Picture 1 of 1
Stock photo
Picture 1 of 1
Stock photo
Family Fang : A Novel by Kevin Wilson (2012, Trade Paperback)
Book Outlet Store (255846)
99.2% positive feedback
Price:
$6.99
+ $3.49 shipping
Returns:
30 days returns. Buyer pays for return shipping. If you use an eBay shipping label, it will be deducted from your refund amount.
Condition:
Great book!
- Buy It NowThe Family Fang
Oops! Looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server.
Refresh your browser window to try again.
About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherHarperCollins
ISBN-10006157905X
ISBN-139780061579059
eBay Product ID (ePID)20038207709
Product Key Features
Book TitleFamily Fang : a Novel
Number of Pages336 Pages
LanguageEnglish
TopicHumorous / Black Humor, Family Life, Literary, Humorous / General
Publication Year2012
GenreFiction
AuthorKevin Wilson
FormatTrade Paperback
Dimensions
Item Height0.8 in
Item Weight10.8 Oz
Item Length8 in
Item Width5.3 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceTrade
TitleLeadingThe
ReviewsIn The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson presents a slyly hilarious novel that's part social satire, part detective story, and part plain good storytelling. More engaging than A Visit from the Goon Squad, this family saga manages to be both hip and sweet at the same time., The kids are not all right in this debut novel about a brother and sister poorly navigating the bizarre world of their parents - obsessive performance artists who force their children to participate in their kooky pieces., [Kevin Wilson] 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.", “Funny and fast-paced, Kevin Wilson’s debut brims with just-so observations about the anxiety of influence, parental and artistic.â€�, “Kevin Wilson’s novel, The Family Fang, was one of the most talked about titles at BEA…[The Family Fang has] the whimsy reminiscent of a Wes Anderson flick…Wilson pulls the fuzzy line between art and life very taut…â€�, “First-time novelist Wilson mixes dire humor and melancholy in this satirical portrait of the uniquely dysfunctional Fangs––husband-and-wife performance artists Caleb and Camille and their children, Annie and Buster—and offers a scathing critique of how the baby-boom generation maltreated Gen X.â€�, [A] wildly original new novel... bizarre, unique, unerringly comic, breathtakingly wonderful.... It's the sort of book you love so much you want to compose sonnets in its name....If The Family Fang is any indication, [Wilson's] got a long and productive career ahead, one we will enjoy immensely., This book was my favorite for the sheer force of its creativity… powerful, funny and deeply strange. You won't read anything else like it., This book was my favorite for the sheer force of its creativity... powerful, funny and deeply strange. You won't read anything else like it., The kids are not all right in this debut novel about a brother and sister poorly navigating the bizarre world of their parents -- obsessive performance artists who force their children to participate in their kooky pieces., The characters in Kevin Wilson's The Family Fang.... are among the most interesting and intriguing fictional creations of any book published this summer. Wilson's offbeat cast is abetted by a compelling story about what it means to create art, served up in equal measure of comedy and pathos., 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. Like everything else Kevin Wilson does, I have never seen anything like it before. The best single word description would be brilliant., A proud descendant of the Sycamores in Kaufman and Hart's You Can't Take It With You....[T]he poignant truth...beneath the humor of this peculiar family: Our crazy parents' offenses sometimes loom so large that we don't realize just what they did for us until it's too late., With his debut story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Kevin Wilson demonstrated that he traffics in weirdness. His stories find space between plausibility and absurdity, and their strange plots have an easy pull. Wilson's enjoyable first novel, The Family Fang, offers similar pleasures…, Something so calculated, so choreographed, so wickedly comic should feel fake. But oddly enough, as Annie and Buster stagger about in the warped but jaunty confines of The Family Fang... they gradually become so real you want to call them up and give them your therapist's number., Fans of Wes Anderson and things that are labeled "quirky" will probably enjoy this debut novel from Kevin Wilson, whose excellent collection of short stories we featured back in 2009., [B]rilliant...a well-plotted and intriguing story...intricate and funny...Wilson probes art by constructing art., Funny and off-kilter....What could devolve into little more than slapstick becomes, in Wilson's skilled hands and, let's face it, somewhat strange imagination, a rich and textured read. He brings us to the brink of absurdity, then