Review by New York Times Review
Buster Fang grew up as "Child B" in his family's celebrated series of public art performances - "happenings" geared toward "creating a situation in order to elicit an extreme emotional response from those closest to the event." So, for example, Buster competes in and wins the Little Miss Crimson Clover beauty contest, then creates bedlam when he sheds his wig at the end of the show. And his father pretends to propose to his mother on an airplane's public address system, reveling in the discomfort of strangers when she says no. Most of these events are videotaped and released to critical artistic acclaim. "Art, if you loved it, was worth any amount of unhappiness and pain," the parents reason. "If you had to hurt someone to achieve those ends, so be it. If the outcome was beautiful enough, strange enough, memorable enough, it did not matter. It was worth it." This eccentric worldview undermines the family's interpersonal relationships, as Buster, who's now a failed novelist, and his older sister, Annie ("Child A"), who's a self-sabotaging, alcoholic actress, feel their parents took advantage of them when they were younger. When the two grown children face crises and move back home, they wonder if their parents have changed or if they still want to use them for selfish, artistic ends. 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, even if the parents' callousness toward their children strains credulity at times.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 21, 2011]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Delivering on the high promise of his new-weirdness story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth (2009), Wilson's first novel is more realistic but still no docudrama. The titular family are husband-and-wife performance artists Caleb and Camille Fang and their children, Annie and Buster, obliged from early childhood to collaborate in their parents' performances (the kids call them mischief), in the exhibited videos of which they are Child A and Child B. The stories of more than a dozen of their works are the flashback latter parts of chapters that begin with the contemporary main story, in which, after professional setbacks for each, late-twentysomethings Annie, a rising movie actress, and Buster, a novelist barely surviving as a tabloid journalist, come home. Shortly thereafter, Caleb and Camille disappear, possibly as victims of a serial killer. Annie and Buster aren't buying that; they think it's another performance. Taking Annie and Buster's side throughout, Wilson mixes dire humor and melancholy in the dysfunctional family chronicle that is the novel's ostensibly real-world basic structure. On that he mounts satire of modern-becoming-postmodern art (the Fangs' performances are exercises in making public disturbances, in which ordinary people are unwitting player-victims) and an implicit, scathing critique of how the baby-boom generation maltreated Gen X. Don't be surprised if this becomes one of the most discussed novels of the year.--Olson, Ra. Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Wilson's bizarre, mirthful debut novel (after his collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth) traces the genesis of the Fang family, art world darlings who make "strange and memorable things." That is, they instigate and record public chaos. In one piece, "The Portrait of a Lady, 1988," fragile nine-year-old Buster Fang dons a wig and sequined gown to undermine the Little Miss Crimson Clover beauty pageant, though he secretly desires the crown himself. In "A Modest Proposal, July 1988," Buster and his older sister, Annie, watch their father, Caleb, propose to mother, Camille, over an airliner's intercom and get turned down ("[A] plane crash would have been welcomed to avoid the embarrassment of what had happened"). Over the years, more projects consume Child A and Child B-what art lovers (and their parents) call the children-but it is not until the parents disappear from an interstate rest stop that the lines separating art and life dissolve. Though leavened with humor, the closing chapters still face hard truths about family relationships, which often leave us, like the grown-up Buster and Annie, wondering if we are constructing our own lives, or merely taking part in others'. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Caleb and Camille Fang are performance artists who set up unsettling situations in public places. Their two children, Annie and Buster, have been trained from birth to participate in these events. As they mature the children realize that their lives are not exactly normal. Their attempts to break away from their parents are unsuccessful until their parents disappear. Is it a stunt or a tragic accident? Even Annie and Buster can't say for sure. VERDICT Wilson, who won the 2009 Shirley Jackson Award for his story collection, Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, 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. Recommended.-Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Libs., Kingston (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The grown children of a couple infamous for their ostentatious performance art are forced to examine their own creativity and flaws in the shadow of their unusual upbringing.In this first novel, Wilson (stories: Tunneling to the Center of the Earth, 2009) turns his attention to a subversive family of artists. In fact, his titular subjects are so dedicated to their art that, whether they know it or not, they're perpetually in the midst of an emerging improvisation. The so-called mentors in this little play are Caleb and Camille Fang, two performance artists whose dedication to their craft is largely lost on their children Annie and Buster. "Mr. and Mrs. Fang called it art. Their children called it mischief," the opening lines proclaim. But what sounds like all sorts of fun to the parentsa particularly acid stunt on a childhood vacation involves Mr. Fang proposing to Mrs. Fang on the inbound airplane, soliciting many happy returns from fellow passengers and then ruining the return flight with a cheerless reversalhas long-term consequences on the kids. The novel flashes back and forth between Annie and Buster's roller-coaster ride of a childhood (one example: the Fangs manipulating the adolescent Buster and Annie into playing the leads in a school production of Romeo and Juliet), and their odd half-life as adults. Annie has become an emerging movie star. When a role demands full-frontal nudity, she acts out with such outrageousness that she becomes tabloid fodder. When Buster, a once-successful writer, is injured during an ill-chosen freelance assignment, he finds himself with no other choice but to return to the family fold. 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.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
