What do readers think of A Good Family by Erik Fassnacht? Write your own review.

I found A Good Family to be an engrossing, often times intense, book to read on family, more specifically what holds a family together and tears them apart. The character development is very well done. As a reader, I appreciate being able to get "into a character's head" and that is just what this book allows. The reader is able to really understand the issues each character is dealing with. I found all four main characters to be flawed, as we all are, and relatable on many levels. The observations in this book are vivid and laugh out loud funny on occasions. This book is a journey for the reader as one is able to travel down each character's path and witness both good and bad choices as well as unavoidable consequences. Upon completion of this book, I found myself continuing to think about each character and wonder how they are doing-a true sign of a good book in my opinion!

I'm not sure what about the reviews attracted me to this book, but I gave it up one-quarter of the way through. I know there lots of readers for novels of contemporary American families, but I felt no sympathy for the control-freak, cheating father or the clingy, pill-addicted mother. The two adult sons struggling to find their way were more interesting, but not enough. Quite well written, just not my kind of novel.

This book tells the story of a modern dysfunctional family, the Brunsons. Each of the family members has their own demons/issues, and how this family copes with life is probably closer to real life than we'd like to believe. It was good, had a few humorous parts, but it was also disjointed as the story is told from the family members opinion, and they cross over and it's hard to keep track of who said/did what etc.

Book is slow reading, especially at the beginning, and too long. The title is certainly a misnomer. A Good Family is about a dysfunctional family of four. Henry, the father, is too immersed in making money and living the good life. His wife gives up her ambition to be a dancer when she marries. She tries to overlook Henry's unexplained absences and to be a good mother to her boys. Charlie, the older son, is a good student, an athlete, good looking and has everything going for him. His father uses his contacts to get Charlie a great job that Charlie doesn't want. And so Charlie joins the army. A big part of the novel is about how his time in Afghanistan affects his life. A red key chain becomes an important symbol. The younger brother is Barkley. He is meek, into fantasy, and a would be writer. Afraid of his own shadow and so overpowered by Charlie. We cheer Barley on as he grows up. The characters are well developed and you do want to know how it all works out. I found myself skimming over a lot of the book. And the culmination of some of the situations are so obvious. Would have rated this book 2 1/2 if I had the option.

I am sorry to say there was nothing about this book I enjoyed. It is very long and filled so much unnecessary detail, as the reader I felt like I was trudging through wet sand. The characters are very disjointed and there is really no sense of "family" throughout most of the book. It felt like reading four short novellas within one book. Each character's story was extremely damaged and depressing. I was not expecting unicorns and rainbows but surly something even a little positive could have happened within the first three-quarters of the book. There was some slight redemption at the end of the story; however, it was too little much too late.

I had high hopes for this book - so much for that. It took me at least 3 weeks to get through it, as I was so bored, and then irritated by the thought of having to finish it for this review. I didn't find any of the characters to be interesting or even likable, except, perhaps Barkley, the younger son. The book goes on and on about not much, really. I never cared one whit about what happened to any of them. Even if the book were drastically shortened, it wouldn't have helped. A definite waste of 3 weeks of my reading time, which was both a surprise and a disappointment. I just don't understand all the positive reviews...

I found this book overly long and rambling at times. The story is told from the viewpoints of different family members and I often found the chapters to be so unrelated that they didn't seem to be from the same book. I found Barkley to be the most interesting character and wanted to learn more about his life, often skimming other chapters in favor of those about him. This book seemed disjointed and I would not recommend it to friends or my book club.

I am not going to finish reading this book. I have slugged through about 150 pages and dislike it so much I stopped reading it. It is boring, the characters are disgusting and the plot disappointing.