turns on a dime and delivers a deeper, darker novel., Funny and fast-paced, Kevin Wilson's debut brims with just-so observations about the anxiety of influence, parental and artistic., With his debut story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Kevin Wilson demonstrated that he traffics in weirdness. His stories find space between plausibility and absurdity, and their strange plots have an easy pull. Wilson's enjoyable first novel, The Family Fang, offers similar pleasures..., [Wilson's] imagination shines as he concocts the book's many detailed pieces of art—from Camille's darkly disturbed paintings to Annie's film project about children who spontaneously combust—and playfully describes them…The Family Fang is fun, and nothing other than exactly what Wilson wants it to be., 'Funny and fast-paced, Kevin Wilson's debut brims with just-so observations about the anxiety of influence, parental and artistic.' ( Financial Times ), ...deliciously odd, delightfully unhinged and surprisingly warm-hearted...this year's book to read., 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. Like everything else Kevin Wilson does, I have never seen anything like it before. The best single word description would be genius ., This is not another novel about an educated upper-middle-class family wracked with dysfunction beneath the surface. Ma and Pa Fang, Camille and Caleb, are oddballs for all to see., In his debut novel, Kevin Wilson expertly navigates between pathos and black comedy while negotiating a smart debate about the human cost of sacrificing all for one's art. Fang has bite but is also incredibly fun., Inventive and hilarious. This is complex psychological ground, and the 32-year-old Mr. Wilson navigates it with a calm experience that his tender age shouldn't allow., Irresistible...This strange novel deserves to be very successful.... Wilson's trim and intriguing narrative [captures] the selling out of one's life and children for the sake of notoriety.... I'd love to be able to see Annie's movies and read Buster's books, but I'll settle for being Wilson's fan instead., Irresistible…This strange novel deserves to be very successful…. Wilson's trim and intriguing narrative [captures] the selling out of one's life and children for the sake of notoriety…. I'd love to be able to see Annie's movies and read Buster's books, but I'll settle for being Wilson's fan instead., Wilson's wheelhouse is whimsy, and as in his story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, his characters' quirks are both metaphors for and products of various larger maladies., First-time novelist Wilson mixes dire humor and melancholy in this satirical portrait of the uniquely dysfunctional Fangs----husband-and-wife performance artists Caleb and Camille and their children, Annie and Buster—and offers a scathing critique of how the baby-boom generation maltreated Gen X., I recently read Kevin Wilson's novel THE FAMILY FANG, which is so strange and original and hysterically funny. It's about a husband and wife who are performance artists and force their young children to be part of their art project. It's a book like nothing else., A highly engaging and imaginative first novel…Wilson has a gift for characterization and dialogue., Wilson writes stylishly...but his real skill is...building up a slow-drip mystery....And [this] isn't the kind of book you [can] set aside....(I'm looking at you, Swamplandia!) It's the kind of book in which you need to know what happens...It's not what you think., Kevin Wilson's novel, The Family Fang, was one of the most talked about titles at BEA…[The Family Fang has] the whimsy reminiscent of a Wes Anderson flick…Wilson pulls the fuzzy line between art and life very taut…, “[FAMILY FANG] allows Wilson to dazzle and amuse us with some very inventive and provocatively imagined performance art.â€�, The premise of this book is so perfect I can't believe it hasn't been done before ...a hugely likable book -funny, colorful, and memorable, if not beautiful and strange...I read this book swiftly and compulsively, like sipping thirstily at a fruity cocktail on a hot summer evening., “I recently read Kevin Wilson’s novel THE FAMILY FANG, which is so strange and original and hysterically funny. It’s about a husband and wife who are performance artists and force their young children to be part of their art project. It’s a book like nothing else.