Review: Fun look at dysfunction
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
Effed Up is a hilarious story about a young man dealing with his crazy and annoying family who are obviously, as the book title says, effed up. His mother would love to have an illness, his father has a tragic albeit hilarious accident, and his sister has a perfect marriage yet is having an affair with her pool boy. We can’t forget the young man’s problems with women due to his lack of emotion or empathy for his “dying” mother. This book takes an honest look at a very dysfunctional family using humour to smooth over the rough edges of emotion. Underneath all of the humorous musings about life is the raw pain the main character obviously lived with all of his life. The book certainly grabbed my attention with the first sentence which I won’t add here due to its raunchiness. The author manages to do something that is very tricky to do in a novel which is intertwine both the humour and the pain of growing up in a dysfunctional atmosphere and making it somewhat work. This is an excellent and fun book.