POSITIVELY GOOD READS

The Family Fang (2012)

by Kevin Wilson

Is anything more important than art? The Fang parents, Caleb and Camille, don’t think so. The Fang children, Annie and Buster, disagree. Being props in their parents’ performance art has caused them lasting psychological damage. Now adults, Annie and Buster are trying to forge lives on their own, Annie as a movie actress and Buster as a writer.

Buster is seriously injured on a reporting assignment and returns to his parents’ Tennessee home to recuperate. Annie, recently humiliated on a movie set, joins him. A short time later, their parents disappear. Were Caleb and Camille victims of a crime, or was this another of their stunts?

Children ruin art, Caleb’s mentor had told him, but in the Fang family, art almost ruined children. Caleb and Camille seem detestable for putting art before their own offspring, yet their genuine commitment to art merits a measure of respect. Is the answer moderation, or should fanatics not have children? A first novel, The Family Fang is both hilarious and poignant.



 


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