â€�, A highly engaging and imaginative first novel...Wilson has a gift for characterization and dialogue., Funny and off-kilter….What could devolve into little more than slapstick becomes, in Wilson's skilled hands and, let's face it, somewhat strange imagination, a rich and textured read. He brings us to the brink of absurdity, then turns on a dime and delivers a deeper, darker novel., Wilson's sense of dialogue and his dramatic timing are superb. He can strike a lyrical note, too…Wilson's wit crackles throughout. His humor hits you in that place where you laugh because the joke is so awful and true…A funny, heartfelt, and insightful novel., The Family Fang [is] at times is reminiscent of Wes Anderson's quirky, R-rated comedy, The Royal Tenanbaums, without losing its arch originality., Wilson's creative and funny novel examines two young lives in the process of getting skewed, all in the pursuit of art with a capital A., [Wilson's] imagination shines as he concocts the book's many detailed pieces of art--from Camille's darkly disturbed paintings to Annie's film project about children who spontaneously combust--and playfully describes them...The Family Fang is fun, and nothing other than exactly what Wilson wants it to be., The comparisons of Wilson to other writers says less about his work than it does about our desire to understand his imagination. In simple terms, he is very funny, generous to all his characters, and the author of books you feel an immediate urge to reread., "[Wilson] has created a memorable shorthand for describing parent-child deceptions and for ways in which creative art and destructive behavior intersect. But he never generalizes.... Whenever this book refers to "a Fang thing," Mr. Wilson is utterly clear about what that means.", [B]rilliant…a well-plotted and intriguing story…intricate and funny...Wilson probes art by constructing art., Literary fiction can be so straight-laced and serious that reading The Family Fang feels like sneaking a treat: here is a well-written, intelligent, and involving novel that's also tremendously fun., As he did in Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, Kevin Wilson asks big questions with subtle humor and deep tenderness., Each page feels like unearthing a discovery. This is the kind of novel you fall in love with: tender-hearted, wonder-filled, a world all its own.... Wilson is such [a] talent, so rare and beautiful and big., “This book was my favorite for the sheer force of its creativity… powerful, funny and deeply strange. You won’t read anything else like it.â€�, The premise of this book is so perfect I can't believe it hasn't been done before …a hugely likable book -funny, colorful, and memorable, if not beautiful and strange…I read this book swiftly and compulsively, like sipping thirstily at a fruity cocktail on a hot summer evening., “In his debut novel, Kevin Wilson expertly navigates between pathos and black comedy while negotiating a smart debate about the human cost of sacrificing all for one’s art. Fang has bite but is also incredibly fun.â€�, First-time novelist Wilson mixes dire humor and melancholy in this satirical portrait of the uniquely dysfunctional Fangshusband-and-wife performance artists Caleb and Camille and their children, Annie and Buster-and offers a scathing critique of how the baby-boom generation maltreated Gen X., Wilson's writing has a Houdini-like perfection, wherein no matter how grim the variables, each lovely sentence manages to escape with all its parts intact…Wilson keeps his plot moving swiftly enough to keep readers absorbed. And those sentences are really something., [FAMILY FANG] allows Wilson to dazzle and amuse us with some very inventive and provocatively imagined performance art., My favourite novel so far this year: Kevin Wilson's THE FAMILY FANG. Funny, smart, ingenious, moving, altogether great. Just buy it., Wilson's widely praised novel about performance artists gives a whole new meaning to the term dysfunctional family and may just leave you thinking more fondly of your own relatives in time for those summertime family reunions., '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. Here, finally, is a much needed reminder that astute fiction can still be a total blast.'( Hannah Pittard, author of The Fates Will Find Their Way ), 'Something so calculated, so choreographed, so wickedly comic should feel fake. But oddly enough, as Annie and Buster stagger about in the warped but jaunty confines of The Family Fang... they gradually become so real you want to call them up and give them your therapist's number.' ( Atlanta Journal-Constitution ), "Wilson, who drew comparisons to Shirley Jackson with his 2009 story collection Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, brilliantly and hilariously explores the "art for art's sake" argument.", [A] big-hearted and endlessly strange look into a family of artists…. With humor and adoration, Wilson... deftly realiz[es] each character's emotional capacities and motivations....[A] taut and marvelously entertaining book., The subtlety of the comedy is flawless, channeling the filmmaking of Wes Anderson or Rian Johnson. A fantastic first novel that asks if the kids are alright, finding answers in the most unexpected places., Kevin Wilson's novel, The Family Fang, was one of the most talked about titles at BEA...