The family Fang

Title:

The family Fang

Author:

Wilson, Kevin, 1978- author.

Summary:

Buster and Annie, the son and daughter of famed performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang, were often stars as children in their parents' pieces--or public disturbances--and they return home as adults full of questions about the past only to find themselve pulled unwillinging into one final performance.

Audience:

Adult Follett Library Resources

Edition:

1st ed.

Physical Description:

309 p. ; 24 cm.

Subject Term:

Families -- Fiction.

Performance artists -- Fiction.

Adult children living with parents -- Fiction.

Publisher:

Ecco,

Publication Date:

2011

ISBN:

9780061579035

Publication Information:

New York : Ecco, c2011.

Call Number:

WILSON

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Item Barcode	Collection	Call Number	Status	Item Holds
33607002584996	Adult Fiction	WILSON	Searching... Unknown	Searching... Unavailable

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME, PEOPLE, SALON, AND ESQUIRE

"The Family Fang is a comedy, a tragedy, and a tour-de-force examination of what it means to make art and survive your family....The best single word description would be brilliant."

--Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto

A funny, poignant, laugh-and-cry-out-loud (sometimes at the same time) novel about the art of surviving a masterpiece of dysfunction. Meet The Family Fang, an unforgettable collection of demanding, brilliant, and absolutely endearing oddballs whose lives are risky and mischievous performance art. Basis for the major motion picture starring Nicole Kidman, Jason Bateman and Christopher Walken.

Annie and Buster Fang have spent most of their adult lives trying to distance themselves from their famous artist parents, Caleb and Camille. But when a bad economy and a few bad personal decisions converge, the two siblings have nowhere to turn but their family home. Reunited under one roof for the first time in more than a decade and surrounded by the souvenirs of their unusual upbringing, Buster and Annie are forced to confront not only their creatively ambitious parents, but the chaos and confusion of their childhood.

"It's The Royal Tenenbaums meets Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? I'd call The Family Fang a guilty pleasure, but it's too damn smart....A total blast."

--Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Wilson's bizarre, mirthful debut novel (after his collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth) traces the genesis of the Fang family, art world darlings who make "strange and memorable things." That is, they instigate and record public chaos. In one piece, "The Portrait of a Lady, 1988," fragile nine-year-old Buster Fang dons a wig and sequined gown to undermine the Little Miss Crimson Clover beauty pageant, though he secretly desires the crown himself. In "A Modest Proposal, July 1988," Buster and his older sister, Annie, watch their father, Caleb, propose to mother, Camille, over an airliner's intercom and get turned down ("[A] plane crash would have been welcomed to avoid the embarrassment of what had happened"). Over the years, more projects consume Child A and Child B-what art lovers (and their parents) call the children-but it is not until the parents disappear from an interstate rest stop that the lines separating art and life dissolve. Though leavened with humor, the closing chapters still face hard truths about family relationships, which often leave us, like the grown-up Buster and Annie, wondering if we are constructing our own lives, or merely taking part in others'. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Library Journal Review

Caleb and Camille Fang are performance artists who set up unsettling situations in public places. Their two children, Annie and Buster, have been trained from birth to participate in these events. As they mature the children realize that their lives are not exactly normal. Their attempts to break away from their parents are unsuccessful until their parents disappear. Is it a stunt or a tragic accident? Even Annie and Buster can't say for sure. VERDICT Wilson, who won the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award for his story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, tells his madcap story with straight-faced aplomb, highlighting the tricky intersection of family life and artistic endeavor. All fiction readers will enjoy this comic/tragic look at domesticity. Recommended.-Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Kingston (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.