“Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief. ‘You make a mess and then you walk away from it,’ their daughter, Annie, told them. ‘It’s a lot more complicated than that, honey,’ Mrs. Fang said as she handed detailed breakdowns of the event to each member of the family. ‘But there’s a simplicity in what we do as well,’ Mr. Fang said. ‘Yes, there is that, too,’ his wife replied. Annie and her younger brother, Buster, said nothing.”

And so begins the story of the Family Fang. Mr. and Mrs. Fang are award-winning performance artists, meaning they stage “events,” by which I mean upsetting, but humorous, public displays, and their best props are their two children Child A and Child B, otherwise known as Annie and Buster. After this particular “event” in which the children help their parents stage a candy store robbery, you find Annie and Buster, waiting for their parents to extricate themselves from trouble, tossing pennies into the mall’s fountain “each making wishes that they hoped were simple enough to come true.”

The Family Fang is a novel about, well, a family, and while I don’t think Wilson generalizes with his characters (the Fangs are a very unique family and I don’t think many of us can compare our childhoods to those of the Fang children), Annie and Buster do make us realize the extent to which our parents can affect us—even as adults. Sure, the Fang events are ridiculous and it might be good fun to watch one happen in a shopping mall near you, but at what cost to the young Fangs? I don’t want to give away too much, but let’s just say that this black comedy does not have a fluffy ending tied up with a bow. Wilson’s humorous tale does have real substance and questions the consequences of raising children in a household where art is placed above all else. I particularly like the way Janet Maslin, in the NY Times review, phrased it: “All children eventually question lies their parents have told them, but the Fangs take that chicanery to a whole new level.”

Wilson has been a Lemuria favorite since the 2009 release of his short story collection Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (a collection that I personally feel like I could re-read an infinite number of times without tiring of it), and we cannot wait to welcome him back to the store on August 18 at 5pm.

I also have to add that the cover art for The Family Fang was done by one of my favorite illustrators Julie Morstad (who I wrote about a few months ago), which only adds to my love of this book.

See Emily’s blog on her love for The Family Fang and Kevin Wilson here.  -Kaycie

 

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