All Families are Psychotic by Douglas Coupland

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.

Today is another buddy review! Today is with Darren from Bart's Bookshelf. We have been trying to do this buddy review for days now, but things kept coming up. I am glad we finally managed to get it done!

1. Did you have a favourite character?
I have been thinking of this question over and over again because how can you not have a favourite character in a book, but honestly, I didn't! I liked all of the characters in the book and they all add something fantastic to the story. They were all so dysfunctional and flawed. They are written really well and interact so off-the-wall that you never know what is going to happen next. Coupland wrote really well!

2. The plot occasionally (well more than occasionally if we're honest!) could be described as 'out there' :) Did that detract or enhance the book for you?
It enhanced it! It is so fantastic! I love the craziness of it all. You never knew what was going to happen yet. This was actually my very first Coupland novel and it lead to me reading mostly all that he has to offer. I think this is why I love Coupland so much. You get tired of the same thing over and over again. Coupland gives you something different to look forward to every time one.

3. I know you've read a few of Douglas Coupland's other books, how does this compare/rate with those.
When someone asked me what my favourite Coupland book was, I always said this one. I think part of that is because it was my first one. If I hadn't read it then I wouldn't have read all of his others. It is hard to compare Coupland's books to one another because with a few exceptions, they are all so different! I think when I read it the first time I had never seen anything like it and was in love with how different it was.

4. While this was a first time read for me, I know that you said it'd be a re-read for you, what was your experience of the book second time around?
I hardly remembered this book at all. It was like 7 or 8 years ago that I read it. It was almost like the very first time I had read it. Things came back to me as I read it, but otherwise it was like an entirely different book. I really liked it this time around, though. It reminded me of why I wanted to read it again so many times and just didn't get around to it.

Thanks, Darren! I look forward to our next one! Be sure to head over to his blog to read his answers to my questions.