antiglobalization protest and who is carrying his baby, which, unbeknownst to him, she plans to sell. And then there's Sarah, the family overachiever, who is missing a hand because mother Janet used thalidomide for morning sickness and whose husband, Howie, is cheating on her with the wife of one of her fellow astronauts. Although the Drummonds appear to be self-destructing, author Coupland (Generation X [1992], Girlfriend in a Coma [1998]) reveals himself to be, somewhat surprisingly, an optimist. For him, the new millennium is an era full of promise and potential miracles, despite the seemingly terminal state of the world. Benjamin Segedin
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Review
"[Coupland's] best novel to date."--LA Weekly

"...a powerful, redemptive story..." --The Miami Herald

"Coupland has taken a great leap forward...both the novel and its characters are distinctly heartfelt and oddly endearing..." --Ruminator Review

"Coupland hits the mark with his usual exceptional writing and perceptive eye." --Nancy Olson, Quail Ridge Books

"Coupland is back and better than ever with a roller coaster ride of a book...I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.' --Allison Hill, Book Soup

"It's an extraordinarily well-written novel with characters you know you shouldn't be liking but do. So real." --Whoopi Goldberg



Review
"[Coupland's] best novel to date."--LA Weekly

"...a powerful, redemptive story..." --The Miami Herald

"Coupland has taken a great leap forward...both the novel and its characters are distinctly heartfelt and oddly endearing..." --Ruminator Review

"Coupland hits the mark with his usual exceptional writing and perceptive eye." --Nancy Olson, Quail Ridge Books

"Coupland is back and better than ever with a roller coaster ride of a book...I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.' --Allison Hill, Book Soup

"It's an extraordinarily well-written novel with characters you know you shouldn't be liking but do. So real." --Whoopi Goldberg

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Sometimes the only difference between drugstore novels and Shakespeare is the level of writing. For all their wit and intelligence, Shakespeare's plays have more in common with the plotlines for Days of Our Lives than you would outwardly think. Douglas Coupland, author of Girlfriend in a Coma and Generation X, knows this. His seventh novel, All Families are Psychotic, is a nightmarish, sardonic soap opera about one battered family that falls somewhere between Valley of the Dolls and All's Well That Ends Well.

The fractured Drummonds have just descended upon Orlando, Florida -- like a swarm of flies on fresh roadkill -- for one hell of a family reunion. The baby of the family, Sarah, a one-handed astronaut, is preparing to be launched into space. What should be a cause for celebration, however, is the impetus for scratching familial scabs. Janet, the 65-year old matriarch with a penchant for sex chat rooms and cheap hotels, is dying. The previous year, the philandering eldest son, Wade, met a beautiful redhead in an airport and had a brief midday fling. Unbeknownst to him, the woman was his father, Ted's, new trophy wife, Nickie. When daddy dearest found out, he tracked his son down at Janet's home and shot him, but the bullet cut clean through Wade and entered Janet's lung. Wade, we find out later, has AIDS and has infected not only his mother, via his blood on the bullet, but also Nickie. And then there's Brian, the youngest brother, an unlucky, brooding man who has unsuccessfully attempted suicide three times, and his radical burn-down-big-business pregnant girlfriend, Shw (that's right, Shw -- no vowels). What ensues when all these volatile folks mix it up in the state of Florida is an outlandish and mordantly funny story that involves a black-market baby, a kidnapping, a letter from Prince Charles, and -- believe it or not -- second chances.

Coupland is by far one of our most astute writers -- someone who has his finger on the deathly faint pulse of contemporary society. Though All Families Are Psychotic sounds like a deep foray into the absurd, it is really a novel about healing, the fragility of our relationships with those we love and hate the most, and the all-too-familiar desire for acceptance and redemption. Yes, the world can be a nasty place, but sometimes it's our own internal worlds that do the most damage -- and sometimes you need those psychos in your family to get you through it. (Stephen Bloom)

ANNOTATION

As the family spins dangerously out of control, the story unfolds at a lightning-fast pace. With one twist after another, the Drummonds fall apart and come together in the most unexpected ways.

Heartwarming and maddeningly human, the family Coupland creates is like one you've never seen before - with the possible exception of your own.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"It is the year 2001 and the Drummond family, reunited for the first time in years, has gathered near Cape Canaveral to watch the launch into space of their beloved daughter and sister, Sarah. Against the Technicolor unreality of Florida's finest tourist attractions, the Drummonds and their intimates manage to stumble into every illicit activity under the tropical sun - kidnapping, blackmail, gunplay, and black market negotiations, to name a few. They can't seem to avoid disaster at every turn, but what could deteriorate into talk-show cacophony in the hands of a different writer becomes the stuff of a modern epic with Coupland. For all their madness, the only real sin binding the Drummonds together is their fallibility." Even as the Drummonds' lives spin out of control, Coupland reminds us of their humanity at every turn, hammering out a hilarious masterpiece with the keen eye of a cultural critic and the heart and soul of a gifted storyteller. As he circles back and fills us in on the Drummonds' various pasts, he tells not only the characters' stories but also the story of our times - thalidomide, AIDS, born-again Christianity, drugs, divorce, the Internet - all bound together with the familiar glue of family love and madness.

