Customer Reviews

The Family Fang: A Novel

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

It's such a pleasure when a book catches you totally by surprise....and you're delighted. I had absolutely no idea what to anticipate when THE FAMILY FANG arrived - the title reminded me of the Muensters. Well, yes, the Fangs are certainly an outre family but the plot is nothing short of inventive, spellbinding, and amazing.

Caleb and Camille Fang are performance or conceptual artists who use their two children, Annie and Buster, otherwise known as Child A and Child B, as integral parts of their pieces (think of Buster donning a sparkly gown and wig to win a beauty contest or throwing himself on the floor of a mall and shoving giant handfuls of jelly beans into his mouth when his mother's coat reveals the sweet bounty she has just shoplifted. Or, consider Annie plucking a guitar string and singing along with Buster in pitiful voices as they sit on the street beside a guitar case with a sign in it reading, "Our dog needs an operation. Please help us save him."

To the senior Fangs their art is everything regardless of the toll it may be taking on their children. But eventually the children do grow up and leave home. Each tries to create a life and career for themselves, but are unable to make it work. Left with one choice - to return to their parents' home, Annie and Buster do just that. It begins again with the elder Fangs trying to create performances using their children. But then, quite suddenly, Caleb and Camille vanish at a roadside rest stop. Has something dire happened to them or this just another work of art?

Kevin Wilson has fashioned a wise, witty, fantastic novel, delving into familial relationships, and how actions or non-actions may affect each generation.

- Gail Cooke

Author Kevin Wilson explores that question in a unique manner in his new novel, "The Family Fang". And the ultimate answer, I suppose, is that a family is whatever combination it wants to be, or DOESN'T want to be.

The Fang Family, mother Camille, father Caleb, and children A (Annie) and B (Buster), are conceptual performance artists who put on their productions in shopping malls in the South. The parents had conceived of their work and then incorporated their children in the acts since birth. In many cases, the parents put their children in physical danger from an early age, all in the name of "artistic license". Leaving a six year old to wander around a mall alone, for instance, doesn't constitute good parenting in my book. But if the Fangs were physically negligent of their two children, they were even more so psychologically. Annie and Buster grew up in a house where nothing was as it seemed and no relationship seemed based on affection - rather based on the childrens' ability to perform in the art acts.

It seems true to me that children growing up with unstable parents in a slap-dash household, often become more mature than the parents who are supposed to be parenting them. This is the case in the Fang family as the children, "A" and "B" as they're known in the art world, mature into adults. But damaged children often grow into damaged adults, as "mature" as they may seem to others looking in - particularly as compared to the parents. As the two children grew up, Annie to become a respected young actress and Buster a novelist of middling success, they find themselves unable to relate in a "normal" relationship. They have each other as support as their parents slip away into their own twosome world. It is up to Annie and Buster, as they reach their late 20's, to finally find "adult" adulthood.

When I read the reviews of "The Family Fang" and saw the cover art, I imagined it to be a "precious" book, filled with "precious" people doing delightfully "oddball" things. Sort of like "A Taxonomy of Barnacles", a novel by Galt Niederhoffer, published a few years ago. That book was filled with cloyingly cute people and I basically stopped reading midway through and threw the book hard against the wall. "Save me", I screamed, "from 'precious' characters and plot lines!" So I picked up Kevin Wilson's novel with trepidation, figuring the wall could use another gauge, if need be. But, I was pleasantly surprised. His characters WERE, in a way "precious", but in a comfortably interesting way. Some of the characters were likable, some not, but all were presented in a nuanced manner. I honestly could not guess the ending of the book before I was there.

Wilson's book is a wonderful read about interesting people who make interesting decisions about their lives. It's a hard road to adulthood, sometimes, but Annie and Buster are up to the challenge. And so's the reader.

It is said there are only two stories in literature: the courage of men and the charm of women. Reverse those roles and you pretty much have the milieu of Kevin Wilson's new novel The Family Fang. Annie Fang, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fang who are about that interesting early on, her pliant paps parading as she marches onto a set design on her way to a topless scene in a B movie, is never more courageous. When brother Buster wins the Little Miss Crimson Clover crown, well, to his mother at least, he's a picture of inveterate graciousness and charm. And later, when the siblings go looking for their missing parents, on page 198 we get: "Annie felt her fingers snap into fists...then she felt Buster's own hand slowly uncurl her fingers until they were straight and steady." Bold courage, quiet charm. Annie also has stout advice for Buster who announces that after getting shot in the face with a potato gun, he's back living with mom and dad. "Get out of there, Buster...you can't stay there...you need to escape," she scolds, and right away we wonder if the kleptomaniac routine Mrs. Fang put on when the book opened doesn't leave room for a more lurid encore later. It does.

