Various Pets Alive & Dead, by Marina Lewycka is the story of a most unusual family. Doro and Marcus (the parents) lived in a commune for 20 years and thought they would change the world with free love and lentils. But that didn't happen. Their children, Serge and Clara rebelled against this - one by being obsessed with making a boatload of money and the other by being ferociously hygienic. Also into this mix is Ollie-Anna, adopted as a baby in the commune, who has Down's Syndrome, and is desperately seeking more independence, mainly, it feels, in order to have sex. To say this family is dysfunctional is an understatement. There isn't really much of a plot, but lots of sequences focusing on the different characters both in the present and in flashback. All of them have struggles and get themselves into a variety of increasingly unlikely situations. The writing is engaging, and I kind of enjoyed reading this at the time, but on reflection, it isn't a book whose characters have stayed with me in any shape or form. I saw loads of reviews from people saying how funny this book is, but I didn't really find it so ... am I missing something ... have I had a humour bypass? I actually found it sad - maybe that says more about me than about the book! Yes, it's quirky, but I found it hard to relate to almost all of the characters and found many of them irritating and a little foolish - maybe that's where the humour can be found, but it just didn't tickle my particular funny bone.
My STAR rating: THREE.
Length: 384 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from my husband.
Formats available: print, unabridged audio download, audio CD, ebook.
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