Hi! I’m looking for new book recs. I’m looking for books about dysfunctional families or life isn’t going the way the main character wants. Something like This Is Where I Leave you. Bonus if it has overbearing parents or parents struggling with addiction. Preferably something funny, but it doesnt have to be. Thank you!
Maybe something like The glass castle from Jeannette Walls.
Catch 22
So old and not really funny, but with a lot of “life not going the way they wanted”:
The children of Torremolinos - James Michener
https://diebuchsuche.de/buch-9783570041895.html
(German ISBN ISBN: 3570041891)
I read this as a teenager and I haven’t forgotten about it since. Generational conflict, addiction, lots of other emotional topics - I guess it fits perfectly for modern times as well
I read these books as a kid: A series of unfortunate events
Count Olaf: “Going my way?”
Slaughterhouse-Five
Probably a little different than what you’re describing but I’m reading blood meridian right now and it’s very good. It’s about a 14-year-old runaway in 1850s America where everything is fucked. He gets in increasingly desperate and violent situations to try and survive
My journal
Like Wind Against Rock by Nancy Kim
Model Home by Rivers Solomon
The Book of Dead Birds by Gayle Brandeis
Sisters One, Two, Three by Nancy Star
Some Kind of Happiness by Claire Legrand
I was surprised how heart wrenching Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle was. Growing up I heard it was about meatpacking plants in Chicago. Technically correct, but very much a tale of things not going well. Enjoyed the journey despite the sadness!
A wolf at the table
Great Expectations
Take a look at the works of David Sedaris. Those fit the description, and are funny.
The Death of Bunny Munro
Appearantly they are doing a tv series based on the book now.
Naive Super
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen features a pretty dysfunctional family and has some funny bits.
Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace is probably one of my favorite novels and has both a dysfunctional family and characters living in a halfway house. It’s main motif is addiction, be it to entertainment or substance. However, at a over 1000 pages and with a non-linear plot, it might require some persistence to get through.
