Normal Family

Normal Family is a wildly funny coming-of-age novel about a young boy's four consecutive holidays with his eccentric family. Over the course of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter and Independence Day, our young hero, Henry Pendergast, comes to know his once-famous author (and now alcoholic) grandfather George, who sobers up long enough to help Henry come to terms with the mystery surrounding his mother's mental illness. Henry somehow perseveres through a landmine of dysfunctional relatives amidst a family in decline, including siblings, parents and step family, all set against the social chaos of late-1960s America. Funny, bittersweet and highly entertaining, Normal Family might be the first novel whose entire action takes place over the family holidays.