The title alone makes this book just scream to be read right before the holidays. The holiday season is stressful enough on its own, what with all the shopping to be done, and the malls packed with people. Add in spending more time with your family than you really would like, especially if your family is dysfunctional, (like mine), and you end up being able to relate to this book’s title very much.

This book is about a dysfunctional family, (but not around the holidays). Janet is a 60 something housewife, who recently got divorced from Ted, her husband of several years. Ted has remairried a younger “trophy wife”, named Nikkie. Ted and Janet have three children, all of whom are adults now, and all of whom have problems. Wade is the one always in trouble. Sarah is the perfect daughter who is now an astronaut about to take off on the next shuttle. It is this event that the family has gotten together for. Bryan is the youngest kid, now in his 40s, and he is the one who is always trying to kill himself.

The book goes back and forth between the present and the past, putting together little memories like puzzle pieces that make up the picture of this family. Its one of those books where it seems like every other page reveals an amazingly bad event. An event that the reader never sees coming, which makes it even more exciting. I couldn’t put this book down. And, along the way, are little insights about life, peppering the pages. The title is an example of that. One character in the book says something like “all families are psychotic”, and points out that the problems in other people’s families are something you can always overlook, its the problems in your own that are unforgivable.

In many ways, this book is about falling apart as much as it is about starting over. This one’s a keeper.
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