SYNOPSIS

The story is set in Florida, USA, and is about a dysfunctional family. The plot is supposedly about Janet Drummond, a divorced sixtysomething with three kids, Wade, Sarah and Bryan and an ex-husband Ted who's taken up with a younger woman. It's all set around Sarah's Space Shuttle flight, an event which brings the family together in one place for the first time in years - and then things start to unravel.

FROM THE CRITICS

Book Magazine

Coupland's latest book intends to parody dysfunctional fiction, but its title isn't true of the author's invented family, the Drummonds. Mother Janet contracted AIDS from her fortysomething son Wade when his father, Ted, who now has prostate cancer, shot Wade for having sex with his stepmother and the bullet passed through Wade to infect Janet. Stepmother Nicole also has AIDS and Wade's brother Bryan has attempted suicide three times. No one has enough money. Gathered together in Florida to watch the only Drummond success, Sarah, be launched into space (where she plans weightless sex with the mission commander), most of the family members involve themselves in a goofy plot to sell DNA stolen from the British royal family to a pharmaceutical billionaire. Coupland wants a laugh every five sentences and sacrifices plausibility to get it. By the time he decides to try injecting some empathy, it's too late. The most believable character, Janet, says, "We're people, not cartoons," but her assertion can't reverse what the author has done to her family. Although he ultimately gives them miracle cures, Coupland never manages to give them life. —Tom LeClair

Publishers Weekly

The Drummond family at the center of Coupland's new novel resembles a month's worth of soap opera plots. Wade Drummond and his mother, Janet, both have AIDS. Janet, 65, was infected when her ex-husband, Ted, shot Wade through the side of his stomach and the bullet lodged in Janet's lung. Ted shot Wade because his son had accidentally had sex with Ted's second wife, Nickie. In consequence, Nickie is also HIV positive. Wade's brother, Bryan, a frequently suicidal musician, has hooked up with the self-named Shw, a young anarchist. Shw has told Bryan she wants to abort her baby, but secretly she is planning to sell it to Lloyd and Gale, a seemingly normal Florida couple with kinky secrets. Now, all the Drummonds are having a family reunion in Orlando. They are gathered to support Sarah, the successful member of the family, as she is about to be shot into space. Although slightly crippled, being a thalidomide baby, Susan has made a career as a scientist and an astronaut. Her bland husband, Howie, is covertly sleeping with Alanna, the wife of Gordon Brunswick, Sarah's mission commander and Sarah is secretly having an affair with Gordon. The item that sets this crew in motion is a letter from Prince William left on Princess Diana's coffin. It has somehow come into possession of a sleazeball named Norm, who wants Wade and Ted to convey it to a billionaire Anglophile based in the Bahamas. Complications, naturally, ensue. Like Chuck Palahniuk, Coupland mines tabloid territory for sensationalism, which he then undermines with ironic self-awareness. The can-you-top-this atmosphere will keep Coupland's Gen-X readers (the ones who religiously watch Cops for the laughs) totally amused. Author tour.(Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

You may think that your family is the most psychotic, but meet the Drummonds: shady errand-runner Wade, the oldest, is HIV-positive and has infected his mother, Janet, in a scenario too complicated to relate here; paterfamilias Ted has prostate cancer but clings to his virility via trophy wife Nickie, who is also HIV-positive; born-loser Bryan has impregnated hippie hell-child, Shw; and baby sister Sarah, the seemingly normal one, is about to undertake a space mission for NASA. Coupland, who dubbed the post-boomer babies "Generation X" with his book of the same name, continues his sociological study here. Divorce has dented the Drummond children, who grew up in the 1970s, as well as their parents, but in Coupland's contemporary America that makes them all the more vulnerable to reunions. Unbelievably awful and miraculous things happen in the days leading up to Sarah's launch in Florida, where they all convene, but the subplots descend into lame-brained slapstick. As anyone in a psychotic family can tell you, chaos is often predictable, and it is here. The vignettes on Janet, who, at 65, has recently broken out of the 1950s wife mold in which she was cast, add some needed depth, but it's not enough to take readers to the moon and back. For larger collections. Heather McCormack, "Library Journal" Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews