Douglas Coupland - All Families Are Psychotic I decided to read some more Douglas Coupland after my disastrous experience with The Handmaid’s Tale. I’ve had Miss Wyoming and The Gum Thief (next on the list) for a while, but All Families Are Psychotic jumped the queue when I picked it up in Brighton the other week, and it was fucking awesome. I lapped it up, just the sheer ridiculousness of it. A mother becomes HIV positive after her ex-husband shoots their son and the bullet passes through him and into her. Their other son’s new girlfriend is planning to sell their baby to a couple who are actually only going to sell it on for further profit. A pharmaceutical billionaire is willing to pay thousands of dollars for a letter written by Prince William to Princess Diana after her death, but gets it for free in exchange for curing Janet’s AIDS using a Ugandan prostitute who was raised in the diplomatic system and has a natural immunity to the virus. Oh yeah, and her daughter is a child genius born without a hand due to Thalidomide who goes into space to procreate with her lover in zero gravity. I know, AMAZING, right? Douglas Coupland - All Families Are PsychoticPublication date: 2001Published by: FlamingoPrice then: £9.99Price now: £2.50Bought from: Rainbow Books, BrightonFrom the synopsis: “Even all-American astronauts have personal problems, and with Janet’s ex-husband and his trophy wife coming to town, Janet has the whole of this sultry Florida morning to contemplate her family, and where it all went wrong.”

Douglas Coupland - All Families Are Psychotic

I decided to read some more Douglas Coupland after my disastrous experience with The Handmaid’s Tale. I’ve had Miss Wyoming and The Gum Thief (next on the list) for a while, but All Families Are Psychotic jumped the queue when I picked it up in Brighton the other week, and it was fucking awesome. I lapped it up, just the sheer ridiculousness of it. A mother becomes HIV positive after her ex-husband shoots their son and the bullet passes through him and into her. Their other son’s new girlfriend is planning to sell their baby to a couple who are actually only going to sell it on for further profit. A pharmaceutical billionaire is willing to pay thousands of dollars for a letter written by Prince William to Princess Diana after her death, but gets it for free in exchange for curing Janet’s AIDS using a Ugandan prostitute who was raised in the diplomatic system and has a natural immunity to the virus. Oh yeah, and her daughter is a child genius born without a hand due to Thalidomide who goes into space to procreate with her lover in zero gravity.

I know, AMAZING, right?

Douglas Coupland - All Families Are Psychotic
Publication date: 2001
Published by: Flamingo
Price then: £9.99
Price now: £2.50
Bought from: Rainbow Books, Brighton
From the synopsis: “Even all-American astronauts have personal problems, and with Janet’s ex-husband and his trophy wife coming to town, Janet has the whole of this sultry Florida morning to contemplate her family, and where it all went wrong.”