Book Review – The Family Fang

by Kevin Wilson (Picador) ISBN: 9780330545341

It’s funny, well written and, even though it is only the first week of January, I already know this is going to be my favourite book of the year.

The story of the Family Fang is rich in images and full of unexpected turns. It moved me because of its complete originality.

The parents Fang make art by orchestrating and filming events that cause chaos in public spaces. They create a situation in order to elicit an extreme and emotional response from those closest to the event and they have always included their two children, Annie and Buster.

The children have constantly lived with the threat of upheaval of a Fang event and find it difficult to adjust in their adult life. ‘With the art, they pushed us into circumstances that we already knew were bad ideas. So they taught us to walk straight into that bad idea, whether or not you really wanted to do it,’ explains Buster later.

Now they are grown up, their lives are in a mess and they both return home. Their parents have one more act up their sleeve and the children only want to make it to the other side of their unhappiness.

I could not put this book down. Breath-taking and genuinely moving.

Pauline Vijverberg
5/5