[The Family Fang has] the whimsy reminiscent of a Wes Anderson flick...Wilson pulls the fuzzy line between art and life very taut..., Beneath the surface of the fun and fast-paced The Family Fang, Wilson explores self-identity and families in the context of life lived as art… [A] well-crafted novel that examines what happens to a family when the line between art and life is erased., The Family Fang is a delicious book by a stunningly nimble writer. It never fails to entertain, but at the same time raises serious questions about art, interpretation, child-rearing, privacy, publicity and leaving home. I can't wait to read what Kevin Wilson writes next., Beneath the surface of the fun and fast-paced The Family Fang, Wilson explores self-identity and families in the context of life lived as art... [A] well-crafted novel that examines what happens to a family when the line between art and life is erased., [A] big-hearted and endlessly strange look into a family of artists.... With humor and adoration, Wilson... deftly realiz[es] each character's emotional capacities and motivations....[A] taut and marvelously entertaining book., First-time novelist Wilson mixes dire humor and melancholy in this satirical portrait of the uniquely dysfunctional Fangs--husband-and-wife performance artists Caleb and Camille and their children, Annie and Buster--and offers a scathing critique of how the baby-boom generation maltreated Gen X., [A] revitalizing blast of original thought; robust invention; screwball giddiness.... a family story that's out-of-the-box, and funny, and, also, genuinely moving. Wilson's inventive genius never stops for a rest break.... [a] strange and wonderful novel...that will linger in your mind long after., [Wilson's] imagination shines as he concocts the book's many detailed pieces of art--from Camille's darkly disturbed paintings to Annie's film project about children who spontaneously combust--and playfully describes them…The Family Fang is fun, and nothing other than exactly what Wilson wants it to be., Great art is difficult, Caleb Fang likes to say, but with this wonder of a first novel, Kevin Wilson makes it look easy., 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. Here, finally, is a much needed reminder that astute fiction can still be a total blast., Wilson commands the cavalry riding around the vastly important Army of the Loopy... rides slashing from the Implausible to the Plausible, and from there quickly to the Necessary and on to the True. The Family Fang will appear Coenized out of Hollywood but you should catch them here first., …deliciously odd, delightfully unhinged and surprisingly warm-hearted…this year's book to read., "What can you say for a novel about performance artists that begins "Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief"? ... That it's totally weird, and pretty wonderful. Most of all, that it manages to be brainy without sacrificing heart.", “Wilson writes stylishly...but his real skill is...building up a slow-drip mystery....And [this] isn’t the kind of book you [can] set aside....(I’m looking at you, Swamplandia!) It’s the kind of book in which you need to know what happens...It’s not what you think.â€�, [A] wildly original new novel… bizarre, unique, unerringly comic, breathtakingly wonderful.... It's the sort of book you love so much you want to compose sonnets in its name….If The Family Fang is any indication, [Wilson's] got a long and productive career ahead, one we will enjoy immensely., [Wilson's] imagination shines as he concocts the book's many detailed pieces of art-from Camille's darkly disturbed paintings to Annie's film project about children who spontaneously combust-and playfully describes them…The Family Fang is fun, and nothing other than exactly what Wilson wants it to be., Wilson's writing has a Houdini-like perfection, wherein no matter how grim the variables, each lovely sentence manages to escape with all its parts intact...Wilson keeps his plot moving swiftly enough to keep readers absorbed. And those sentences are really something., Wilson writes with the studied quirkiness of George Saunders or filmmaker Wes Anderson, and there's some genuine warmth beneath all the surface eccentricity.
Synopsis"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 "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 Owen King (We're All in This Together) calls author Kevin Wilson, "the unholy child of George Saunders and Carson McCullers." With his novel, The Family Fang, the Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth comes through in a BIG way, with 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. If the writing of Gary Shteyngart, Miranda July, Scarlett Thomas, and Charles Yu excites you, you'll certainly want to invite this Family into your home., 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, 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
All listings for this product
![The Family Fang: A Novel by Wilson, Kevin [Paperback]](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/GssAAOSwXB1nCVN9/s-l225.jpg)
Be the first to write a review
