Have you ever gone home with a friend for Thanksgiving or another holiday and found their family to be strangely happy and polite? Folded napkins, everyone is excited to see one another, they may even sing carols in front of you. And isn’t it profoundly disturbing when you realize you might have to reciprocate the invite and show your friend the deep dysfunction that plagues your visits home? All the mumbled complaints, the piercing clatter of chipped dishes being stacked, Grandma trying to show off the weal on her neck in the middle of dinner.
Am I projecting? HELL NO, because guess what: WE are the normal ones. Dysfunction reigns supreme. And if you’re reading this thinking, “What? My happy family is completely normal,” then please realize you are wrong and need to speed-read the novels in this reading list if you want to fit in with the rest of us weirdos.