And what of family versus art which was all over the pre publicity blurbs? An ethereal issue at best. The story line is stashed away in Annie and Buster's sibling relationship and its fun digging this out because there is enough literary art and gamesmanship to keep English majors (and former English majors) happy. Herman Melville gets prominent play, especially the first line of his white whale tale. George Plimpton, he of the multi-variegated career that included a stint as quarterback for the Detroit Lions which he parlayed into a gig with the New York Philharmonic under the baton of maestro Leonard Bernstein, all the while serving as editor of The Paris Review, puts in an appearance as a reader of an audio book featuring characters all of whom Annie "would like to punch in the mouth."

It should be clear Annie is the star here. Her common sense and straight talk over rides everything, and you will forgive her one lapse: sleeping with an editor for Esquire magazine - it wasn't her fault the guy paraded the room in purple jockey shorts. And she doesn't repeat her mistake with semi/ex/sometime/boyfriend Daniel who wants to take her to Wyoming and work on a film script about Nazi Dinosaurs. So if you lose your way in the plot, or bold jabs at popular culture (Sally Mann, too exploitative) seek her out because she can and will extricate any reader from the novel as culture shock ideology that sometimes gets foisted upon us. She's pretty good company.

This book was completely amazing in every way. I can't believe I'm the first customer to review it. There isn't much to add to what the editorial reviewers already wrote. It's an incredible book, just read it, nothing we say can compare to the stabbing prose of The Family Fang! Being neither a professional reviewer nor an editor I cannot offer much more than this: it made me giggle, it made me squirm, and it made me love myself and others in a more profound manner than I'd ever previously imagined myself capable of. I love you Kevin Wilson, when I grow up I want to be just like you.

I first read about this book in a magazine review. Usually I don't actually go out and buy the books I hear about from reviews but I knew I had to read The Family Fang as soon as possible. This book is simply amazing. I got so wrapped up in the characters' lives that I didn't want it to end. Annie and Buster are both fully realized characters that make this book extremely enjoyable. There were parts that reminded me a lot of Franny and Zooey by JD Salinger. After finishing the book, I was left asking myself question and analyzing themes. Reading this book was a wonderful experience and I will definitely be recommending it to others.

Kevin Winslow's The Family Fang is a maddening book to review. It is without fault well-written and there are many laugh-out-loud moments. I found myself turning page after page not knowing what it was about the book that drew me to it. Was I repulsed by the Caleb and Camille Fang's guerilla theatre that sucked in their own children, or was I drawn to their exuberance? Was there a piece of me that wanted to step outside of the norm and create a bit of chaos (in fantasy if not reality)?

The Fangs, in particular Mr. Fang, believe that all true art is in motion and happens absent a sterile environment. His life's work is creating scenes in public places. Think Improv Everywhere, but less legal and more dangerous. The Fangs refer to their children as A (Annie) and B (Buster). The children are mere character actors (or even props) in the Fang family's desire to create art. The desires of the children are assumed and even foisted upon them.

I could have given the book anywhere from three to five stars. Even as I was disliking it, I was loving it. I don't remember the last book that made me feel this way. I will remember it for a long time.

If you are a parent of a child who is talented at anything (and every child is), and especially if you or your child enjoy the performance arts, you don't want to miss this book.

Kevin Wilson has created a crazy family with all the same anxieties most of us experience with some members of our own families (and even friends)--albeit on a much more dramatic (to say the least) scale. What I loved about this book is no matter how screwed up the family members seem to act or the unforgivable things they do, there remains the underlying concept of, "But what are you going to do? They're family and we love them." Don't we all feel this way? How many times do therapists and friends tell people to separate themselves from whomever or whatever is causing grief, and yet there is just this stubborn acceptance that we know these people will do better, make better choices, treat each other better, and it doesn't matter anyway because we would never abandon them. For me, these ideas were at the heart of the book--emotions I could relate to with characters I loved spending time with.

The book is laugh-out-loud funny while at the same time never making fun of the characters. The characters are loveable. The story moves quickly. The writing is so enjoyable. Some of the scenes are nuts yet eerily easy to imagine.

