The two children of performance artists resent their unusual childhood.
Caleb and Camilla Fang are performance artists who delight in staging
uncomfortable situations. Their art is
only strengthened by the birth of their children, Annie (Child A) and Buster
(Child B), who participate (unwillingly) in their elaborate scenarios. Once the children grow up, they break from the family's artistic endeavors. But then for different
reasons (nervous breakdown, getting hit in the face with a potato gun), the
children are forced to go home. But once
they get there, it seems as though their parents are bent on staging the most
elaborate trick of them all.
This book was like a textbook of on how to deploy quirkiness, although
it didn’t take very long before the quirkiness became monotonous. Also, the story seemed to rely on long stretches
of dialogue. In many ways, the central idea is delightful, a confection, only I felt that the plot, in some places, felt
forcibly wrangled into place. The big
sister actress is fiery, Buster is a little more unsure. Their relationship drives the story. The main
problem is that I didn’t particularly care whether the parents were alive or
dead. They weren’t very nice, and, more
importantly, they seemed one note and boring.
Finally, the end felt forced, fantastical and a bit crazy.
