Changes

Annie Fang and her brother Buster are back living at home with their parents - where they never thought they'd ever be again. But it has come to this - her film actress career is on the rocks with the kind of self-destruction so much enjoyed by tabloid writers, and he - well, he's here because of a jumbo spud gun. Neither want wants life back at home, as throughout their childhood they were used by their parents - without much planning, without any consideration of feelings, or consent - in a whole career of performance art pieces, designed to enact a point of life or just cause havoc.

These artworks (more pieces of invisible theatre, but I won't quibble) are described at length between each proper chapter and point brilliantly to just what sort of family this is - and in some regards to what book they're in. The Fang parents are loving, stable, interesting, creative - like the book, but beside besides that give the children an unintentional bad time. Wilson doesn't do this, for although they and the novel are borne from a wackiness and verging-on-OTT oddity, Annie and Buster are great characters, her in particular, and the 'real' chapters that alternate between the two, added to the enactment documentation, really make you sympathise and understand the plight that may just be having such artistic parents.

A lesser look at modern art is [[Dead Cat With Firelighter by Frances Day]]. You might also enjoy [[Chaplin and Company by Mave Fellowes]].