As unusual as the characters are, they are so easy to relate to. Don't we all want love and acceptance? Especially from our families? Reading the end of this book made me think about the different ways people think about family and the obligations family entails. Are some people born with innate loyalty and others born with the dumbfounding ability to live blissfully free of any sense of these obligations? In real life it appears so, and maybe in the Family Fang as well.

I don't want to give away any of the plot, but the last third of the book reads quickly as brother and sister hone in on solving their family mystery. I can't wait to hear what people have to say about the ending. It caught me by surprise. One of the Amazon reviewers said the ending was "pat" but I don't think so. To me it was out of left field yet believable and left me feeling happy--just like the book as a whole.

When I read the editorial reviews, I cringed a bit at descriptions such as "madcap" and "hilarious." These conjure "I Love Lucy" reruns, not thoughtful fiction of this caliber. They also invite readers who perhaps expect a superficial sort of read.

It is not a funny novel, although it has many humorous moments. But no matter how many times I smiled and laughed (and there were many, including a fair amount of head-shaking), this book is not comedy. As an example, when your two obese aunts slip on the top step of an escalator and bowl their way down, knocking over innocent and unsuspecting riders along their way to the bottom, it's kind of funny in a fascinating, sick sort of way, but is it comedy? No, definitely not.

The Family Fang calls to mind that image from my childhood (yes, it really happened). The novel is cringe-worthy, bittersweet, painful, artful, imaginative, real, improbable ... okay, enough of the adjectives. What I'm trying to say is prepare yourself for a roller coaster of emotions as you read. And be prepared to think. You'll be rewarded, I promise.

It's a great book, one of the best if not the best I've read so far this summer.

I knew that Kevin Wilson was a talented writer when I heard him read his quirky stories about babies from his first story collection, so I expected something equally quirky and light hearted when I picked up his novel. What I got exceeded all expectations. This was a precisely crafted and compelling look at the collateral damage that comes from artists' lives when those artists are determined beyond all reason to make art, no matter what it takes from them or what it destroys. The family fang is in fact nothing less than Caleb and Camille's obsession to create art that is unplanned, chaotic and so sweeping that it leaves scars. The old adage, all is fair in love and war is translated here all is fair in the name of art.

Wilson writes with sparing but precise stroke about the furious and chaotic process of putting together a work of art. Camille and Caleb are performance artists who plan events that surprise and bring chaos to unsuspecting crowds. Ultimately, their control of the emotions of their spectators becomes almost morbid, and so calculated that even this artist found it hard to sympathize with their obsessions. Buster and Annie, their children, are the unfortunate victims of their parents' stunts. They are emotionally manipulate to participate in projects that too often end up in jail-time and bodily injuries.

We flit seamlessly from the early performances of "Child A" and "Child B' to Buster's and Annie's adult lives. Buster is the charming and disarming "failure" of the family, who blows his face up with a potato gun while fraternizing with Iraq war veterans. Annie is a talented actress who destroys her career by making a series of bad decisions about her love life and about her public life. We see how the performances have wrecked Annie's and Buster's sense of self, and how their parents' unpredictability and recklessness rules these two beyond any wall or distance that the two siblings try to build to protect themselves from their schemes.

This is one of those rare books that, once I start, I can't put down. The plot never ceased to surprise me. The commentary on art and the price it demands from its maker and audience alike is something that I will be pondering a lont time after reading this book. This was as good as fiction hasn't been for a really long time. I am truly impressed with Kevin Wilson, with his ability to make me love characters that I could have never imagine and yet find so familiar and human, with his wisdom on the true nature of love and friendship, and on his subtle and textured understanding of the meaning and impact of art.

This is not just an outstanding first novel: it's a wonderful, wickedly intelligent piece of fiction that marks the entrance of a truly talented writer into the world of contemporary literature. Bravo!

Family Fang immediately enveloped me in its weird hilarity. This story is extremely well written; the dialogue is quirky and colloquial. The characters are all flawed-Buster has severe anxiety and Annie is an alcoholic and the parents are so obsessed with their art that it comes first, even before family. Throughout the story, the comic scenes ease the underlying sadness in every member of the family. I read this in just a couple of days-it's an easy read and super entertaining, but it also makes you think about family dynamics and art in a way that you probably haven't before. It's a mix of love, misplaced affection, beauty, strangeness, survival, fighting for sanity, feeling out-of-place, and ultimately growing up and apart from family.